***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Brazil
Weakens Protection of Indian Lands
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
January
10, 1996
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE
Following
are three postings in econet's rainfor.general
conference
which draw attention to Brazilian government plans to
reconsider
demarcation of indigenous lands. In a
"setback for
Brazil's
native Indians, the government ruled Tuesday that non-
Indians
can lay claim to land slated to become reservations". The
amending
of decree 22/91 and backpedaling on pledges to demarcate
indigenous
lands in Brazil had been expected for some time,
despite
a sustained campaign by local Brazilian groups and
international
activists. All three items are exactly
as were
posted
on bulletin board, the first two posted by the
International
Rivers Network, and the second by CIMI, a Brazilian
Church
affiliated group. See the "Gaia
Forest Archives" (http
below)
for earlier postings and WWW action alerts on this and
other
issues--including a link to Rainforest Action Network's
WWW
action alert which sends free personalized protest faxes on
this
issue through the internet to the Brazilian embassy in the
United
States, when accessed from Netscape or another web browser.
<
http://gaia1.ies.wisc.edu/research/pngfores >
gb
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/**
rainfor.genera: 137.0 **/
** Topic:
Brazil Weakens Protection of Indian lands **
**
Written 4:26 PM Jan
8, 1996 by glenirn in cdp:rainfor.genera
**
From:
Glen Switkes <glenirn@igc.apc.org>
Subject:
Brazil Weakens Protection of Indian lands
!!!URGENT
ALERT!!!
BRAZILIAN
PRESIDENT WEAKENS PROTECTION
OF
INDIAN LANDS
***********************************
Brazil's
President Fernando Henrique Cardoso today announced
changes
in the decree 22/91 regarding demarcation and protection
of
Indian lands in Brazil. Indigenous
peoples organizations
and
human rights groups fear that the president's decision
will
make it more difficult to create indigenous reserves,
and
will conflicts involving Indian territories.
The
president's decision will make it easier for economic
interests
to bring cases challenging demarcation of Indian lands.
While
the president also announced the legalization of 17 areas,
only
those areas which have received final registration
are
exempt from challenges. These include
some 247 of
the
total of 554 Indian areas identified in the country.
***********
ITEM
#2:
/**
rainfor.genera: 140.0 **/
**
Topic: WEAKEN PROTECTION INDIAN LANDS BRAZIL **
**
Written 1:09 PM Jan 10, 1996 by glenirn in
cdp:rainfor.genera
**
From:
Glen Switkes <glenirn@igc.apc.org>
Subject:
WEAKEN PROTECTION INDIAN LANDS BRAZIL
DS-01-09-96
2245
a0773
brazil-indians
AM-Brazil-Indians,0371
Brazil
to Review Concession of Indian Lands
By ANY
CABRERA
Associated
Press Writer
BRASILIA,
Brazil (AP) _ In a decision activists called a major
setback
for Brazil's native Indians, the government ruled Tuesday
that
non-Indians can lay claim to land slated to become
reservations.
President
Fernando Henrique Cardoso revoked a 1991 decree that
had
given broad powers to the government's Indian Affairs Bureau,
known
as FUNAI. Under that decree, non-Indians were not allowed to
appeal
the bureau's decisions to award land to tribes.
The
Justice Ministry said that FUNAI had set aside land for
reservations
based on erroneous calculations of the Indian
population
and without respect for landowners.
The
president's decision won't affect the some 200 reservations
established
since 1991, including a 37,000-square-mile area in the
northern
Amazon for the Yanomami tribe.
But 307
reservations will be subject to review.
Those
reservations had been demarcated by FUNAI and were awaiting
congressional
approval. Now, non-Indians who also claim the land
have 90
days to appeal the demarcation to Congress, presidential
spokesman
Sergio Amaral said.
Brazil's
constitution says the government must grant Indians land
for
their survival. But the Indians do not own the land and
therefore
cannot rent or sell it.
To
soften the blow, the government ratified 16 new reservations
covering
a total of 14,522 square miles.
Still,
Indian rights activists said the government had betrayed
the
tribes it pledged to defend.
"The
government caved in to the pressure of powerful economic
groups," said Filisberto Damasceno, a spokesman for
the
Indigenous
Missionary Council, linked to the Catholic Church.
"The
decree will benefit only big landholders and gold miners."
About
300,000 native Indians live in Brazil, down from an
estimated
1 million in 1900. Most live in the Amazon jungle, which
covers
60 percent of the country.
In the
1980s, the discovery of large gold deposits drew tens of
thousands
of illegal prospectors to native Indian lands. The
miners
destroyed forest, polluted rivers and spread diseases fatal
to
Indians.
***********
ITEM
#3:
/**
rainfor.genera: 138.0 **/
**
Topic: Decree 22/91 **
**
Written 5:02 AM Jan
9, 1996 by ax:cimi in cdp:rainfor.genera
**
BRAZILIAN
PRESIDENT ALTERS BASIS OF INDIAN LAND RIGHTS
(DECREE
22/91)
======================================================
CIMI,
the Brazilian Church agency for indigenous affairs, publicly
repudiates
the change to Decree 22/91, announced in the early
evening
of 8 January by the presidential spokesperson, Sergio
Amaral.
CIMI consideres this action an attack on the
constitutional
rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples and a violent
act of
disregard for protests by indigenous peoples, public
figures,
and individuals and organisations who support the
indigenous
communities. Throughout 1995 messages have come from
all
over Brazil and from abroad opposing the change. The change to
Decree
22/91 includes the introduction of the right of challenge
to the
declaration of an indigenous reserve, which benefits the
invaders
of indigenous areas, and also provides for the review of
the
boundaries of some areas.
On 5
January President Fernando Henrique Cardoso suspended the
announcement
of the package of indigenous measures and ask for the
measures
to be announced gradually. As a result, the Brazilian
Official
Gazette of 8 January appeared merely with the annoucment
of the
confirmation of protected status (homologation) for 17
indigenous
areas in various parts of Brazil. The Brazilian press
says
that the President's decision reflected the problems the
measures
are likely to cause among the Brazilian military and
international
bodies.
The
only indigenous areas whose boundaries are now immune from
review
are those homologated and registered in the relevant land
registries,
247 of the total of 554 indigenous territories in
Brazil.
In
interviews throughout 8 January, CIMI reaffirmed its opposition
to the
new decree. It stressed in particular that the list of
areas
whose protcted status is confirmed excludes a number which
are the
object of political pressure, such as Raposa/Serra do Sol
in
Roraima. CIMI also draws attention to the danger that the
resources
provided by the G7 countries for the demarcation of
indigenous
territories will now be used instead to review their
boundaries.
The
staff of the Brazilian government indigenous agency, FUNAI, is
inadequate
to deal with the volume of work the new decree will
cause.
The Land Division, which deals with all processes involving
the
review of areas, has only six anthropologists, and FUNAI's
team of
lawyers is also inadequate.
In
CIMI's view the direction given to indigenous policy by
President
Cardoso's government violates the commitment the
President
gave to indgenous leaders and organisations and
anthropologists
from all over Brazil, to whom he made a promise to
guarantee
the rights of Brazil's indigenous peoples and so redeem
one of
the Brazilian state's historic obligations.
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