Ivonete Francca da Conceicao, 63, and Maria de Sousa, 57, carry bags filled with babassu coconuts, which they harvest for cooking oil and flour, while they chat walking to their village of Tauari near Pedral do Lourenco, a natural rocky formation on the Tocantins River that may be blown up to build the Araguaia-Tocantins riverway, in Itupiranga, Para State, Brazil, September 1, 2025. Opening the Araguaia-Tocantins riverway to barges year-round could clear the way for soy and corn exports through the Amazon Basin to rival the Mississippi River, cutting freight costs and cementing Brazilian supremacy in the global grains trade; but federal prosecutors are trying to halt the project, urging courts to consider impacts on riverside communities. "If they open the waterway, we won't be able to collect the coconuts," said Sousa. "They say the babassu is a plague ... but for us coconut crackers, it is survival." REUTERS/Adriano Machado
