URGENT
ACTION ALERT
***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
Brazilian
Land Decree Results in Indigenous Land Contestation--
1.6 million hectares plus Threatened in
Raposa Serra do Sol
***********************************************
Forest
Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
9/6/96
OVERVIEW
& SOURCE by EE
The
saga of Brazilian government attempts to roll back indigeneous land
demarcation
continues; with one challenge to the Raposa Serra do Sol
indigenous
area in the state of Roraima at over 1,678,000 hectares. In
the
"Brazilian Amazon alone the government threatens to roll back
critical
legal
protection for 177 indigenous areas in Brazil, covering 16.5 million
hectares." This Urgent Action Alert comes from the
Environmental Defense
Fund
and the Indigenous Council of Roraima from econet's rainfor.general
conference. Addresses were not included with the action
alert, but are
provided
by Ecological Enterprises at the items end.
Glen
Barry
*******************************
RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
/*
Written 7:43 AM Sep
6, 1996 by Kenneth_Walsh.EDF@edf.org in
igc:rainfor.genera
*/
/*
---------- "Urgent Alert: Raposa Serra do Sol I" ---------- */
From:
Kenneth Walsh <Kenneth_Walsh.EDF@edf.org>
Date:
Fri, 6 Sep 1996 06:38:09 -0400
Subject:
Urgent Alert: Raposa Serra do Sol Indigneous Area
Environmental
Defense Fund
1875
Connecticut Avenue N.W. #1016
Washington,
D.C. 20009; tel.: 202 387 3500; fax 202
234 6049;
edf@igc.apc.org
Attn: Rainforest/Indigenous Rights Activists
Two
urgent alerts follow: the first is from Steve Schwartzman of EDF; the
second
is from Josi Adalberto, Vice-Cooridinator of the Indigenous Council
of
Roraima; please pass them onto appropriate staff in your organization.
Ken
Walsh for EDF.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------
The
Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Area and Decree 1775: the fate
of 177
indigenous areas in Brazil hangs in the balance
The
dispute over the 1,678,000 hectare Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous area,
in
Roraima state in the Brazilian Amazon threatens to roll back critical
legal
protection for 177 indigenous areas in Brazil, covering 16.5 million
hectares.
Loss of legal protection would have drastic consequences for
Brazil's
indigenous minority, as well as opening some of the few previously
protected
areas in the Amazon to predatory exploitation. The conflict may
also
undermine the credibility of Brazilian government claims that revision
of
Indian land demarcation procedures (Decree 1775) sought to make the
demarcation
process more efficient, not, as critics argued, to reduce the
area
legally recognized by the government as Indian lands.
Over
the last thirty years, indigenous groups in Brazil have won legal
protection
for more than 900,000 square kilometers of land, almost all in
the
Amazon. Regional elites and logging, mining and agribusiness interests
have
consistently attempted to halt or impede the demarcation process, as
well as
invading already demarcated areas. When, last January, the
government
revised demarcation procedures to give states, counties and
private
claimants the right to contest and potentially reduce already
demarcated
Indian lands, the measure was widely denounced by indigenous
organizations
as a maneuver to trade away Indian land for Congressional
support
for Fernando Henrique Cardoso's stalled economic reform program.
The
government insisted that the measure was merely intended to protect
Indian
lands from legal challenge by
safeguarding due process.
The
demarcations of thirty-two areas were contested under Decree 1775, in
over
500 claims. Brazil's National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), duly rejected
all of
the claims. By the law, the final decision rests with the Minister
of
Justice, who in July rejected all but 8 claims. Among the most
contentious
is Raposa Serra do Sol. Justice Minister Nelson Jobim will
issue a
final decision on this area by October 10th. His decision will
substantially
affect the future of Indian land yet to be demarcated.
Raposa
Serra do Sol covers 1,678,000 hectares, and is inhabited by some
12,000
Macuxi, Wapixana, Ingariko and Taurepang Indians, on Brazil's border
with
Guiana and Venezuela. The area includes mountain forest and tropical
savannah
ecosystems. Parts of the area were
invaded more than 20 years ago
by
cattle ranchers who introduced alcohol and forced labor to the area, as
well as
violently repressing Indian attempts at resistance. The situation
was
exacerbated by invasions of gold and diamond miners particularly in the
1980s.
The Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), founded in 1987, emerged
from
arduous local initiatives in the Raposa/Serra do Sol area over the
last
twenty years to combat alcohol abuse, resist the appropriation of
traditional
Indian lands, and provide services to local communities, with
support
from the Catholic Church. Ranchers reacted with threats,
intimidation,
and violence, and the area has become the scene of constant
conflict.
Both Military Police and private gunmen typically act at the
ranchers'
request. CIR now represents a majority
of the villages in the
area,
and through CIR's work, local communities have reoccupied many areas
formerly
controlled by the ranchers.
It was
in consequence of CIR's work that FUNAI finally in 1993 carried out
the
identification of the area, the first step in the official recognition
process.
The technical report on the area was approved by FUNAI and has
been
awaiting approval of the Ministry of Justice for the last three years.
FUNAI
rejected all of the challenges to the area as lacking technical
merit.
The Justice Minister surprisingly requested further information on
the
area, citing the existence of a county near the boundaries of Raposa
Serra
do Sol. Minister Jobim has stated that he will visit the area to hear
the
opinion of the communities before
reaching a decision, but repeatedly
put off
the visit.
CIR and
indigenous rights organizations in Brazil are gravely concerned
with
these developments. It is well known in the region that since the
identification
was carried out the state government has invested heavily in
dividing
the indigenous communities along religious lines, furnishing goods
and
services exclusively to villages with marked presence of evangelical
Protestants,
and threatening to cut off support in
the event of the
demarcation
of a continuous area. Worse still is the Oct. 3 election for
the
creation of a county in the area. The law that created the new
municipality
is unconstitutional, in that indigenous lands are
inalienable
according to Article 231 of the Constitution of 1988. A county
seat
cannot legally be located on Indian land. The purpose of the election
is to
lend the appearance of legitimacy to a land grab. The supposed county
seat is
in fact a decaying relic of the gold boom.
There
are thus strong indications that the Minister intends to reduce the
area.
To do so would be to subvert the criteria of the Decree he himself
promulgated,
since the technical report on which the boundaries of the area
is,
according to the brief of the Federal Attorney General's Office, fully
in
accordance with Constitutional requirements for indigenous land
demarcation.
What is
at stake in the Raposa Serra do Sol case is nothing less than the
future
of the 16.5 million hectares that await identification in Brazil.
All of
these areas will be open to challenge under the decree. If the
Minister
reduces Raposa/Serra do Sol it will be on political grounds and
not
according to the technical criteria of Decree 1775, and once the
political
interests of the privileged elite take precedence over the law,
there
will be no going back. This indeed appears to be what the rumored
deals
in the back halls of the Brazilian Congress are about: starting the
process
of rolling back indigenous lands in Brazil.
________________________________________________________________________
Date:
09/06/96 10:17:05 AM
From:
isadf @ ax.apc.org (Nilto Tato) @ net
To:
wild @ edf.org @ net
cc:
amazoncoal @ igc.apc.org @ net
Subject:
CIR statement
Raposa/Serra
do Sol Runs Risk of Reduction
The
deadline established by Decree 1775 for Justice Minister Nelson Jobim
to
present his decisions on the challenges to ongoing demarcations of
indigenous
lands, including Raposa Serra do Sol in Roraima, was last July
10. Although the decree, written by the Minister
himself, stipulates that
these
decisions should be justified, Jobim determined that the Raposa/Serra
do Sol
case and those of seven other areas return to FUNAI in order that
"new
proceedings" be carried out without explaining the motives and
obejctives
of this decision. A note distributed by his staff mentioned that
the
town of Normandia forms an enclave between the indigenous land and the
Guiana
border. This indicates probable intent to review the boundaries
identifed
by FUNAI and sent to the Ministry of Justice more than three
years
ago.
The
minister has stated that he intends to visit Roraima and the indigenous
area
before taking his decision with regard to the demarcation. But he
continues
to delay this visit, while the decree establishes a limit of 90
days to
do the new proceedings, which falls on October 10. It is unclear
whether
or not the delay is related to the municipal elections to occurr on
October
3.
The
situation is aggravated by the fact that elections are planned to
establish
the administrative center of a pseudo-municipality, recently
created
without Constitutional basis, within the indigenous area, in a gold
boom
town.
Last
August 30, the President of FUNAI Julio Gaiger, at a seminar in
Manaus,
afirmed that the anthropological report (laudo antropologico) that
is the
basis of the demarcation procedure, although well done, was open to
question.
The anthropolgical and legal documentation of the Raposa Serra do
Sol
demarcation case is among the best. It
is a matter of consensus that
this
issue depends entirely on the will and political courage of the
federal
government.
Considering
the successive delays of the Minister's decision, and the
negative
signals sent by the Minister of Justice and presidency of FUNAI,
the
Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR) manifests its extreme concern with
the
risk that the Raposa Serra do Sol indigneous area be reduced by
Minister
Jobim, and with the concrete fact of the intensification of
conflicts
between Indians and invaders, since the latter are encouraged by
the
procrastination, vacillation, and manipulation of facts with
respect
to the demarcation on the part of the government. CIR will hold a
demonstration
on September 16 in Boa Vista, Roraima and calls on all of the
allies
of the indigenous peoples, within Brazil and internationallly, to
reinforce
their support for the demarcation of the entire Raposa/Serra do
Sol
Indigenous Area, and to express their support for an immediate and just
decision
by the
Minister
of Justice.
Boa
Vista, September 5, 1996
Josi
Adalberto Vice-Coordinator,
CIR
**********
LETTER
WRITING CONTACTS
PLEASE
FAX, OR WRITE President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, with copy
to
Minister Jobim, calling for the demarcation of the continuous Raposa
Serra
do Sol area.
Exmo.
Sr. Fernando Henrique Cardoso
Jobim
Presidente da Republica
Palacio
do Planalto
Brasilia
- DF- 70150-900
Brazil
fax -
55-61-226-7566
Emxo. Sr.
Nelson
Ministro
da Justica
Esplanada
dos Ministerios- Bl.T
Brasilia
- DF - 70064-900
Brazil
fax -
55-61-224-2448
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
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