The second cycle of the Network of Defenders of Critical Ecosystems and Livelihoods in Minas Gerais project was completed in September. The project promotes learning journeys and the exchange of strategies between representatives of traditional communities, social and environmental movements, civil society organisations and researchers from five territories affected by extractive activities in the state of Minas Gerais (Serra do Curral, Serra do Gandarela, Serro, Mário Campos and Vale das Cancelas), especially due to mining operations. A detailed report on the activities carried out was released to consolidate this second phase.
The project is built around action research, an approach through which participants collectively define the themes of central interest and engage as co-researchers, sharing knowledge while acting upon the reality they seek to transform.
Network gathering at the quilombola community of Queimadas, in Minas Gerais.
In this sense, during the second cycle the group organised learning journeys on topics such as power relations and power dynamics, territorial rights, environmental law in Brazil, mining conflicts in Latin America, Protocols for Consultation of Traditional Communities and Peoples and Rights of Nature. The main aim of the discussions was to strengthen the actions of groups mobilised to defend the livelihoods of local populations and critical ecosystems in these territories.
The term critical ecosystems was chosen by the group to emphasise the importance of preserving socio-biodiversity in territories that have a long history of mineral exploitation, some of which are now in the spotlight for holding large quantities of the so-called ‘critical minerals’ for the energy transition. This is the case of regions in the northeast of Minas Gerais, where the largest lithium mineral reserve in Brazil is located.
Since the start of activities in February 2023, there have been visits to the five territories in May 2023, two in-person meetings in June 2023 and February 2024, and a series of online formative workshops. The project was made possible by the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme (SSRP), a call for transdisciplinary research on sustainability from the University of Sussex (UoS) in the UK. The UoS researchers who co-proposed the second cycle of the project were Bonnie Holligan from the Law School and Alex Shankland and Anabel Marín from the Institute of Development Studies. The coordination and secretariat of the Network was carried out by Cúrcuma Participação, led by the researchers Bruna Viana and Fabiana Leme.
In addition to the proposing team and representatives of the territories that form part of the Network, the second cycle of meetings involved researchers and activists with knowledge and backgrounds related to the group's topics of enquiry: the professor and coordinator of the Consultation Protocols Observatory Liana Amin Lima, the everlasting flower picker and coordinator at the Commission for the Defence of the Rights of Extractivist Communities (CODECEX) Maria de Fátima Alves, the anthropologist and doctoral student at the postgraduate programme in Social Development (PPGDS/Unimontes) Mauro Toledo and the geraizeiro from Alto Rio Pardo, agent at Cáritas and legal advisor at the Reference Centre for Human Rights (CRDH) Norte Aldinei Leão.
Articulation with national and international networks
The cycle of activities also included participating in two events related to the themes discussed, the Seminar ‘Mining and traditional territories in the context of the energy transition’ in February 2024 and the VII International Colloquium on Traditional Peoples and Communities in September, both held by Unimontes in Montes Claros.
Three complementary investigations were carried out to nourish the group's discussions and glimpse possibilities for expanding the Network's activities. The first focused on the impacts of the energy transition on lithium mining in the Jequitinhonha Valley, which involved a visit to the municipality of Araçuaí and dialogues with communities impacted by open-pit mining in the region. The second line of research, carried out by students from the Environmental Justice Law Clinic at the University of Sussex, coordinated by Bonnie Holligan, compared the implementation of the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) for traditional peoples and communities facing major developments in their territories in other jurisdictions. The students used as reference cases in South Africa, Canada, Australia and Ecuador. The third line of research, coordinated by Anabel Marín, enabled the continuation and expansion of a mapping of mining conflicts in Latin America.
The Network's meetings sought to provide a safe space for sharing the differences and similarities between the socio-environmental conflicts caused by the mining model adopted in Brazil and other Latin American countries. There was also a chance to bring together the organising strategies of traditional peoples and communities and social movements in the various territories. The goal was to encourage alliances between the members of the Network and to continue consolidating the actions carried out by each participating movement.
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