The daughters of the palm trees fight so that the coconut continues to be a community resource

Seven women sitting on the floor of a hut crack coconuts.

Clack, clack, clack

… The sound of wooden sticks sounds energetic in Sumaúma, a rural community of green mountains in Sitio Novo, a municipality in the north of the State of Tocantins, Brazil. The

babaçu coconut quebradeiras

– as these women of Quilombola, Afro-descendant origin are known

and indigenous - they break them and open them to extract their greatest treasure: a handful of almonds that contain embryos of future palm trees. Coconuts are small, shaped like breasts and have nipples at their ends. Charcoal is produced from its shell; from almonds, oils, coconut milk and soaps; From its inner skin, the so-called mesocarp, a nutritious flour is obtained for breads, cakes and vitamin supplements. And handicrafts and roofs for houses are made from the leaves of the palm trees.

“Palm trees are like our mother. They give us shelter, food. That is why we protect them,” says Mrs. Francisca Pereira Vieira,

coconut quebradeira

and one of the coordinators of the Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu Interstate Movement (Miqcb).

in Tocantins. There are more than 400,000 women, mostly older adults, who have been organizing for 33 years to extract coconuts, use them for family consumption and a solidarity economy. They also denounce the felling, burning and poisoning of the

babaçuais,

as they call the palm groves. The regions in which these women work combine Cerrado landscapes—the great savannah—, the semi-desert biome of the Caatinga and the Amazon rainforest in four states: Tocantins, Maranhão, Piauí and Pará, with nearly 25 million hectares of

babaçuais

. There is a mutual and emotional relationship between them and the palm trees. “Sometimes, we consult them. They are a source of wisdom. We want to preserve them. Our challenge is to engage our youth. Today there are fewer young

quebradeiras

who perpetuate the work so that these forests continue to exist,” the 75-year-old rural leader says worriedly.

The time it takes for the cluster of palm trees to fall is nine months, the same reproductive cycle of human life. And when the coconuts fall, the

quebradeiras

come into action. Conceição Barbosa da Silva walks through the dense and humid jungle, around the community of Sumaúma. There are coconuts scattered along the path. He carries a basket on his head where he piles them together. He carries a small ax in his hand with which he cuts leaves and some stems. “At six years old I began to accompany my mother in this task. At 12, I participated in the meetings of the Pastoral Land Commission (linked to the Catholic Church) where the problems of rural workers were discussed,” says Barbosa da Silva, who is also the base coordinator of the Miqcb in the region of Tocantins.

Being a

coconut quebradeira

activates a cultural identity, a feminine ancestry that is combined with socio-environmental mobilization. Mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers practiced this activity and fought for access to land. “It is knowledge that passes from generation to generation. The Miqcb movement is a unique organizational form because it expands the rights of their territorial recognition and of them as a community,” highlights anthropologist and researcher Cynthia Carvalho Martins.

From the field to political advocacy

In addition to breaking coconuts and tending to their gardens, the quebradeiras write laws. In the four decades that they have been organized, they have done political advocacy work in defense of their activity. Since 1997, together with lawyers, they have prepared more than ten texts of bills that have reached the hands of legislators, councilors and parliamentary advisors. Today there are 18 municipal laws approved, two state laws and at least five projects in progress. “The imprint of the Miqcb is the elaboration of the Free Babaçu Law in some states and municipalities that allows the extraction of that coconut and the right to its use as a community, non-privatized natural resource. While other rural movements and traditional communities in Brazil, such as indigenous communities, focus on territorial recognition, the quebradeiras initially proposed agroecological coconut extractivism, in addition to legal restrictions on the felling of their palm trees,” explains Aurelio Vianna. , anthropologist and coordinator of The

Tenure Facility

foundation , associated with the Miqcb movement.

Maria Ednalva Ribeiro da Silva, in addition to being a quebradeira and grandmother of five granddaughters, is one of the representatives of the movement in the National Council of Traditional Peoples and Communities in Brasilia. From the small municipality of San Miguel, in the interior of Tocantins, she travels to the country's capital to discuss agricultural and environmental proposals to include in public policies. “Today we talk about access to coconuts and the defense of

babaçuais

from a socio-environmental law perspective,” she explains. In Tocantins, the Free Babaçu law was approved at the state level and in four municipalities. However, on some farms, the fields are demarcated and fenced, sometimes electrified. In more serious cases,

quebradeiras

are threatened. The effective application of the law depends a lot on the place, the local authorities and the owners of the estates.

Before the creation of the Miqcb, Ribeiro da Silva participated in a historic struggle: the union formation of rural workers in the 1980s. “One night, I was returning home after bringing food to my husband who worked in the fields. and a woman from the Pastoral de la Tierra organization knocked on my door and said she wanted to talk to us about organizing us into a workers union,” he remembers. Things changed in the 90s, a decade in which struggles for land and unions strengthened. In 1997, the proposed federal law on free access to babaçu arose at a time when Congress already had deputies from the Workers' Party (PT), Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva's party, and where this demand found favorable ground. . But a debt still exists. “Having a single law throughout the territory of Brazil is one of the objectives of the Coco Babaçu Quebradeiras Movement. The biggest obstacle so far has been in the Federal Chamber, which argues that it cannot place conditions on private land owners so that the

quebradeiras

collect the coconuts on their farms,” explains the lawyer and advisor to the Miqcb, Renata dos Reis Cordeiro.

In 2022, the movement achieved an extraordinary triumph. In the State of Piauí, in northern Brazil, a version of the law was approved that recognizes the

quebradeiras de coco babaçu

communities as a traditional people and their way of life. He had the support of the then governor Regina Souza, of the PT, also from Quebradeira. “In this law, the agroecological extraction activity is considered cultural heritage. From there other rights emerge, such as free access to coconut

babaçu

and the possibility of recognizing territorial titles,” concludes lawyer Reis Cordeiro. The law was published on December 9, 2022 and the text contains concepts of both food and nutritional security and the rights of the

babaçu coconut quebradeiras

, in addition to the environmental preservation of the

babaçuais

. “This law gives them a cultural mark with the acquisition of identity rights that required a high political imagination to overcome the real limitations that they have,” highlights anthropologist Vianna.

Networking

Inside a hut, a group of four elderly women place almonds in a large frying pan over medium heat. After roasting them, they strain and grind them carefully. “The oil that we sell through our cooperative or individually comes from here,” says Barbosa da Silva. The 500 milliliter bottled extra virgin oil has a label with the Miqbc brand and a drawing of a woman with a turban and a bunch of the fruit. They sell about 8 to 10 liters for about R$ 60.00 Brazilian reals (about 3 dollars). The reality of these women, however, varies between different states. The Piauí subsidiary has four

mesocarp production units,

from which the flour is obtained, which allows them to produce up to 600 kilos per month. In the case of oil, there are eight units. They are renovated houses that received support from foundations for their adaptation to small factories. There, groups of 12 quebradeiras produce about 3,500 liters of babaçu coconut oil per month.

There are state programs in Brazil, such as the Food Acquisition Program (PAA) of the Federal Government that buys products from family farmers and allocates them, for example, to school snack bars. The quebradeiras of Piauí deliver their products to the Social Assistance Secretariat, which sends them to families in situations of food vulnerability. However, for her colleagues from Tocantins, the situation is different. Getting into those programs was difficult for them. “Some of our products were suspended. They argue that they require certain licenses, seals that depend on other organizations and the process is difficult,” says Silvânia Nunes da Paixão, from the Olho D´Agua community and also coordinator of Miqbc. For their part, authorities from the municipality of San Miguel claim to be offering help through a cooperation agreement that supports the products and by-products of the quebradeiras. “We seek to include them in a rural development plan,” says Mauro Fragoso, municipal secretary of agriculture. Whoever buys their products and any community enterprise collaborates for the preservation of the forests, the strengthening of the solidarity economy and the generation of work and income.

When they are not breaking coconuts and producing oils and derivatives, these rural workers are in their bean, banana and corn plantations or raising chickens in their home gardens. Part of the time is also allocated to managing the Miqbc. “Between work and home, I hold

online

meetings on various topics such as annual planning and institutional participations. My husband and I have always shared the tasks, especially cooking, I don't like it,” says Pereira Vieira with a smile. The movement generated its own financing mechanism so as not to depend on third parties. They created the Babaçu Fund with national economic resources and international cooperation. It began with the support of the Ford Foundation, then the Fundo Amazônia and

Tenure Facility

. The profits are allocated to socio-environmental and rights defense projects, implemented by women's organizations. The quebradeiras leave traces on the

babaçuais

, on social communities and on the world. “Without our containment and networking, all for the same objective, we would not be where we are,” says Pereira Vieira, who leaves the Miqcb premises in Tocantins, on a brightly sunny afternoon, on the back seat of a motorcycle that lifts dust in the streets of the municipality of São Miguel.