SHORT FILM | Roots of the Cerrado: Women Fighting for Conservation

Throughout 2025, Ecoa traveled across territories during meetings, training sessions, and mobilizations, listening to women who live in and defend the Cerrado every day. From these conversations emerged the short film “Roots of the Cerrado: Women Fighting for Conservation,” bringing together a mosaic of voices, experiences, and reflections on gender, the environment, and ways of life.

The film features accounts from extractivists, quilombola women, Indigenous women, farmers, firefighters, researchers, and cerrativistas (Cerrado advocates). These women leaders speak from their own bodies/territories about climate change, food sovereignty, environmental restoration, water defense, and their struggle to remain in the Cerrado.

The production of the short film is part of the initiatives under the projects “Gender Equity and Socio-Environmental Justice for Cerrado Conservation, Brazil: Training Women Leaders” and “Awakening Life in the Cerrado: Women Networking Together,” implemented by Ecoa with support from the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) and the International Education Institute of Brazil (IEB).

About CEPF

The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund is a joint initiative of the French Development Agency, Conservation International, the European Union, the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Canada, the Government of Japan, and the World Bank. A key goal is ensuring civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation.