Two lands where isolated indigenous peoples live are under threat due to development projects inherited from the military dictatorship, show data from a technical report by the ISA (Instituto Socioambiental, a non-profit organization focused on environmental and indigenous issues).
The projects are the paving of the BR-319 highway, in Amazonas, and the resumption of the Linhão do Tucuruí project (a large power line running through indigenous land), in Roraima.
Inhabited by isolated groups that have never had contact with non-indigenous people, the lands of Jacareúba-Katawixi (AM) and Pirititi (RR) are in regions that should be affected by the projects and are about to lose the legal protection they had until now.
Both lands were protected by Usage Restriction Ordinances, a temporary legal mechanism to protect isolated indigenous peoples decreed by Funai (National Indigenous Foundation) and which needs to be renewed periodically, normally every three years.
The decree decreed for the Pirititi indigenous land, however, expired on Sunday (5) and was renewed for just six months, a time seen as too short by environmentalists. The one on the indigenous land of Jacareúba-Katawixi expires on Wednesday (8) and Funai has yet to comment on its renewal.
Data and images captured by satellites analyzed by ISA show that both regions have already had explosions of deforestation during the pandemic with the invaders’ expectation that the ordinances would not be renewed.
“We noticed an increase in deforestation in the period before the ordinances expire”, explains Antonio Oviedo, coordinator of ISA’s Protected Areas Monitoring program.
“It’s really a pattern, deforestation increases with the speculation of these invaders that these areas will eventually enter the public registers and they may require the title of these lands”, says Oviedo.
The government claims that the resumption of projects is necessary for the region’s infrastructure. But researchers and local communities say that other alternatives could be studied and criticize the lack of a clear commitment to mitigating the impacts of the works.
Several studies point to the socio-environmental impact of large works in the heart of the forest. One of them, published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation, shows that 95% of the accumulated deforestation in the Amazon is concentrated in a distance of 5.5 km from the roads in the region. Another, published in the International Journal of Wildland Fire, points out that 85% of forest fires are also concentrated in this radius.
The Ministries of Infrastructure and Mines and Energy did not respond to inquiries from BBC News Brasil about the projects until the publication of this report.
survival threatened
The indigenous land of Jacareúba-Katawixi, in Amazonas, is inhabited by the Katawixi indigenous people, an isolated group that has never had contact with non-Indians, but that leaves traces of occupation observed in expeditions such as the construction of shelters and harvesting of fruits. Their way of life is totally dependent on preserved nature.
With the use restriction ordinance about to expire, the land is in a region that should be affected by the paving of the BR-319, an 885 km road that connects Manaus to Porto Velho overland.
Begun in 1968 and inaugurated in 1976, the highway was conceived and built in the heart of the forest by the military government as part of a “national integration plan”, which included encouraging migration and creating the Transamazônica.
In the following years, the BR-319 was degraded due to the lack of maintenance. Full of puddles and craters, its condition reached a point that led to its closure in the 1980s. Since 2015, it has had stretches open for traffic, but without paving.
In June 2020, the Bolsonaro government published a notice for the paving of 52 km of the highway. At the time, however, there was no economic feasibility study or the preparation of a detailed environmental impact study (called EIA/RIMA).
The notice was challenged in court by the Federal Public Ministry precisely because of the lack of an environmental study, but the Dnit (National Department of Transport Infrastructure) argued that there was an understanding with Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Resources) that made the EIA/RIMA unnecessary.
In April, the Dnit managed to overturn in court the injunction obtained by the MPF that prevented the continuation of the works and later presented an environmental impact analysis. However, researchers and environmentalists question the government’s ability to mitigate the consequences of the works.
INPE (Institute for Space Research), the government’s own monitoring body, has carried out several studies that point to the project’s environmental impacts. One of them brings the projection that deforestation will increase by 1,200% in the surroundings with the resumption of road works.
In this scenario, the survival of the Katawixi is extremely threatened, says Elias Bigio, coordinator of Opan (Operation Amazônia Nativa) and former general coordinator of Isolated and Newly Contacted Indians (CGIIRC) at Funai.
“They are under strong pressure from land grabbing, logging and illegal mining. And the violation of indigenous territory culminates in the death and extermination of this population”, says Bigio, who explains that a large part of the isolated indigenous people are survivors of massacres by invaders from the past. .
In the action in which it asked not to stop the works, the Dnit argued that works on the highway are of public interest as it is the only road link between Rondônia with Amazonas and Roraima.
Asked about the criticism by BBC News Brasil, the Ministry of Infrastructure did not respond until the publication of this report.
towers in the forest
The presence of isolated Piruichichi (Pirititi) indigenous peoples in the Pirititi indigenous land, in Roraima, has been known since the 1980s, based on reports from the Waimiri-Atroari, a group with a history of contact that also lives in the region.
The Pirititi are placed in a situation of extreme vulnerability with the end of the use restriction ordinance and the passage of the Tucuruí Line through the indigenous land, says Elias Bigio.
The first ordinance was enacted by Funai in 2012 and has been renewed every three years since then. This year, however, Funai renewed the ordinance for only six months, a time seen as insufficient by the indigenous people and researchers.
“Six months is too little. It is not possible to carry out studies, to listen to the community, to remove invaders. It only benefits illegal loggers and land grabbers”, says Antonio Oviedo, from ISA.
The MPF filed a lawsuit this year 2021 with recommendations for the protection of isolated indigenous people, including advancing the process of definitive land demarcation and actions to combat invaders.
The Tucuruí Line is a 1,800 km electric power transmission line that intends to connect some northern states to the national energy system. With the current route, it would cut the indigenous land of the Waimiri-Atroari in 125 km.
Although the line is more recent, having been auctioned in 2008, explains Bigio, it is also part of a project for the region that is a legacy of the military dictatorship.
The Tucuruí hydroelectric plant, which the line intends to connect to the national energy system, was built in 1974 in Pará as part of a project by the military government to explore mineral reserves in the Amazon, which generated a demand for large electricity production. Its second stage was completed only in 2008, the year in which Linhão was auctioned.
The impacts of the construction of the hydroelectric plant are among the most studied in Brazil, with numerous studies that report how it affected the riverside and indigenous communities in the surroundings. In addition to deforestation and invasions, hydroelectric construction increased the presence of mosquitoes, brought numerous diseases, affected fishing (essential for the survival of indigenous peoples and river dwellers) and generated mercury contamination, as a result of the mining brought to the region.
The Tucuruí Line, on the other hand, became the focus of conflicts as it passed through numerous public and private lands, including reserve areas. The construction of the line requires the deforestation of certain areas for the construction of towers of up to 300 meters, in addition to bringing other impacts pointed out by Ibama itself, such as pollution, an increase in the flow of people and diseases and new deforestation fronts.
The stretch that passes through the Pirititi indigenous land had the works halted due to the possibility of social and environmental impact and was awaiting approval from Ibama. With the new directions appointed by the Bolsonaro government, however, Ibama and Funai authorized the construction of the stretch.
“It is surprising that Funai is doing this,” says Elias Bigio. “What should have been done was to carry out a technical consultation, so that the nearby indigenous community, with contact histories, could participate. They were not heard and the authorization does not follow the guidelines of the institution itself. There is a Funai ordinance with more 80 years that prohibits developments in the land of isolated indigenous people.”
President Jair Bolsonaro has publicly defended that indigenous peoples —1.1 million of the total 213 million of the Brazilian population— should have their land reduced. It’s a stance Bolsonaro has had since before becoming president. In 1998, when he was still a federal deputy, he told the Correio Braziliense newspaper that it was a “shame” for the Brazilian military forces not to be “as efficient as the North American ones” in “exterminating indigenous peoples”.
The Ministry of Mines and Energy did not respond to questions asked by BBC News Brasil about the passage of the line in the indigenous land.
Harlison Araújo, legal advisor to the Associação Comunidade Waimiri Atroari, claims that the indigenous peoples of the community presented a proposal for environmental compensation on which the federal government has not yet expressed its opinion. They have been fighting for years to be heard by the government about the works.
“If the government does not consider the proposal, there is no agreement”, says Araújo. “They treat it as if it were the fault of the Indians for the project not to go ahead, but it was the government that didn’t work properly.”
Araújo recalls that there was no prior consultation with the population before the auction and that the government did not consider the 27 irreversible impacts pointed out by IBAMA and Funai, and the other ten that are just mitigable.
“[Tanto o Linhão quanto a pavimentação da BE-319] they are undertakings that pose as if the Indians were an obstacle, as if people’s lives were just a nuisance along the way”, says Elias Bigio. “This when it is perfectly possible to study alternatives that respect the local people and guarantee their protection.”
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