For 14 years, family farmers who are part of the Purpurima Center in Paraíba have been carrying out mobilizations to educate rural residents about the risks posed by the construction of wind farms in the area. They are part of the March for Women’s Lives and Defense of Agroecology, and their main battle banner is to alert rural residents of the 13 municipalities that make up the center about the problems caused by these projects.
The 14 March for Women’s Lives and Defense of Agroecology took place in March 2023, in the city of Montadas, 25.7 km from the city of Campina Grande, Queen of Purpurima.
More than 6,000 people from Paraíba, Pernambuco and Rio Grande do Norte participated in the march. A platform set up near the Union of Rural Workers and Family Farmers of Montadas served as a space for women to talk to people who participated in the event about what the arrival of wind farms in the Porborima region and other towns in Paraíba represents. The cirandeira Lia de Itamaracá was present at the march, which ended with all participants walking through the streets of Montadas, distributing leaflets and speaking about the cause of the mobilization.
However, despite this intense mobilization of rural workers, there is no coverage of their activities in the dominant local, regional or national traditional media. In 2022 portal Paraiba newspaperIt is one of the means of communication that the research analyzes Clean energy: what the media is silent about, a member of the Vozes Silenciadas project, organized by Intervozes – Coletivo Brasil de Comunicação Social, submitted a report on March 13, which happened in Solania. However, in 2023, activity on this site has not been detected.
Oh site do Trade newspaperFrom Pernambuco and from Northern Tribunefrom Rio Grande do Norte, also did not report on the resistance of Purpurima women regarding wind farms, nor did they mention the participation of women farmers from these states in the March for Women’s Lives.
At the national level, Folha des Paulos condition H the world Nor have their actions reversed the toll wind farms have taken on rural women and men in the Northeast.
Roslita Vitor da Costa Albuquerque is one of the family farmers at the forefront of this fight. She is a member of the board of directors of the Union of Rural Workers, Farmers and Family Farmers in Remigio, in rural Paraíba, and goes with comrades from neighboring unions to the homes of other rural workers to provide information about what the construction of gardens and wind and solar power plants can do to rural areas. In conversations with family farmers, one of the main topics discussed was the contracts that companies offer to lease their land for over 20 years.
When convincing families to sign contracts, company representatives do not mention the social and environmental impacts that wind turbines and solar panels have in the areas where they are installed. “It was outreach to Pastoral da Tierra de Campina Grande that, when we visited the city of Cayetes, in Pernambuco, we saw the impacts on the lives of communities and, specifically, on the lives of people. Since then, we have built with Farming families with information that companies do not talk about, about the damage to nature, specifically to the vital Caatinga region, such as deforestation, the reduction of production areas and the arbitrariness of companies that have violent contracts. “The violations violate the human rights of families,” Rosselita explained.
After the mobilization of the Borburima women, family farmers in that area did not sign contracts. They received reinforcements from the Federation of Rural Workers, Farmers and Family Farmers of Paraíba (Fetag-PB), which has been holding meetings with unions linked to the federation and state meetings, such as the one in October 2023, with lawyers and popular jurists. The groups are talking to farmers, specifically about the damage caused by corporate contracts, some of which are difficult to repair.
With all the information collected after visits and meetings in areas affected by the arrival of wind and solar plants, both in Paraíba and neighboring states, the Borborima farmers also contacted the Federal Public Ministry (MPF-PB) and the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, as well as other judicial bodies, to find Ways to solve the problems faced by rural workers who signed lease contracts.
“Based on all the march events and meetings held by the unions in the local communities, the families did not sign contracts with the companies. The March for Women’s Lives and Agroecology in Pollo da Porporema assumes this resistance, realizing that this model of land reform settlers, Rosellita says: “Renewable energy production concentrated in wind farms and solar power plants poses a threat to their way of life here on our lands.”
The work of polo women reached other municipalities, in addition to Borborima. During the political formation of the Marcha das Margaridas of 2023, organized by Fetag-PB, in the cities of Campina Grande, Patos, Guarabeira and João Pessoa, one of the main discussions was the arrival of wind farms and solar power plants in the northeastern regions. The family farmers from Paraíba and other Brazilian states who participated in the preparation of Marsha das Margaridas’ book of proposals included, among its thirteen themes, the impact of wind farms and solar power plants on the lifestyle of women and men from the camp. The Margaridas agenda was handed over to President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his ministers, in a grand event, concluding the events of the 7th Marcha das Margaridas in Brasilia, on August 16, 2023. The websites of the northeastern newspapers were analyzed according to Intervozes research, this action was not reflected by Margaridas.
According to Roslita Vitor, the federal government has opened a dialogue table on renewable energy. In October 2023, representatives of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, the Ministries of Agricultural Development and Family Farming, Health, Environment, Minerals and Energy, Enkra and Fiocruz visited the territories of Pernambuco and Paraíba to see the problems up close. Caused by wind energy companies. “We reaffirm that this model poses a threat to our lands, to food production and agroecology, as well as to the way of life that we have been building for 30 years,” Roslita Vitor stressed. This meeting between family farmers and the federal government was also not on the agenda of the Brazilian media.
Other actions carried out by the women of Purpurima, in collaboration with Fetag-PB and other organizations, such as Articulação no Semiárido Brasileiro (ASA), the Pastoral Lands Commission (CPT) and the Movement of Landless Rural Workers (MST) are: a public hearing, in May, which was called by the Deputy State Ceda Ramos (PT), which is supposed to lead to the CPI; And a workshop at the 12th Brazilian Congress of Agroecology, which was held in November last year in Rio de Janeiro. They also have an Instagram profile (@marchapelavidadasmulheres), containing information about their actions regarding this issue.
A campaign about renewable energy was created on their Instagram profile titled “Renewable energy yes, but not like that!”. Family farmers claim to support the use of renewable energy, but not in the way multinational companies are implementing it in the northeastern regions. “When we talk about decentralized renewable energy, it is energy that each household can produce itself. If our lands have a lot of sun and wind, why don’t we have solar panels on the family’s homes, to produce energy to consume and sell the surplus?”, Rosellita explains.
She stated that this energy model, implemented by multinational companies, disrupts nature and forms of life in regions and communities. “We need to think about an energy transition that contributes to reducing the impact on the climate and reducing the effects of climate change. We also need to think about energy that not only produces energy for capital, we need to think about the people who live in the regions.” Everywhere they can, family farmers in Paraíba are denouncing the problems caused by wind and solar power plants in their rural areas. But the regional and national media have not given due attention to the damage these companies have done to family farming and agroecology in the Northeast.
What we discovered in the sites analyzed is the frequent support for the installation of these projects, always focusing on the economic issue, with reports and news dealing with the opening of “new vacancies” and financial investment in the states through international wind and solar energy. Companies. . But farmers whose lands have been leased by companies by signing contracts with questionable terms and without guaranteeing their rights are not reported. The truth is that their voices are silenced.
African eco-farmer Luisa Cavalcanti lives on Agatha Farm, in the municipality of Traconheim, in the boreal forest region of Pernambuco. She says that women’s struggle in her region currently relates to transportation lines. “The impacts of transmission lines have reached our territory, and in rural Pernambuco, there is a struggle between women against wind energy towers, including those that have already been affected, such as those in the communities of Salgadinho and Kites. It is an ongoing struggle,” he says.
Luisa says that these projects have spread throughout the state of Pernambuco, but the resistance of local communities, led by women, is strong. “We, at the site of Agatha, were affected, as we passed the installation of wind energy transmission lines, which come from Paraíba, Campina Grande, reaching Igarasu. And along the installation of these lines there are quilombos, many settlements, that were affected,” he said.
Despite complaints made publicly and to the authorities, Loayza stated that 4 more transmission lines were expected to arrive, passing through these same areas. “This is terrible. We need to talk about the transmission lines. It’s not just the tower with the fans. The damage is similar. The rights violations and environmental violations are very violent. We need to report them and stop this misery from continuing.” It will happen against the indigenous people of African descent in this country,” highlights the farmer.
The women of Pernambuco are also organizing and mobilizing to inform other farmers in the affected areas or anyone who may be of the problems they are facing today. Since the dominant media does not publish their struggle and the problems they face with wind farms and solar power plants, they have created their own means of communication. Agatha Farm, where Louisa lives, has a brochure on its website Transfer resistanceWhich deals with transmission lines, wind energy, and also podcasts Neighbors of the towerProducing materials to convey what is happening in these areas to the community and thinking about mechanisms to reduce impacts in areas where wind towers and solar panels have been installed.
In December 2023, they held a public hearing in the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco, demanding that the legislature take action on the problems they face in their territory.
*Mabel Dias is a journalist, Master in Communication from UFPB, associated with Coletivo Intervozes, certified observer of the Observatório Paraibano de Jornalismo and PhD candidate in Communication from UFPE
** This is an opinion article and does not necessarily reflect the editorial line of the newspaper Brazil in fact
Edited by: Thalita Pires
(Tags for translation) Opinion
