The North East coast of Brazil is blessed with countless stunning beaches. The constant sun shine, palm trees, white sand and warm seas make the little fishing villages that dot the coast line an attractive prospect for developers, who are cashing in on low land prices and the increase in tourism to this part of Brazil.
Unfortunately, as in many other parts of the world, foreign investment can remove all evidence of the traditional way of life that made the villages so attractive to tourists in the first place, with disastrous consequences for the native population.
The developers are intimidating opponents, backed with enormous resources of both money and man power. Small communities and individuals have their land bought out from under them, a combination of poverty and lack of education, leads people to believe that they are powerless. Some simply move off the land, others accept a payment that represents a fraction of the market value, one that will be multiplied several times over when the land is re sold.
There are some villages where the residents are, against the odds, resisting the onslaught and developing tourism at their own rate, welcoming the tourists as guests but not the controlling influence. Community based tourism strives to keep the profits that tourism generates, circulating within the community. Using the money to further educate the residents and enabling them to improve their quality of life, while holding foreign investors, developers, drugs, prostitution and other problems of mass tourism at bay.
Prainha Do Canto Verde is my home, it’s a quiet fishing village, with a population of approximately 1200. A green oasis, surrounded by white sand dunes and separated from the main highway by a thick strip of Mata, low level forest. The villagers fight against a property developer was mammoth, running through all levels of the courts and lasting for thirty years.
The dispute began in 1976 when a property developer, who has vast tracts of land for sale all along the NE coast of Brazil, bought a strip of land a distance away from the beach. He then convinced a judge and the office of land registration that he had bought the land all the way down to the sea, including the 749 hectares of Canto Verde. The developer announced that he would be building hotels and that there would be work for all. Some residents naively believed that they would be working in managerial positions, earning high wages, enabling them to build new homes of their own in situ.
The reality, as demonstrated by numerous other developments along the coast, is very different. The illiteracy rate in the rural population is high and people do not generally posses the skills needed to obtain the kind of work they dream of, as a rule the only jobs open to them are menial and low paid. Once development is under way, the natives are often completely removed from the area and relocated inland, this is disastrous for the fishermen who need a view of the sea. Their other options are to head further inland to try and scratch a living from the poor soil, where farming, owing to the regions extremely low rainfall, is difficult to say the least, or move to the city, to try their luck amongst the ranks of poor there.
In Canto Verde the majority of residents remained unmoved by the developers promises. Deciding to fight, they went to court with lawyers from the Brazilian Human Rights group, Centro de Defesa e Promçaão do Direitos Humanos (Centre of Defence and Promotion of Human Rights), to challenge the legality of the land purchase. The pressure on the residents to give up the fight was often intense. Hired gunmen came to the village and issued death threats, some of the houses were burned down and a fence was erected, completely cutting off access to the beach. Yet the residents bravely fought back, tearing down the fences, re building their homes and continuing with the legal challenge
The villagers decided it was necessary to draw the worlds attention to the land rights issue and the problems of predatory lobster fishing, both of which threaten their traditional way of life. In 1993 they launched the expedition “SOS Sobrevivencia” (SOS Survival). Four fishermen sailed a 6m jangada (a traditional sail raft used for fishing) from Canto Verde to Rio De Janeiro, a journey of nearly 3000 kilometres that took 74 days. The voyage was a repeat of one undertaken fifty years earlier, when in 1941 four fishermen made the journey to highlight their poverty and the lack of governmental support; their voyage was the inspiration behind Orson Welles’ film “Its All True”.
One of the crew on the second voyage was Chico August (my brother in law), he said the journey was tough (which must be an understatement, the jangada is a very basic craft with no comforts whatsoever), it was hard for them to be away from their families for so long, sailing through waters non of them knew, sometimes facing 25ft waves but, the voyage had the desired effect.
A Swiss National, René Schärer who had stumbled across Canto Verde was able to use the voyage and the publicity it generated to mobilise foreign support, thus enabling the continued funding of the court case. Crucially a foreign NGO organised a fax campaign (pre email days) to the Governor of Ceará calling for a full investigation into the attacks on the village, effectively ending the terror campaign.
Several courts ruled against the developer, with him immediately appealing the rulings. Finally in 2006, the case arrived in the Superior Federal Court in Brasilia. There, all 5 Judges ruled against the developer and importantly, that he had exhausted all rights of appeal, finally putting an end to his claim.
The courts ruling also allowed for the residents to apply to government for the land title, for this to happen two directives are being processed by the Federal Government at the moment, one is to give the residents the land tenure and the second is to make the land an extractive reserve, with plans to include a marine reserve to protect and improve the fishing. Both directives are nearing completion.
The historic court decision has set a precedent in the fight over land claims. Canto Verde has joined forces with other communities who are also developing community based tourism and or fighting land rights issues, mutually benefiting from each others successes and learning from each others mistakes.
Prainha Do Canto Verde won a community based tourism award in Germany in 2000 and shortly after they were one of only two entries for Brazil, in the directory of Community Based Tourism published by Tourism concern (a UK based NGO).
The slow and steady approach to tourism isn’t always an easy path to follow and some of the residents have taken a bit of convincing. Pursuing this route, has meant giving up the possibility of selling their land to outsiders, a hard choice for those who are struggling to survive. Yet most now realise that if they make easy money by selling their land today, there will be nothing left for their children in the future.
Within Canto Verde there are a number of small family owned guesthouses and restaurants, beach front bars and a local craft shop, part of a fair trade network.
Mudo Mundo (known in English as Changemakers), a world wide youth empowerment movement supported by the Ashoka Foundation, is now active in the village. The majority of fourteen to twenty- four year olds are involved with the group, which aims to empower youth to improve their future, supporting them through education and training and giving access to micro credit, in order to develop businesses of their own.
There are a variety of apprenticeships now running in the village such as, agro ecology, arts and crafts, environmental services, tourism and marketing, carpentry and computer technology. A number of stipends are available, giving access to additional teaching support for students wishing to take university entrance exams.
The village is still a working fishing village and fresh fish can be bought on the beach from the boats. Sadly all along the coast, the artisanal fishermen are suffering the consequences of industrial over fishing and illegal fishing practises, particularly the over exploitation of the lobster stocks on which the small scale fishermen depend.
Having won what looked like an impossible victory against the property developer, the people of Canto Verde, while supporting their children in broadening their prospects for the future, are continuing the fight to save the lobster, on which their traditional way of life depends.
Canto Verde is part of TUCUM a network of 12 fishing communities and a agro ecology farm, who seek to develop community based tourism in a sustainable manner, whilst preserving the natural environment.
www.prainhadocantoverde.com.br The site is running but some pages are still under construction. Currently only in Portuguese.
Mum you need to try and get more photos up on here!!!
Yes, I did try but the day I was doing the entry, the internet was very slow, I will try again.