Centro Sabiá and ISA put the Caatinga biome on the COP 30 agenda

By Rosa Sampaio
Sabiá Center journalist

From October 1 to 4, 2025, the semi-arid region of Pernambuco was the scene of Caatinga Climate Week, an event inspired by climate weeks such as the one in New York, organized by the Sabiá Center and the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), with the aim of putting the biome on the global climate agenda.

More than 400 km were covered, in seven municipalities, and around 500 participants took part in plenary sessions and visits to the experiences. Researchers, government and civil society representatives, activists and communicators learned about the experiences of living in the semi-arid region and the demands and challenges faced by family farmers, indigenous people and quilombolas in the region.

The first day of the event saw the participation of the COP envoys, Janja Lula da Silva (Women), Jurema Werneck (Racial Equality and Peripheries) and Denise Dora (Human Rights and Just Transition), who, together with the Minister of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic, Márcio Macedo, and the Social Mobilization Coordinator of Centro Sabiá, Carlos Magno de Morais, took part in a press conference. The delegation visited the experience of the Women’s Association of Family Farming of Sítio Carneirinho and held the Plenary Vozes do Biomas Rumo a COP 30, an initiative that is part of the cycle of national listening sessions in preparation for the UN Conference on Climate Change to be held in Belém (PA) from November 10 to 21.

Stories of resistance, whether in Caruaru, in the reunion of women with agriculture, at Sítio Carneirinho, in the impact of the climate crisis on the production of roots at Serrote do Bois, or in Vertentes, in the social technologies of coexistence with the Semiarid as solutions for climate adaptation, at Sítio Caruá.

The debate on a just energy transition was present during the visit to the Escola dos Ventos, an initiative by farmers and researchers in the municipality of Caetés, to confront the large wind energy projects in the region. In Jucati, the network of seed and knowledge exchanges between family farmers, social organizations and rural technicians is working to defend the continuity of Creole seeds. The struggle for climate justice, through food-producing backyards, by the women of the Estivas and Castainho quilombos in Garanhuns and the pedagogy of enchantment to regenerate the Caatinga by the Xukuru people of Ororubá in Pesqueira.

The final plenary brought together indigenous and quilombola representatives at the Vale do Catimbau National Park in Buíque on Saturday (4/10). Between rituals and powerful speeches, the peoples of the Caatinga closed the event with a mixture of denunciations and celebrations that embraced the struggles and resistance of the Brazilian Semi-arid. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sent a video, which was shown at the final plenary, in which he stressed the importance of the Biome, “a relevant center for social technologies and solutions for dealing with the climate crisis”.