{"id":10843,"date":"2022-01-25T16:52:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T16:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/defensorasdelterritorio.com\/the-seedbed-that-resists-afforestation\/"},"modified":"2022-04-06T11:51:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T11:51:13","slug":"the-seedbed-that-resists-afforestation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/defensorasdelterritorio.com\/en\/the-seedbed-that-resists-afforestation\/","title":{"rendered":"The seedbed that resists afforestation"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

AZUL CORDO<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(URUGUAY)<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We thought we were never going to eat black watermelon again, but Claudia Cuebas, from the north of Uruguay, revived it. As an agroecological producer, she recovered a seed that seemed lost, multiplied it, and exchanged it at fairs and meetings with other rural producers. Surrounded by pine and eucalyptus trees that have dried up the lagoon where her children used to bathe until a decade ago, she stands up to the climate crisis caused by the spread of afforestation in this South American country.\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

As they sit round the table after dinner, Claudia Cuebas looks out at the patio, where dogs run, cats glide around stealthily, pigs wait for their food and cows and horses rest. On the seven-hectare horizon, there are rows of pine and eucalyptus trees. Where there was once a ranch made of mud, wood, and plastic, nowadays a vine has managed to survive, and mandarin trees grow. This agro-ecological farm is a space of resistance designed to combat the advance of a monotonous, voracious green landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Claudia Cuebas\u2019 life took a turn in 2011, after what she called \u201cThe Speech of Light\u201d she delivered to the state authorities who inaugurated the electrical connection works in Parada Medina. Her journey had begun five years earlier at the UTE offices, where she demanded the thousand meters of cable required for them to have electricity. That was after Ariel, her husband, threatened to leave the countryside if they could not get electricity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t miss what you don\u2019t have,\u201d Claudia tells LatFem. For twenty years, she raised four children, cooked, sewed, and wrote by the light of a kerosene lamp in this rural setting. But faced with the family drama and her husband\u2019s threat, she felt she had to do something. She handed out letters to ministers and spoke with the then-Uruguayan President Jos\u00e9 \u201cPepe\u201d Mujica to get electricity and have a refrigerator to cool the milk, rather than leaving the bottles buried in the ground. \u201cClaudia spread her wings,\u201d says agricultural engineer Poppy Brunini, a technician from the National Network of Native and Creole Seeds, who advises her and eight other women in a project to defend biodiversity on the Uruguayan border with Brazil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When she left the farm, Claudia met with other family producers and became known for reviving the black watermelon variety in the midst of the 2010 drought. So much so that they invited her to the Seed Network to explain how she had achieved this: she went from being a rural myth to a benchmark. This round-faced woman, with leathery cheekbones and greenish eyes, has her own agroecological method:<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\u201cCamilo, a colleague from the Network we formed here in Rivera, had some black and white watermelon seeds he shared with me. That year there was a terrible dry season and the farms collapsed, but I managed to produce black watermelon because I was able to protect it with my compost and one produced seeds. It weighed 25 kilos;\u00a0 it was a real beauty! From then on, I began to recover the seeds and we have already shared them with other neighbors and colleagues. That year I saved the land for the boss\u2014she says, referring to her husband\u2014who wanted to give up everything.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Claudia remembers who gave her each squash, white bean, creole corn and melon seed. \u201cI collect every seed I see. I am a lifelong seed collector,\u201d she admits. Joining the Network was like going back to her roots, when she lived in the mountains, on the other side of the R\u00edo Negro, in Parada Sud (Durazno): \u201cI would walk several kilometers through the fields to get to Pueblo Centenario and go to School No. 39 and on the way I would collect seeds.\u201d If she did not reproduce these creole seeds, she would have to buy \u201cmutant\u201d seeds, as she calls the transgenic ones, at \u201cdollar prices.\u201d
Agroecology makes it possible to retain moisture in the soil all year round, using the \u201cgreen manure\u201d technique Claudia learned at the More Technologies for Family Production project run by the National Agricultural Research Institute (INIA). This technique involves covering the land with oats months before sowing, to prevent erosion. Federico Rosas, an INIA technician who advised Claudia and four other watermelon producers in 2016, recalls that the Cuebas hectare was the one with the best yield and how difficult it is for other producers to \u201cshift their mindset\u201d. \u201cThey harvest in the traditional way one year and the field is destroyed for seven or eight years, so they lease it for afforestation. What\u2019s needed is a cultural change, more awareness between the owner of the land and the person renting it,\u201d says the agronomist.
Claudia used the green manure to perfect her method, which already involved planting \u201cseedlings,\u201d rather than sowing seeds directly. The \u201cSeedlings\u201d are bags with composted soil and watermelon seeds which, once they have germinated, will be planted in the fertile soil. Every season, Claudia assembles between three and four thousand bags by herself.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Photo: Azul Cordo<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\u201cNo engineer taught me to germinate using seedlings for the Creole seed. I learned it on my own,\u201d she says. It is a solitary, artisanal ritual: she alone turns the soil and prepares the October planting. She produces and harvests on her own because she cannot afford to pay a farm hand. This is also how she combats afforestation on this farm where she has lived for 35 years.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This is almost the same time the ley, which promotes monoculture tree plantations for the wood and pulp industry in \u201cpriority forest lands\u201d has been in force. When it was passed in 1987, there were 70,000 forested hectares; nowadays, there are one million. More than 300,000 are fields that should be used for agricultural or livestock activities but using them to plant trees reduces the cost of transporting the latter to processing plants and ports. A new bill seeking limitar la explotaci\u00f3n forestal obtained half-approval in late 2020, but President Luis Lacalle Pou said he would veto the law if it were approved by the Senate. Of the one million hectares with monocultures, 80% correspond to eucalyptus and 18% to pines. Rivera, where Claudia lives, is the most forested department in the country.<\/p>

\u201cAnything that limits this process is good, but I think the proposal for the new project has been poorly framed,\u201d says Marcel Achkar, coordinator of the Laboratory for Sustainable Development and Environmental Management of the Territory at the Science Faculty of the University of the Republic (Udelar). Although the text proposes reducing the amount of forest priority land from four to 1.6 million hectares, this would involve building a fourth pulp mill.<\/p>

The pulp mills are concentrated in areas close to the forestations. \u201cThat is the bane of countries dependent on commodities, it\u2019s part of a macroeconomic strategy of underdevelopment,\u201d continues Achkar. Three hours from Claudia\u2019s farm, in Paso de los Toros (Tacuaremb\u00f3), the third pulp mill in the country is under construction: UPM2.<\/p>

It is ten in the morning and the boss orders the piglets born a few days ago to be vaccinated. Claudia puts down her seedlings and goes to fetch the syringes. She walks to the back, where her nephew Diogo is waiting for her with a piglet in his arms and stands in front of the immense eucalyptus trees. \u201cBefore we could see everything up to there, to the next house, which is ten kilometers away,\u201d he says, drawing a line on the horizon with his right hand.<\/p>

Claudia despairs of the advance of afforestation which, in the twenty years she has been in the area, has dried up the natural waters where her children used to bathe and play, or turned them green. Geographer Agust\u00edn Urtiaga says in his thesis “Potenciales impactos territoriales de la expansi\u00f3n forestal asociada a UPM2” (Udelar, 2020) that, since 2008, water flows in the north of the country has decreased by 77%. There has also been an \u201calmost total\u201d displacement of fauna, loss of biodiversity and soil erosion, in addition to job insecurity, internal migration of young people for seasonal work in sawmills and pastures, and health effects due to contact with pesticides.<\/p>\n

Rivera contains 17% of the million hectares planted with eucalyptus and pine trees in the country and the products of the local forest industry are exported to 35 countries. FYMNSA instalada en 1974, bought up nearly all the fields adjacent to Claudia\u2019s farm. The conglomerate includes afforestation, a sawmill (Dank SA) and biomass power generation (Ponlar SA). There are few neighbors left, and no children nearby. The number of students at rural schools fell from several hundred to no more than thirty.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Photo:\u00a0 Azul Cordo\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

\u201cIn forested basins, water availability decreases by 40% compared to natural grassland basins and, in times of drought, this can reach 80%. Defenders of afforestation say it decreases floods. This is not true: if storms produce more than average rainfall, the ground is unable to absorb it,\u201d says Achkar.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

The \u201cumbrella effect\u201d of forested foliage does not allow rainwater to percolate and recharge water tables and aquifers. The amount of chemicals used to prepare the soil, ash, and waste branches, acidify, and degrade the soil. \u201cAfter several rounds of afforestation, it takes several dozen years for soils to recover. It is undoubtedly more expensive to restore this soil than to buy new soil,\u201d explains the doctor in agronomic sciences.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Photo: Azul Corzo<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Before getting up to light the wood stove, Claudia sighs five times. It\u2019s 5:30. With each exhalation, she says, \u201cOw!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to swallow some pills to start my crazy day.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 52, Claudia takes calcium, collagen, two 750 mg paracetamol tablets and is given an injection. At night, she has a massage with ointment for horses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf I don\u2019t control the pain, I can\u2019t walk. The twinges evolved into a hernia from here,\u201d she stretches her neck, \u201cto the sciatic nerve.\u201d She twists a little, lifts her hips and strokes her skin with her left hand where it is thickest. \u201cCan you see? I\u2019ve got a lump like an egg here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The twenty piglets cannot go without their morning and evening rations for a single day. Claudia loads the wheelbarrow with two buckets and leaves the skins of the vegetables and fruits she has discarded, water with a mixture of sorghum, corn and oats, and organ meats, in the corral. The piglets squeal: only they could possibly find this appealing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go around all day smelling like a pig,\u201d Claudia says later, untangling her long, freshly washed wavy hair. She went to a hairdresser\u2019s once; when she found out her hair was fashionable, she did not go back again.<\/p>\n

Claudia prepares the bitter mate tea and takes short steps to reach her own room: the greenhouse. She lifts the thick plastic, opens the mosquito net door, and begins preparing the bags where the watermelons she will plant during the first ten days of October will germinate. Last year she harvested 162,000 kilos of watermelon by herself in this corner of Rivera.<\/p>\n

She kneads the soil, greets the earthworms, and checks there are no eggshells or residue from the oranges. Her short nails turn black; the soil works its way into every groove in her hand.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
CLAUDIA CUEBAS<\/h5>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\n