Brazil: Over 5,000 MST Women Destroy Monoculture Seedlings

from MST

translated by Earth First! Journal

At dawn on Wednesday, March 8, around 5,000 women workers from the MST (Landless Movement) took part in a lightning-strike direct action against the corporation Araupel, in Quedas do Iguaçu, in the central region of Paraná.

Welcomed from all over the state, women destroyed eucalyptus and pine seedlings to denounce the destructive model of agribusiness and its impacts on the environment, specifying the expansion of pine and eucalyptus monoculture that turns the land into an unproductive “green desert,” from the perspective of [those who seek] food sovereignty.

The MST criticizes these “green deserts” of pine and eucalyptus monoculture, which destroy the biodiversity of the territory, deteriorating the soil, drying the rivers, occupying large tracts of land that could be used to produce a variety of healthy foods for families waiting on agrarian reform.

The women also denounced the illegal appropriation of land by Araupel. At the end of last year, the Federal Court annulled the enrollment of nine buildings that are under the company’s control; according to INCRA (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) this led to the decision to keep the corporation as user of the land, allowing it direct concession of rights to use it, meaning Araupel is playing the role of tenant and therefore should pay for its uses.

In this context, the peasant women demand the expropriation of a 35-hectare farm [approx. 86 acres] for the purpose of agrarian reform. They also demand that about 10,000 families camped in Parana be given permanent settlements in the state.

This action was done as part of the National Day of Women Struggles in the fight to defend nature and food sovereignty against agribusiness.