Ask any local from the Sertão region what is most sacred in the countryside. The reply is immediate: land. Despite this, many farmers in the Seridó region (which includes municipal areas in Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba) have given up waiting for the rain and are selling what little fertile land they possess to the region’s ceramic factories. The result: layers of arable soil are being dug up and used as clay in the factories. What is left serves only to increase the desert area already covering 2,341 square kilometres around Seridó. Added to this is an even graver situation. Every year, around 10% of green vegetation in the state of Rio Grande do Norte is cut down for firewood to fuel the furnaces of the ceramic factories in the region.

If it seems difficult to understand the reason for so much degradation, José Marcelino Santos, a 57-year-old farmer explains why in a down-to-earth manner. It is a question of the highest order: survival. "There is almost no more good land for planting. And where there is, there is no rain. The only way to make some money is with the ceramic factories ". Two years ago he sold two hectares of fertile land from his property in the rural zone of Currais Novos (RN) to be used for clay. He bought a house in the city and some head of cattle. "I don’t regret it because I needed the money, but I know that the land has since become useless for planting. What can I do about it?" he says resignedly.

Not even the organisations that should be paying attention to the question are doing their part. Quite the opposite. In a statement made to the newspaper "Journal Tribuna do Norte" Mario Gomes, the Caíco branch manager of IBAMA, the environmental institute, denied that the phenomenon even existed in the region. "I don’t believe this. I defy anyone to show me these areas of desert land here in Seridó", he declared. In the neighbouring town of São João do Seridó, the IBAMA office manager, Ubirajara Viegas, does not go quite so far. He recognises that many hectares of woodland are being devastated for firewood, but blames the situation on the lack of infrastructure, which hinders his work. "We have very few inspectors and there isn’t enough money to pay their wages and the only car we have spends more time in the garage than on the road", he explained.

The inefficiency of IBAMA in the region is criticised even by one of its own representatives on the Desert Study Group in Seridó

(Geds). Alvamar Queiroz, a geographer who is co-ordinating the study group affirms that the inspection nowadays is so precarious that there is no longer any motivation to denounce further deforestation. "IBAMA knows that this is one of the major causes of desertification in Seridó but don’t do anything about it", he complained.

Deforestation is the main cause but it is not the only factor responsible for the phenomenon in the region. At the end of the cotton harvest, most land is used for grazing and is filled with large herds. The problem is that the farmers are used to exploiting the land beyond sustainable limits. This is known technically as overgrazing. " The animals tread on the soil, killing the fragile plant-life and making water infiltration difficult during the rainy season", explained Alvamar Queiroz.

The countryside around São Vicente do Seridó has turned into an immense area of sand, which is still growing. Only the palm trees are able to withstand the acute soil degradation. As a result of the impoverishment of the land, annual production has fallen by 14% on average. Inversely, unemployment continues to rise. "There just isn’t anything left to do here in the region. People who live off the land can’t do anything because there is nowhere left to plant. Many people have already left, disillusioned with so much misery", says farmer Luiz Cesário de Macedo.

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