Brazil:
MST peasants occupy a shrimp farm
The problem of the loss of territories
by peasants and indigenous peoples in favour of industrial projects
has several aspects in Brazil and the Landless Peasant’s Movement
(MST) has been struggling to counteract this process.
We have reported on the successive occupations
of land covered with vast monoculture eucalyptus plantations for
pulp production – one of such occupations recently involved the
women of Via Campesina/MST on the occasion of International Woman’s
Day.
Mangroves are also affected by depredatory
projects. Shrimp farming is an extractive business that implies
mangrove destruction. On 21 January this year in response
to the situation and to protest against the slowness of the agrarian
reform in the state, approximately 150 families associated with
MST invaded the Qualibras shrimp farm located in Itapipoca, the
coastal region of the State of Ceara.
With this occupation, MST was denouncing
yet another act of violence by agro-business in the country: that
of the Qualibras group destroying the mangroves in the region.
According to Brazilian law this is a serious environmental crime
because of the importance of mangroves, among other things, in
the marine food chain. The Brazilian Terramar Institute denounced
that the shrimp farms are violating Ceara laws as they are building
nurseries in permanent protection areas. “An assessment
made by the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable
Natural Resources (IBAMA) found that 75 percent of the shrimp
farms in Ceara are located in permanent preservation areas, violating
the state laws.”
In the mangroves big business finds
great profitability thanks to low production costs, an abundant
and close water supply and tide movements that help to keep down
the cost of pumping water into the tanks.
In spite of the environmental importance
of mangroves and of the legislation, shrimp farming companies
continue to expand their business: between 2003 and 2004, the
area of shrimp farms in Brazil rose from 14,824 to 16,598 hectares
with a total of close on 1,000 farms throughout the country, compared
to the 20 that existed in the eighties.
While this agro-business advances over
the mangroves in the northeast of the country, the workers are
getting organized. The families that took part in the occupation
are camping in the coastal region of the state, struggling to
be given land and granted deeds. There are a total of 1,700 families
spread out in 25 camps, and many of them have been waiting for
over five years for the promised agrarian reform. In 2006,
the goal of the National Institute for Settlement and Agrarian
Reform (INCRA) was to settle 2,000 families in the State, but
only 206 have received lands. The indigenous group “Tremembes”
also took part in the occupation, demanding demarcation of lands
in the indigenous zone of Buritis in Itapipoca.
Gunmen hired by the company surrounded
the camp on the night of 23 January, in an attempt to intimidate
the men, women and children. Finally and to avoid a conflict placing
the safety of their families at risk, the landless peasants abandoned
the occupation the following morning.
"We left with the intention of
returning again in the event that INCRA does not definitively
resolve the problems of the agrarian reform,” affirmed a representative
of the landless movement.
Article based on information from: “Brasil:
MST ocupa fazenda devastadora de mangues no Ceará”, Igor Felippe
Santos, http://www.biodiversidadla.org/content/view/full/29831;
“MST ocupa fazenda de criação de camarão”, Carlos Henrique Camelo,
OPovo online, http://www.opovo.com.br/opovo/ceara/664429.html;
“MST sai de fazenda com ameaças de jagunços no Ceará”, CUT, http://www.cut.org.br/publique/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=7314&sid=22
