Maria Nice Machado Costa, better known as Dona Nice do Babaçu, has been working with babassu coconut since she was a child, together with her mother and other women in the community. In 1987, she founded the Interstate Movement of Babassu Coconut Breakers, an organization that fights for the rights of the breakers to continue protecting the forest, and which today has more than 30,000 members across the country. She won the Chico Mendes Environment Prize and was recognized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of the 100 women who inspire the world.
