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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

Brazil: Indian Lands Threatened, Deforestation More Likely

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

4/11/96

OVERVIEW & SOURCE

The Environmental Defense Fund provides a substantial overview and

update on Brazilian government implementation of Decree 1775.

Implementation of this Decree is current Brazilian government

policy, and would greatly reduce demarcation of lands for Brazil's

Indigeneous peoples. These are the very cultures which have lived

with, and frequently managed, the Amazon in a generally

ecologically sustainable manner for alot longer than the

Eurocentric worldview has been around.

There is general consensus that long term maintenance of vast

forest landscapes, composed primarily of late successional

rainforests, is more likely to occur and succeed in indigenous

lands (especially if under a strict ecological management plan for

various forest commodities including timber) rather than some sort

of protected conservation status which is frequently ignored in

practice. The Amazon as a vast and uninterupted (unfragmented)

rainforest and ecological system, as well as its traditional human

inhabitants, are under renewed assault. Historical occupants of a

landscape (or really anyone in ecologically aware of their

bioregion), by virtue of their connection with a sense of place

and time, are frequently best empowered and most likely to pursue

benevolent management of ecological systems.

Whether the Amazon exists into mid next century is being

determined now. Please, take the time to respond. This item was

posted in econet's rainfor.general conference.

g.b.

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/** rainfor.genera: 147.0 **/

** Topic: Braz. Indian Lands Threatened **

** Written 8:31 AM Apr 11, 1996 by wild@edf.org in

cdp:rainfor.genera **

From: Kenneth Walsh <wild@edf.org>

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND INSTITUTO SOCIOAMBIENTAL

(EDF) (ISA)

1875 Connecticut Ave. NW, 10th Fl. SHIS QI II, Bloco K, sala 65

Washington, D.C. 20009 USA Brasilia-DF-CEP 716250 -Brazil

Tel . : (202) 387-3500 Tel.: (55-61) 248.2439 or 5412

Fax: (202) 234-6049 Fax (55-61 248 6420

steves@edf.org dfsocioamb@ax.apc.org

Brasilia -- April 9, 1996

Indian Land Rights Jeopardized in Brazil; Forces of Deforestation

Seize New Opportunities

Brazilian ranchers, loggers, and local and state governments and

squatters all rushed in by yesterday's deadline to file claims

against Indian land rights in Brazil. They were given their

opportunity by a federal decree that, on January 8, gave anyone

who thought they had the grounds to challenge Indian reserves

created up to that point 90 days to file a complaint with the

Indian agency (FUNAI). Over a thousand complaints relating to some

seventy different Indian areas have now been filed, demonstrating

a widespread awareness of the issue and an eagerness on the part

of large landowners and state governments--as well as the federal

environmental protection agency, IBAMA-- to take advantage of the

law. State governments in the Amazonian states of Rondonia and

Para challenged all of the Indian lands open to contest within

their boundaries. Rondonia state, recipient of $167 million from

the World Bank for land use zoning and Indian land protection, has

called for the reduction of four of its Indian areas. IBAMA (the

Brazilian Environmental Institute), challenged more areas (18),

covering more land than any other single claimant.

Most environmentalists in Brazil hold that tropical forest is

better protected in Indian areas than conservation units in

frontier areas of the Amazon, since IBAMA has approximately 1

guard for every 6,000 square kilometers of reserves. (Informed in

Washington DC of the agency's action, IBAMA president Raul Jungman

ordered the challenges withdrawn.) The area in question is, taken

in its totality, immense, and critical. Brazilian land reserved

for Indian use accounts for 11 percent of all land in Brazil--an

area twice the size of California, 98% of which is in the Amazon.

This is more impressive still, given than Indians make up only .02

percent of the national population. This discrepancy has fueled

objections from Amazon politicians, development interests and

the military, who argue that this is too much land for not enough

Indians. But advocates of Indian reserves, including ISA, respond

that the 1988 Constitution reserves 'lands traditionally occupied'

by Indians for their exclusive use precisely in order to prevent

the extermination or forced assimilation of the indigenous

minority. Indian land also, argue advocates, constitute important

forest reserves in areas of rapid deforestation.

"The claims against Indian land lack all legal merit" said Marcio

Santilli, former President of Brazil's National Indian Foundation

(FUNAI) and executive secretary of ISA."The only reason for the

Indians to lose even an inch of land in this process is political

pressure," he added. He believes the land claims will not hold

water because none have presented the factual proof based in

anthropological field studies required to show that the areas in

question were not occupied by Indians when first identified by

FUNAI. "This is an issue where those concerned with human rights,

environmental protection, and sustainable development find common

ground", said Steve Schwartzman, staff anthropologist for EDF and

visiting researcher at ISA. "Wherever Indians have maintained

control over their land, even where they have not had formal

recognition, the forest has been preserved and opportunities for

sustainable use of rainforest resources still remain."

The 946,000 square kilometers of Indian land in Brazil is nearly

all in the Amazon region and is an area more than 3 times greater

than all other types of protected areas (parks, national forests,

extractive reserves) put together. This is a reflection of the

Indians' ability to force government action, and in many cases, to

control access to their land. Even where indigenous groups have

made deals with loggers and miners, as have the Kayapo of Para

state, they have kept their areas forested, turning back ranchers

and colonists. There are 215 indigenous groups identified in

Brazil, and there is evidence of perhaps 50 more still

uncontacted. They speak some 170 languages. Brazilian

Indians exhibit a remarkable range of cultural diversity and

experience of contact. On one extreme are the 11 Canoe and Mequens

Indians of Rondonia state, survivors of larger groups in all

probability massacred by surrounding ranchers over the last

decade, who were contacted by the government last year. On the

other are the more than 20,000 Tikuna in the Upper Solimoes river,

who manage their own bilingual education and community development

programs and have in some cases demarcated their own lands. But

most are small groups (under 1,000 people) with growing

populations , for whom land rights are the central issue for the

future of their cultures.

The Ministry of Justice created an international controversy by

changing the rules for Indian land demarcation with the new

decree, 1775. The decree allows private claimants and state and

local governments to contest the creation of Indian areas (or

"demarcation") by the federal government, by furnishing proof that

the area contested is not land traditionally occupied by Indians

as defined in Article 231 of the Constitution of 1988. The decree

applied retroactively to all Indian lands with federal recognition

(some 160 areas), except those fully officially registered. The

new decree was denounced by indigenous and Indian rights

organizations as a maneuver to roll back land rights won

over the last thirty years. The Justice Ministry maintains that

the decree was necessary to guarantee private claimants and state

and local governments due process, and that previous regulations

were unconstitutional. This is the opening volley in the

controversial process. FUNAI will have 60 days to prepare

responses to the 1,000-plus challenges, after which the Ministry

will have 30 days to decide on the disputed areas. But the

Minister of Justice Nelson Jobim can then take a further 90 days

before taking a final decision to gather new information if he

deems it necessary. The process could become a legal tangle, and

even one area reduced, or indemnification paid could result in an

explosive precedent. Although the intent of the decree, according

to Minister Jobim, was to make the demarcation process transparent

and immune to constitutional challenge, the effect could be the

opposite. The numerous requests for indemnification seek

compensation for land, prohibited by the Constitution (which only

allows compensation for improvements made "in good faith" on land

later declared indigenous). Approving payment for land, or greeing

to reduce already recognized Indian lands could invite an

avalanche of lawsuits, paralyzing the demarcation process in the

courts indefinitely.

The final 90-day period for the Minister to seek further

information could become a pretext to carry out new surveys that

reduce existing Indian lands. Since indigenous land is legally

public property (to which the Indians have permanent use rights),

this could have long term implications for public lands of all

types in Brazil. "Rather than rationalizing the creation of Indian

areas, the decree has thrown the process into pandemonium," said

Marcio Santilli of ISA. "The government has no arguments left to

delay the demarcation of the areas not contested, and should act

on these immediately."

For further information contact: Steve Schwartzman

ISA/EDF 55-61-248-2439, 248-5412, fax-55-61-248-6420

dfsocioamb@ax.apc.org

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