The Coletivo Alternativa Verde (CAVE) proposes monitoring pollution in the Santos River basin in Brazil to protect fishermen communities. Over 40 years, industries have contaminated the rivers, channels and mangroves with chemicals and oil spills. Despite this, communities rely on fishing for their livelihood. The project will monitor key pollution sources and support communities in Ilha Diana, Conceiçãozinha, and others still dependent on fishing. Funding is requested for staffing, boat equipment, reporting and translating reports to protect these communities' sustainable way of life.

1. PROJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING OF SANTOS RIVER
BASIN TO PROTECT FISHERMEN COMMUNITIES
GROUP PROPOSING: COLETIVO ALTERNATIVA VERDE (CAVE)
SANTOS (BRAZIL), may/2006
OBJECTIVE
The target of this project is to maintain a permanent watchfulness over several fonts
of pollution generated by the great industries (specially petrochemicals) and by the Port of
Santos. We propose to get watching the macro-area of Santos, Cubatão and Guarujá towns,
in São Paulo State, where were implanted some of the dirtiest industries of the country.
Santos river basin has been impacted in the last 40 years by chemical contamination (liquid
effluents, aerial emission and solid land deposit) besides consecutive oil discharges from
the ships. Despite this, at Santos river basin lives a great population who supports decades
of progressive contamination in the rivers, channels and mangroves of neighbourhoods. A
lot of inhabitants are traditional fishermen depending of the natural resources offered from
the sea to survive. So, the communities need a good quality of water (sea water and river
water) to get different kind of fishes, shells, shrimps, the bases of their sustainable life.
Over watching and monitoring port and petrochemical implants as Petrobras, Shell
and Dow Chemical, this project intends, also, to assist and support the communities
keeping their way of life as traditional as they would want. Always will be necessary we
will take effective actions becoming public the problems, using, for example, direct actions,
accessing the media and the law system (Public Ministry), in defence of the interests and
the needs of the community affected.

2. We have chosen some communities, which still maintain their economics based on
fishing, the main social characteristic that holds the life of local inhabitants. The permanent
watching monitor activity will be delimited to support the followed communities:
Ilha Diana, Conceiçãozinha, Goes, and Santa Cruz dos Navegantes, called Pouca
Farinha by the resident population, which are located on the Santos Channel. In another
side, at Bertioga Channel, we have, also, Monte Cabrão, Sitio Cachoeira, and Prainha
Branca. All that fisherman villages receive and suffer with the chemical and oil
contamination.
JUSTIFYING
Over all macro-area of Santos river basin, were implanted several port terminals, oil
and fuel tanks, toxic products storage, used by the petrochemical and metallurgy industries
settled along Santos Channel and at Cubatão industrial region. Beyond the main and
traditional port of Santos controlled by CODESP, almost all the industries located on the
right side of Santos Channel have their own port terminals, for example, Dow Chemical,
Cargill, Carbocloro, Ultrafertil, Cosipa and Petrobras.
The industries here implanted have been making products of high toxicity level
causing negative impact in all sea biologic chain and the passive already left by the
industrial residue have considerably deteriorated the environment. Despite some companies
have already firmed compromises whit the Public Ministry to adapt their procedures, until
now very little or almost nothing were made to compensate, in anyway, the damage caused
to the environment. A fast overview on this passive showed a different kind of problems.
a) Evacuation of solid residues impacting the land (with organic-chlorates, dioxins,
limestone, sulphur, mercury, lead, among others heavy metals).
b) Air emission (nitrates, ozone, sulphates, carbonic oxides)
c) Liquid effluents lanced directly on the sea and the rivers (benzene-pyreno,
dimethyl-benzene, phenols, oils).

3. Thus, studies made by the Oceanographic Institute of São Paulo University, USP,
have showed that the support capacity to chemical contamination of this sea-land
ecosystem surpassed the saturation limit since the decade of 1990.
The last technical report elaborated by CETESB (state company responsible to
monitor the environmental quality of the land, water and the air) in 2001, have showed a
map with the dirtiest areas on the Santos river basin (already contaminated or with high risk
of contamination). The report proves that a lot of areas still maintain high levels of
contamination much over the legal limits of toxicity permitted. Therefore, we are talking
about a region with an enormous environmental passive, practically no restored by the
polluted agents, and risked to improve the problems already existent with the port
expansion preview. For example, the group Coimex, also called EMBRAPORT, is trying to
get permission to explore an mangroves area sized almost 15 % of the total port area
already in operation.
Despite this situation in the same geographic region together the port and industries
live fishermen communities heir of ancient caiçara´s tradition (the first fishermen people
inhabitants of the coast since XVIII century). For this population, besides the traditional
link existent whit the territory, to live among the sea, the rivers, and the mangroves is
inseparable because, as say Antonio Carlos Diegues (professor specialized in human
inhabitants of wet areas, USP Anthropology Department), “the river basin systems receive
riches sediments of organic materials coming from the land dredging and the mangroves,
so, how this system is in permanent contact with the ocean by the tide movement, it
constitute a natural crawl or vivarium of many fish species (fishes, molluscs and
crustaceous).
Then, the mangroves importance is not only ecological, even it presents the best
conditions to give food, protection and reproduction for many sea species, but, also, socio-
economic, because it benefit directly the fishermen population living in the neighbourhood.
Fishes (as the catfish, sardine and hake), banana and manioc root meal are traditionally the
base of the food diet in the caiçara population. Also, specific for the mangroves neighbours
inhabitants, the crab and shellfishes completely the diet. So, to maintain that artisan fisher
activity, in some cases closed inside the family, further to offer the daily diet protein to the

4. group, improve the domestic budge selling to restaurants, bar, markets, or directly to the
tourists.
Despite an intensive urbanization of the river basin area developed by the port and
industrial activities, added the growing of population with the occupation of the coastal
areas, still remain in Santos region some clusters formed by little fishermen communities.
That little villages could be considered as the last remaining of the ancient and traditional
fisher activities from caiçara people in Santos region. How we have showed in this project,
this population runs serious risks of disappear, crushed by a kind of development which
ignore the needs of common people, the sustainability of the environment, focused only the
profits and advantages obtained with the capital inversed.
Above we present a resume of the budge necessary to put in work this project.
BUDGET PREVIEW
1. Management costs
$ 500 euros/month (24 months) $ 12.000 euro
2. Operational costs:
Camera mini-DV (for photos an video) $ 3.000 euro
Ship (boat for five parsons with pope motor 30 hp) $10.000 euro
Maintenance of boat: (expenses with marine and repairs)
$ 100 euros/month (24 months) $ 2.400 euro
Fuel: $ 150 euros/month (24 months) $ 3.600 euro
3. Reports/ Photos/Website
$ 100 euros/month $ 2.400 euro
4. Translation reports from Portuguese to English and Spanish:
Estimated $ 3.000 euro
Total resources required: $ 36.400 euro