Brazil, 25 January 2016

We, representatives of rural movements, civil society organisations, unions, religious organisations, and other Brazilian social movements, members of the international “No! to ProSAVANA” campaign and of the “International Network of those Affected by Vale”, declare our unbridled support and solidarity with the representatives of the National Peasants’ Union (UNAC: União Nacional de Camponeses) in response to the threats and attempted physical attacks they suffered on 11 January 2016. ProSAVANA is a trilateral cooperation programme between Mozambique, Japan and Brazil, which aims to promote agricultural development in Mozambique’s tropical savannah by supporting high-tech, large-scale agriculture aimed at foreign markets. It is our understanding, considering the triangular nature of the initiative and the need for public and democratic debate surrounding programmes of this magnitude and importance, that an offence such as that suffered by the UNAC representatives constitutes a threat to the most basic of democratic principles and an attack committed against all of us who form part of the International Campaign launched in May 2013. It also represents an abuse of power against which we all must fight.