Cracking open coconuts, defending life: women from Piauí confront deforestation and strengthen their territories with babassu palm.

Amidst the advancing deforestation and wildfires that plague the Caatinga region of Piauí, a silent and inspiring movement is taking shape: women who break babaçu coconuts are organizing to defend their way of life and the territory they have inhabited for generations. Present in nine municipalities, theAssociation of Women Workers of the Babaçu Coconut of the Lower Parnaíba of Piauí (AMTCOB)has the support of theBrazil Fund for Human Rightsto mobilize more than 160 indigenous, riverside, and quilombola women, with an indirect impact on approximately 700 families. The focus is twofold: to preserve the babaçu groves and to strengthen the autonomy of women, recognizing their role as guardians of the forest and subjects of rights.

For these women, the babaçu is not just a source of sustenance. It is memory, it is roots, it is a body that resists. The breaking of the coconut, passed down from mother to daughter, is also an ancestral pedagogy, a way of educating about caring for the land, community, and resistance in the face of inequalities. And it is in this daily practice that the project establishes its foundations: with the hands that harvest, transform, and care for the territory, generation after generation.

The actions go beyond environmental protection: they involve training for the production of babassu oil and mesocarp, workshops on climate justice, human rights, and political advocacy, creating a network of popular education and female empowerment. All this in a scenario where large landowners try to prevent access to babassu groves, threatening traditional ways of life.

“With the training, we began to see ourselves as subjects of rights, to recognize ourselves as babassu nut breakers with pride and power. We are stronger, more prepared and aware to defend the babassu palm and our rights. With this project, we want to strengthen the fight for free access to babassu groves and for the appreciation of traditional ways of life in the territories of northern and southern Piauí. We count on these resources to guarantee training, income, the protagonism of women of all ages and environmental protection,” says Klesia Lima, coordinator of the association.