United against loggers and land grabbers

At a meeting with more than a dozen smallholder farmers in their traditional territory in the municipality of Timbiras, Maranhão, an activist from the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) spreads out a map. It shows the boundaries of the land that the people have inhabited for centuries and contains alarming information: 

A large landowner has claimed part of the area for himself and plans to clear extensive tracts for cattle ranching. On the map, the threatened area is outlined and marked in red.

“I brought the map to show you that there is an overlap between your land and the document presented by the landowner, which supposedly proves that this land belongs to him. But does he really own the land?” asks the CPT activist.

“We’ve never seen or heard of him before! We don’t even know him as a foreman, let alone as a landowner,” one of the farmers responds immediately.

Systematic and institutionalized land grabbing

Across the Brazilian state of Maranhão, large landowners and agribusinesses are expanding at the expense of people and nature. This is possible because local communities and Indigenous peoples generally lack official titles to their ancestral lands.

This situation is neither a coincidence nor due to negligence by the people, but the result of systematic discrimination, racism, violence, and corruption. For decades, authorities and politicians have denied residents the legal recognition of their land rights.

Well-connected land grabbers – “landowners” and agribusinesses – then unlawfully claim land using forged documents. They often expel local people by force, frequently with the backing of the local police. They destroy cultures and ecosystems to make way for cattle ranching and industrial monocultures of corn and soy. This system of land theft and environmental destruction is known in Brazil as “grilagem”.

The Cerrado ecosystem is under threat

The eastern part of Maranhão, where Timbiras is located, is part of Brazil’s Cerrado – the second-largest ecological region in South America after the Amazon rainforest. It consists mainly of tropical savanna landscapes. The Cerrado is the most biologically diverse savanna on Earth and is also known as the “cradle of waters”: Beneath it lie Brazil’s two largest aquifers – the Guarani and the Urucuia-Bambuí. Many major South American rivers have their source in the Cerrado. Without its water and vegetation, maintained by local traditional communities, the Amazon would lose many of its vital tributaries. Yet cattle ranching and soy cultivation for export have been expanding into the Cerrado for years.

What is CPT Maranhão doing?

Rainforest Rescue has supported CPT Maranhão since 2020. “The partnership with Rainforest Rescue is extremely important. The georeferenced maps we produce help lawyers defend communities affected by eviction lawsuits filed by land grabbers. More than 300 families – around a thousand people – have benefited from our work. Women and men, young and old, take part in creating the collective maps to defend their homes and the land and water they rely on for their livelihoods,” a CPT activist explained during a field visit.

CPT Maranhão also supports traditional communities through a range of other activities, including political education on social and environmental rights, legal assistance to protect land and human rights, community media and outreach, and productive projects such as agroforestry.

If you would like to support the work of CPT Maranhão for traditional peoples and communities and the protection of the Cerrado, please donate here.