Contribution short abstract

The struggle for Territories Free of Mining (TFMs) in Brazil is driven by networks defending the right to say no (RTSN) to mining. Local and national actors promote decentralized initiatives to claim TFMs through activism, municipal laws, and transnational RTSN mobilization.

Contribution long abstract

In Brazil, the struggle for Territories Free of Mining (TFMs) is fundamentally based on and connected, both conceptually and through mobilization networks, to collective actions for the right to say no (RTSN) to mining or other predatory enterprises. The National Committee in Defense of Territories against Mining (CNDTM), founded in 2013, is a national network that brings together both nationally recognized organizations with decades of experience and local organizations, often mobilized to confront specific threats. It is within the context of the networks mobilized by the CNDTM that the struggle for TFMs has been articulated as a strategy and frame for collective action.

In 2014, the NGO Fase published a book in which various authors linked to the CNDTM presented case studies from different countries where the principles of the RTSN were mobilized to promote the MFTs agenda. Since then, actions supporting local mobilizations have gathered experiences across the country, some of them successful in implementing TFMs in specific locations. It is important to note that successful experiences have occurred through local (municipal) legislation, with local activism strengthened by a national mobilization critical to the colonial and hegemonic model of extractivism used in Brazil, which in turn is connected to transnational mobilizations for the RTSN. The purpose of participating in this roundtable is to present decentralized experiences of collective action using the RTSN concept to mobilization in defense of the TFMs.