"For more than four decades, Ivanil Brito found paradise in her modest stilt house, just 20 metres (65ft) from the shoreline, where she and her husband Catito fished, cultivated crops, and tended to livestock. I was a very happy person in that little piece of land. That was my paradise, she says. That paradise vanished during a violent storm in February 2024, when relentless waters surged through Vila do Pesqueiro town, eroding the coastline that had nourished generations."
"Vila do Pesqueiro, home to about 160 families, lies within the Soure Marine Extractive Reserve, a protected area under the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation. Established to preserve traditional ways of life and sustainable resource management, the reserve now confronts the harsh realities of climate change. While fishing remains the primary livelihood, local cuisine and tourism provide supplementary income to the residents. Yet, intensifying tides and accelerating erosion threaten their existence."
Vila do Pesqueiro on Marajo Island sits where the Amazon meets the Atlantic and has long depended on fishing, small-scale farming, and livestock. Rising tides and violent storms have eroded the coastline, destroying stilt homes and submerging ancestral land. Residents have relocated inland to mangrove areas that are hotter, noisier, and unsuitable for raising animals or cultivating crops. The Soure Marine Extractive Reserve, created to protect traditional livelihoods and biodiversity, now faces accelerating climate threats that undermine food sources, tourism, and local economies. Some families stay near the shifting shoreline despite danger; others move to protect people and place.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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