BRASÍLIA, Brazil – Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva – known as Lula da Silva or simply Lula – recognized six new Indigenous reserves last Friday, April 28, 2023. including an enormous region of the Amazon territory. The new declarations come after a lengthy halt to such Indigenous territory expansion under his far-right presidential predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
The new declarations are part of his campaign pledge to defend the rights of Brazil’s Indigenous peoples by demarcating their lands. Bolsonaro had encouraged widespread development throughout the Amazon and turned a blind eye to attacks on Indigenous communities and land grabs of Indigenous lands. Bolsonaro specifically promised to resist land demarcation that would secure Indigenous territory and also removed many environmental protections while encouraging the development of the land by agribusiness.
He said during his presidency that not “one more inch” would be demarcated as Indigenous land.
Bolsonaro had kept true to his threats. Bolsonaro proceeded to gut the Brazilian government’s Indigenous affairs agency the Fondazione Nazionale dell’Indio (National Indian Foundation known as FUNAI). Indigenous leaders and anthropologists said that under Bolsonaro, FUNAI redirected itself to work for non-Indigenous interests on land conflicts.
During a single year of the Bolsonaro presidency, for example, deforestation of the Atlantic Forests increased by 30 percent.
Murders also happened. One report by Global Witness last year found that every other day, a land defender is killed and most of them are Indigenous or Afro-descendant.
Amazon River in Brazil -Image credit: Alexander Gerst – Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0
Environmentalists and Indigenous rights advocates railed against Bolsonaro’s government saying his regressive approach to Indigenous rights and land had not only unleased ecological devastation on large areas of Brazil’s wilderness but also that the accompanying logging, mining, and agriculture had impacted the health and peace of Indigenous communities. The Yanomami people, among others, have been experiencing an ongoing health crisis due to invasive gold mining and the contamination of rivers from raids on their territory.
During his campaign for the presidency last year, Lula pledged to generate the highest number of possible demarcations of Indigenous land, noting that such is not only a right of Indigenous peoples but that such actions promote Brazil’s aim to reach 2030 with zero deforestation. That target was unachievable without demarcation.
Prior to assuming Brazil’s presidency, Lula pledges at COP27 (the UN Climate conference) at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, that Brazil was re-committing itself to the responsible stewardship of the Amazon. “I’m here today to say that Brazil is ready to come back,” Lula said to cheers from delegates.
“There is no climate security for the world without a protected Amazon,” he said. “We will spare no efforts to have zero deforestation and the degradation of our biomes by 2030.”
Earlier this year on his first day in the office of president, Lula created a Ministry of Indigenous People and named, Sonia Guajajara, the leader of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB), to head it. APIB is the umbrella organization for Indigenous movements that works “to increase awareness over the situation of indigenous rights and claim from the Brazilian Government the fulfillment of its demands.”
In a press release last week, Brazil’s government said the demarcation had occurred in six Indigenous territories in six Brazilian states – Arara do Rio Amonia, Kariri-Xoco, Rio dos Indios, Tremembe da Barra do Mundau, Uneiuxi, Avá-Canoeiro.
Lula confirmed the official demarcation on Twitter, writing that “the fight for the demarcation of indigenous peoples” is one of “respect, rights, and protection of our nature and country”.
“I won’t leave a single Indigenous territory unprotected,” Lula said.
The land covered by the demarcation has not been turned over to Indigenous communities, however. It remains under the federal government’s jurisdiction. However, the land demarcation extends to the Indigenous people the right to use the land in a manner consistent with their traditional practices.
The demarcation also prohibits mining activities. Any future commercial farming or logging will require specific governmental authorization.
Moreover, non-Indigenous people are prohibited from engaging in any economic activity on Indigenous lands.
Lula signed the demarcation titles during an annual meeting of Indigenous representatives called the Free Land Camp, a five-day festival on the grass Esplanada dos Ministerios of the capital.
Toerris Jaeger, head of the environmental NGO Rainforest Foundation Norway, told Reuters that “By keeping his promise, Lula is showing the world he intends to strengthen the rights of Indigenous people and protect the forest.” Jaeger said, “Indigenous areas are crucial to preserving the Amazon, the world’s central bank for biological diversity … Indigenous people are the ones best able to guard this wealth.”
“The demarcation will make the Nadöb people feel safe and protected within our territory. That is where we live, fish, hunt, and gather fruits. We want to continue there, like our ancestors,” chief Eduardo Castelo, told The Associated Press. “We don’t want the impact of the whites on our territory.” The Nadöb people’s Uneiuxi Indigenous Territory has been expanded by 37% to 2,100 square miles (554,000 hectares ) of primary rainforest.
Despite the successes and new commitment with the Lula presidency, the work for Indigenous rights and recognition is far from over. There are over 300 different ethnic groups who live on some 730 territories across Brazil – mainly within the Amazon rainforest- that they consider to be ancestral lands. That represents about 13% of Brazil’s land, but only 434 such territories have been officially recognized.
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