Rural Communitarian Association of Imbituba (ACORDI)

The project “Traditional Shorefront Sands Communities (SC): struggle for recognition, access to justice and construction of rights” looks to promote anthropological and legal assistance to the social group self-identified as the Traditional Shorefront Community (Imbituba, SC), which involves around a thousand families from various neighborhoods around the locale.

– Monitoring legal and administrative proceedings underway involving the Federal Public Prosecutor (MPF), Incra/SC, IMCbio and the Secretary of the Union Patrimony.

– Analyzing the legal actions underway and proposing new legal demands made necessary to assure the rights of the community.

– Producing cartographic and topographical studies of the areas traditionally occupied by the common use system.

– Bringing together information for the publication of an informative bulletin on the impact of the Port of Imbituba’s expansion on the community, traditional fishermen and farmers.

– Promoting workshops on collective rights for the community aiming at political training and organization.

– Holding meetings with municipal, state and federal institutions, political leaders, social movements and trade unions of the region.

Since the 1950s, various industrial activities in the municipality of Imbituba have been affecting the well-being and way of life of the Shoreline Sands Community.  The commons system along with traditional fishing and butiá palm harvesting compose a way of life that has guaranteed the survival of more than a thousand families.  However, the implementation of public policies has ignored the characteristic way of life and its cultural identity, favoring the installation of industrial hubs and multi-national corporations involved in port commerce.

To guarantee the fundamental rights of the community, two legal processes are currently underway: one with the Federal Public Prosecutor and ICMbio for the creation of a Conservation Unit for Sustainable Use of the Shoreline Sands and another at the Institute for Agrarian Reform (INCRA in Portuguese) for the normalization of agricultural/fishing activities.  Meanwhile, hundreds of families were removed from part of the area, in July, 2010.  In the last ten years, ACORDI sought to defend its rights in relevant government organs, but the community’s lack of official designation, institutional structure and legal recognition has compromised the progress of these proceedings.

The reduced territorial area no longer guarantees the food security of these families and compromises the reproduction of local biodiversity management practices and the preservation of cultural and genetic heritage.  This situation has infringed upon human rights and the demands of redress have led to the criminalization of the Association’s leaders.  Furthermore, port enterprises have limited the access to boats, fisheries and the practice of artisan fishing.  Also designated as part of these projects is the immediate removal of one hundred fishing ranches from the Imbituba shore-front.

Created ten years ago by several families, ACORDI is an association that holds activities directed at sustainable development and agro-ecology.  Currently, it is dedicated to the political and social organization of workers (farmers and fishermen) of the Shoreline Sands, promoting actions that assure the right of the community to remain on its territory.  It reports violations, files lawsuits, promotes meetings with authorities, social movements and the general community.  At the meetings, it stimulates local culture (folklore, regional cuisine and theater groups) and works with education (courses, seminars, workshops and expositions).

ACORDI works with the Federal University of Santa Catarina: Nucleus of Interethnic Identity and Relations Studies (NUER), the Human and Ethnobotanical Ecology Laboratory (ECOH), the Rural Spaces Studies Laboratory (LabRural). They also depend on the Flour Mills Culture Point, developed by the NGO CEPAGRO (Center for Studies and Promottion of Group Agriculture), Cáritas Brasileira, MST, CIDASC and the Puxirão Network of Traditional Communities and Peoples.