Assentamento Terra Vista

The struggle for access to land is a constant in Brazilian history, from the first indigenous revolts to the emergence of the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST). From the 1980s onwards, the struggle for agrarian reform gained momentum with the MST leading land occupations and defending social justice. With over a million members, the MST is the largest social movement in Latin America and plays a key political role in Brazil.

The Terra Vista settlement, in the municipality of Arataca, Bahia, was a historic achievement for the MST. The movement occupied and secured the land for social purposes in 1994, after five evictions and facing opposition from the region’s colonizers and landowners. In 2000, Terra Vista began an agro-ecological transition, reforesting the land, abandoning chemical inputs and adopting regenerative practices, such as the cacao-cabruca agroforestry. The resulting recovery of 92% of the Aliança River’s riparian forest and 80% of the springs has strengthened the local ecology, as well as eradicating hunger in the settlement.

Despite these important achievements, the settlement faces challenges in expanding and deepening the use of agroecology due to a lack of resources, technical assistance and adequate education.

According to indigenous and quilombola principles, the regeneration of a territory is considered inseparable from the regeneration of the communities that live in it. Agroforestry challenges the logic of industrial agriculture and preservationist environmental conservation, integrating ecological regeneration, human participation and sustainable food production.