Environmental work became TDDís prime focus in 2003, particularly in the area of biodiversity preservation: (1) protection of the endemic seed base (including defense of indigenous communitiesí traditional knowledge and modes of use and the endemic seeds used by smallholders); (2) water (including fight water privatization, particularly in the case of the GuaranÌ Aquifer, a World Bank-funded project running throughout a number of countries in South America); and (3) the preservation of biodiversity as opposed to an unsustainable development model.

Some of TDDís biodiversity-related activities in 2003 include:

I. GMOs/AGROECOLOGY

• Organizing and participating in the second ìJourney on Agroecologyî in Ponta Grossa, Paran· state (www.jornadadeagroecologia.org.br); a follow-up workshop on that event related to public policies and GMOs

• Providing counsel to the ìJourney on Agroecologyî

• Monitoring and inspection of Monsanto area in Ponta Grossa

• Elaborating a municipal- and state-level bill on the regulation banning the planting of GMOs

• Jointly testifying, along with ìJourney on Agroecology,î against the Ministry of Agriculture before the Public Federal Prosecution Service

• Public civil action against the Ministry of Agriculture (including announcing the areas where GMO soy have been planted)

• Organizing and hosting the ìTribunal dos TransgÍnicosî (Tribunal on GMOs -- www.transgenicosnotribunal.org.br) in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, December 2003

• Denouncing the contamination of smallholder organic farming due to the use of GMOs in agricultural production in Rio Grade do Sul state

• Participating in the development of public policies on agroecology at the federal level

• Accompanying/lobbying related to the Seed Law in Congress

• Participating in a workshop on legislation and hydraulic resources in the second ìJourney on Agroecologyî

• Participating in the organization of a water symposium in Paran· state

• Partnership with ìGrito das ¿guasî (ìThe Screaming of the Watersî), Hydraulics Resources Promotion of the Public Federal Prosecution Service, national headquarters of CPT, and the Fraternity Campaign for the Creation and Implementation of ìWater Defensesî in order to denounce violations to the right to water

• Creating an interstate network to discuss and implement actions related to the GuaranÌ Aquifer

• Participating in a workshop on the GuaranÌ Aquifer in the Brazilian Social Forum in Minas Gerais state

• Participating in the public forum on the GuaranÌ Aquifer in Araraquara, S„o Paulo

• Participation in the international congress on the GuaranÌ Aquifer, held in Foz do IguaÁu, Paran· state in August 2003

• Conducting field research and analyzing the data on the conditions of rural workers that cultivate tobacco. This is related to several denunciations of agrotoxin poisonings that have led to several suicides. Also related to the study is the investigation of whether the multinational tobacco companies involved utilize slave and child labor on their tobacco plantations (this will be analyzed from the point of view of human rights).

• Denouncing the contamination of workers from asbestos

• Participation in the Brazilian Network for Environmental Justice

• Mediation and participation in the public meeting dealing with contamination by Petrobr·s (Brazilian petroleum company) in a community in Paran·

IV. Developing a legal opinion about the viability of the government expropriating the Monsanto land in Ponta Grossa for the purposes of creating thereon the ìChico Mendes Center for Agroecologyî

VI. Participating in national and international fora

• Delegate in the International Conference on the Environment, on national and state levels

• Participated in the National Commission on Sustainable Development and Agenda 21 in Paran· as related to the Ministry of Environment

• Partnering with the Brazilian Forum of NGOs and the social movements

• TDD participated in working groups related to the ìNinth Conference on Human Rights: Building a National Framework of Human Rights,î held in July 2004 in BrasÌlia, in which 1000 people from all over the country participated

• TDD participated in August 2004 in S„o Paulo in the Third Latin America Meeting on Human Rights

TDD provides legal advice to Landless Peoplesí Movement (MST)

The state of Paran· where the TDD is based is one of the states where it has been registered major examples of violence against the MST. TDD mediates cases of land conflicts in the state of Paran·, provides legal assistance to MST, monitors and denounces land conflicts before national and international authorities, particularly those involving private militias.

TDD conducts research on environmental and labor issues related to tobacco cultivation

During 2004, TDD researched and produced a report on the tobacco harvesting and the related human rights violations of smallholders by the tobacco industries in the southern Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paran·, and Santa Catarina. TDD interviewed more than 50 small tobacco producers working exclusively for the multinationals Phillip-Morris and British American Tobacco. The most severe problems found were related to farming security and health problems such as cancer, poisoning, depression, and suicides. Modern-day slavery due to the contracts that keep small producers in debt peonage with the multinationals is a major problem. This research was funded in part by the International Labor Rights Fund in Washington, DC and carried out with the logistics expertise of Assessoria e ServiÁos a Projectos em Agricultura Alternativa (Counsel and Services to Alternative Agriculture Projects), the Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores (Small Producers Movement), the Ministry of Labor, Public Ministry of the State of Paran·, Department of Socio-economics and Rural Studies Forum of Rural Workers Organization of the central and southern Paran·. For more information on the tobacco research and report please contact TDD: terradedireitos@terradedireitos.com.br.