Antonio Sapezeiro (Quilombola de Córrego do Chiado/São Mateus)

Antonio moved from the Quilombola community of Córrego do Chiado to a favela in Rio de Janeiro to look for work when he was barely an adult. He returned to his homeland with a strong desire to reclaim lands from the disastrous eucalyptus plantations and return them to thriving agroecological lands. He has been doing this ever since.

“We occupied an area that was previously a eucalyptus plantation for four decades and now we are returning it to sustainable forestry with plants that we want to give back to nature and at the same time nature will give back to us. We want to give nature back the food and work with agroecology. The planet needs agroecology and people are scattered in various places on Earth who care.
The farmers’ practice is to use tools that are sometimes made fun of, but they have a real value, when used for good. They can cut eucalyptus and acacia shoots, and kill them.

In this recovered area we want to work with permaculture and small animals. This is the model, not these strips of land that the company has been using, saying that we can not make a house or keep small animals. We are growing seedlings to be planted in the area we occupied, to build up a sustainable forestry area. Because when you plant a tree today, people think, “it will only bare fruit 30 years from now”. But the tree will last 100 years, and one day it will produce more trees. Today we are enjoying things planted long ago. You can use a tree in nature to make a home, if we still had the forests as they were before. We are fighting for that too. If I have a tree that I planted myself with my hands at 15 years old and in six years I would have wood…

Nature can offer so much, people have in their heads that they have to kill the forest and plant eucalyptus. Still we have so much eucalyptus. It is a scandal what is happening here in Sapê do Norte, it is horrible! And food security has become intolerable. There is a lack of food. In the north of Espírito Santo we lack grains, beans and corn. The project that we want to bring to these areas is reforestation and food production.

We are growing coconut saplings to plant and reforest with native plants while also coconut is a fruit that can produce 5-6 bags of beijou and it is very rich in protein. We’ll work with this logic of food security. We are also growing Jamelão seedlings that we take with us today to the occupied areas. At the same time, in this small cultivated area we will go to we can bring back with us some eggplant seedlings.

What really strikes me is the water issue. There are 150 streams that are dry in Sapê do Norte due to the agriculture development model such as eucalyptus and other large-scale monocultures. Imagine one person to have to water 2 million coffee plants every day, taking the water from the streams and rivers. The region here is 70% covered by eucalyptus and sugar cane. So the streams do not support me and this effects me every day and I want to preserve so much. The water needs to be recovered.

Another thing that strikes me is to remember our past. Since 2007 when the cemetery that was covered in eucalyptus was occupied and now it is producing agroecology. Besides the coconut saplings and Jamelão, we will also take banana saplings for planting in this recovered area. When you plant foods, you do not plant just for you, they are for other people to eat and for the animals too.

The message I leave to those who are in the struggle for greater biodiversity is to roll up their sleeves, participate in these areas, occupy more, create strength in the way we know, because the government agencies, well, I do not see much interest there.”