Celebrated by politicians, the preliminary license issued by Ibama for the reconstruction of a stretch of the BR-319 – the road that connects Manaus to Porto Velho, cutting through the heart of the Amazon – has its legality contested by environmentalists and indigenous people.
Organizations and leaders of peoples in the region told the Sheet that there was not due prior consultation with the local communities for the work. Consent is mandatory under Brazilian law, but its implementation is hampered by the absence of detailed regulation.
The reconstruction of the so-called “middle section” of the highway, which is about 400 km long, has been on the agenda for about 15 years. Its license, however, was always barred due to the lack of an EIA-Rima (Environmental Impact Study and Environmental Impact Report) to prove its feasibility.
In 2019, the Bolsonaro government commissioned a new study, this time approved — and celebrated by the president —, allowing Ibama to issue the preliminary license on the 28th.
“We, Parinttintins from the Nove de Janeiro and Ipixuna Indigenous Lands, were heard within the study of the indigenous component [competência da Funai, a Fundação Nacional do Índio], which is already part of the licensing process, but no prior consultation was carried out, before starting the licensing process. Nobody came. When it came, it was for the construction of the study”, asks Raimundo Parintintin, coordinator of the people in the region, to Sheet.
According to the Apurinã, not even during the study of the indigenous component there was any dialogue.
“There was no study of the indigenous component directly with my people, just a quick presentation in the São João and Tauamirim Indigenous Land. [consultados]. There was no free, prior and informed consultation”, reported chief Zé Bajaga, general coordinator of the Federation of Indigenous Organizations and Communities of the Middle Purus.
According to the UN (United Nations) declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, of which Brazil is a signatory, consultation is necessary “before approving any project that affects their lands or territories and other resources”.
“States shall enter into consultations and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned, through their representative institutions, to obtain their prior, free and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative and administrative measures that affect them,” the article reads. 19 of the document.
The consultation is also provided for in Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization, signed by Brazil, which was ratified as a national law in 2004.
However, there was never a detailed regulation of the procedure to say, for example, how much prior the consultation should be carried out – therefore, several cases similar to the current one end up in court.
In a meeting to discuss the BR-319, in May —before the document was issued by Ibama—, Funai’s environmental licensing coordinator, Carla Fonseca de Aquino Costa, stated that she considered the presentation of the indigenous component study, made by the foundation and by Dnit (National Department of Transport Infrastructure).
“We did the consultation, we did the hearing, presented the studies. So, in addition to being free, prior and in good faith, she was informed”, she said at the meeting, which was recorded.
But for Ailton Dias, coordinator of the territorial planning program of the Instituto Internacional de Educação do Brasil (an association founded in 1998, supported by 20 entities and dedicated to the formation and production of content related to territorial, environmental and financial management), the consultation must be prior to the environmental impact study —in which the indigenous component is included, which is already part of the license issuance process.
“The consultation has to be done before the EIA-Rima, and it is free and prior. The group has to express itself to say how it thinks it should be consulted. This question was not asked. And at some point the indigenous people have to issue the consent document, a declaration by the indigenous people with a position, which also does not exist”, he said.
In a note, the BR-319 Observatory, (an organization founded in 2017 and composed of 12 entities from the environmental sector and focused on monitoring and studying issues related to the highway), also states that the consultation could not count on the presence of bodies interested in the study, such as Dnit, “since it holds a position of interest in a specific consequence”.
The entity says that it is not against the reconstruction of the highway, but that it needs to follow the necessary procedures so as not to cause a negative socio-environmental impact.
THE Sheet questioned Funai, Ibama and Dnit, but received no response.
For Afonso Lins, former superintendent of Dnit in the Bolsonaro administration who was linked to the BR-319 discussions and currently president of Crea (Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy) in Amazonas, the study of the indigenous component respected the need for consultation.
“The study was guided by the indigenous people themselves, including the company that carried out the study hired the anthropologists indicated by them. The entire study followed the term of reference issued by Funai itself, which monitors the entire study, consultation and communication with the indigenous people” , he said.
He says that one of the main obstacles to combating Covid in the state was the lack of a land route that reaches Manaus and argues that it is possible to reconcile the work and environmental preservation.
“The BR-319 can become a model of sustainability. The project foresees the passage of fauna in the area, underground passages, recovery of degraded areas, planting of native seedlings, drainage systems to preserve the track”, he says.
Environmental impact and election period
The prior license granted to BR is still criticized for not providing the necessary guarantees to protect the region’s environment — the studies themselves point to the risk of increased land grabbing.
“This measure, evidently electoral, with a clear political motivation, ignores important stages of the licensing process, violating the rights of forest peoples and compromising important pillars of democracy”, said the BR-319 Observatory in an evaluation on the topic.
The document foresees only three inspection units for the approximately 400 km of the road section. For Suely Araújo, former president of IBAMA and director of the Climate Observatory, this is insufficient to prevent deforestation.
Deforestation, he explains, is not only caused by the work itself, but by the so-called “fishbone” effect — the routes that open from the highway, with the greatest ease of access.
“They claim that the way to control deforestation will be the preservation areas that already exist, but that today don’t have the structure, people, or money to function”, he adds.
She also warns that, despite the lack of bureaucratic steps for the construction to actually start, the prior license is the main step for the release of a work with environmental impacts.
“The prior license attests to the feasibility of the enterprise. So, first, the conservation units should be structured, put people to work, create an integration between different inspection bodies in the region, define how much resources will be allocated to the area… , you might think that rebuilding is feasible, but it doesn’t have that in the license,” she says.
Carlos Durigan, a master at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon and a member of the BR-319 Observatory, says that the entity understands that there is a legitimate demand for improvement in displacement conditions, but that the process needs to meet minimum requirements.
The expectation generated by the license, he says, has the potential to intensify tempers between those who are in favor and those who are against the reconstruction of the road, a fact that, in the Amazon context, can generate new conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous people in the region.
“It is irresponsible to approve the license while we are warning that there are so many loose ends,” he says.
