This week, the meeting of the National Council of Traditional Peoples and Communities (CNPCT) caught the attention of environmentalists and human rights defenders. The agenda of the agency, which is linked to the Ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights (MMFDH), of Minister Damares Alves, provided for a discussion on the criteria for including prospectors and ranchers as traditional peoples.
This fact generated controversy due to the public support of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to miners and ruralistas and the fact that the two groups are frequently associated with the destruction of the environment. The ministry denied that the initiative came from him and said that the organ would have been sought by miners and ranchers seeking recognition as traditional peoples and communities.
On Wednesday (8), the MMFDH released a note stating that he had been approached by representatives of miners and ranchers asking for recognition as traditional communities. The note did not say, however, which groups these would be.
In the statement, the ministry said it was “reckless” to recognize miners and ranchers as traditional peoples and communities.
BBC News Brasil asked the ministry to inform the names of the entities responsible for the requests on behalf of the miners, but the organ did not send an answer.
Reasons
What would be driving these two groups to try to obtain this status? What advantages would miners and cattle raisers have by being “recognized” as traditional peoples?
Specialists interviewed by BBC News Brasil assess that this maneuver would have two objectives: to legitimize the presence of these groups in sensitive territories and to obtain differentiated treatment from the state; and emptying current legislation on the subject.
According to Decree No. 6.040 of February 2007, traditional peoples and communities are “culturally differentiated groups that recognize themselves as such” and “use territories and natural resources as a condition for their reproduction” and use “knowledge, innovations and practices generated and transmitted by tradition”.
The best known representatives of these populations are the indigenous peoples and quilombolas, but in Brazil there are a number of other communities that recognize themselves as traditional, such as caiçara fishermen, who live in some regions of the Brazilian coast.
The legislation does not establish strict procedures and criteria for a given community to be considered traditional. The national policy on the subject was created in 2007 and one of its main points is the possibility of “self-recognition”.
For the former secretary of extractivism at the Ministry of the Environment and current deputy manager of the strategy for indigenous peoples and traditional communities of the non-governmental organization The Nature Conservancy, Juliana Simões, this flexibility is a way to allow historically marginalized groups to be able to settle. recognize as traditional and prevent the state from impeding this movement.
“The possibility of self-recognition is important because it does not allow the state to define, in a discretionary way, who is and who is not a traditional community or people,” he said.
If, on the one hand, the legislation does not provide for a body that centralizes the task of determining who is and who is not a traditional people, on the other hand, this recognition takes place on a case-by-case basis and in different instances.
In the case of indigenous peoples, Funai (National Indigenous Foundation) is responsible for evaluating, through anthropological studies, the claims of populations that want to be recognized as such. In the case of quilombolas, the Palmares Foundation takes care of the matter. In the case of people living in federal conservation units, for example, the person responsible for carrying out these assessments is the ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation).
Ranchers against mining company at the origin of controversy
Part of this story started far away from BrasÃlia or even from the Amazon, where most of the attention is focused. A few years ago, a mining company specializing in phosphate extraction has been trying to establish itself in the municipality of Lavras do Sul, in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul.
The idea was to install an open-pit mine to remove the mineral used to manufacture fertilizers.
A group of ranchers who live in the Pampa region of Rio Grande do Sul demonstrated against the initiative, claiming that the mine would put their way of life at risk. Since 2015, family farmers in the region have sought recognition from the federal government as a traditional people.
In 2020, the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) prepared an anthropological expert report stating that that group of cattle raisers had characteristics consistent with the concept of traditional peoples and communities.
According to the ILO (International Labor Organization) Convention No. 169, to which Brazil is a signatory, these populations need to be consulted on works or undertakings that may affect them.
For the MPF, this recognition would be important because if cattle raisers were not considered traditional peoples, the case would leave the federal sphere and would be handled by the state authorities.
According to a note from the representatives of civil society at the CNPCT (National Council of Traditional Peoples and Communities), the request for the body to deliberate on the criteria for recognizing ranchers as traditional peoples would have the support of the MPF.
Sought, the MPF in Rio Grande do Sul did not respond.
The coordinator of the Committee of Peoples and Traditional Communities of the Pampa, Fernando Aristimunho, says he regrets that the claim of family ranchers in the region has been mixed with that of prospectors.
“We are against livestock that destroys the Amazon. Our livestock is totally different. Here, there is harmony with the environment, with the pampa biome. We regret that our claim was mixed with that of miners. We have nothing to do with it. do with that,” he said.
What is not known so far, however, is how the category of garimpeiros was included on the agenda of the council meeting. The doubt arises because neither the request of family farmers in the pampa nor the actions of the MPF in Rio Grande do Sul make any mention of garimpeiros.
“I don’t know who is behind this. We were all surprised,” said Raimundo Nonato Pereira da Silva, known as Taata Konmannanjy, representative of the National Cultural Association for the Preservation of Bantu Heritage (ACBANTU) and member of the board.
What are the advantages of being considered a traditional people?
Sheilla Borges Dourado, a Doctor of Laws, has been studying the rights of traditional peoples for over a decade. During this period, she toured several states in the Amazon. She explains that the possibility of claiming public policies or even protection from the state are the main advantages of recognition as a traditional people.
“This recognition opens up the possibility for them to have access to resources and specific public policies. Some time ago, for example, we had specific public bank funds for traditional populations. [garimpeiros e pecuaristas] they want to enter this basket to take advantage of this legal recognition”, he says.
Another reason why this recognition may be sought is an attempt to legitimize the presence of people who should not be in certain territories.
This would be especially important for miners who have been attracting public attention in recent years because of the trail of destruction left in indigenous lands and in rivers in the Amazon.
In the past two weeks, after images revealed hundreds of irregular mining rafts on the Madeira River, hundreds of miners have turned to politicians in an attempt to legalize their activities. Part of the argument they used was precisely the fact that they had been working as miners in the region for many decades.
“They no longer want to be recognized as invaders, as people who threaten the traditional way of life. They no longer want to be seen as outsiders, but as insiders. It’s a tricky strategy,” he said.
The teacher says she does not know the scientific basis for classifying prospectors and ranchers as traditional peoples. This is, in part, because the concept of traditionality, she explains, is strongly associated with the sustainable use of natural resources in the territory where these people live.
“I see no basis for these requests to prosper. The idea of ​​traditional people is very much associated with sustainability. I interpret this movement as an appropriation, an attempt to distort a mechanism created to protect people”, he explains.
Juliana Simões explains that, in theory, miners who are recognized as traditional peoples in the Amazon could claim to remain in these regions and the possibility of continuing to explore the region’s minerals freely.
“This is all a land dispute. It’s a dispute for land and resources. In the case of garimpeiros, they can claim territory to continue mining without being disturbed. Ultimately, a change in the law would be necessary, but they could demand the creation of garimpeiro reserves in the Amazon”, he says.
Juliana Simões warns of another danger: the emptying of the concept of self-recognition. According to her, when the council proposes to establish criteria about who can who cannot be considered traditional people, this leaves room for the misuse of these concepts.
“It’s not the council’s job to make this deliberation. For me, this is like a Trojan horse. They introduced this discussion to create these recognition mechanisms, but that will end up emptying the self-recognition policy. Tomorrow or the day after, this could be used against people who, in fact, are traditional,” he said.
Amidst the controversy, the council decided not to create the technical chamber to debate the claims of cattle raisers and miners.
In a statement released on Wednesday (8), the MMFDH said that the inclusion of the debate on the creation of a thematic chamber to establish criteria for the recognition of ranchers and miners as traditional peoples was made by the chairmanship of the council, exercised by Carlos Alberto Pinto Saints.
Representatives of civil society who are part of the council released a statement on Thursday (9) stating that the inclusion of the topic was not made by the chairmanship of the council, but by the National Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SNPIR), under the command of the ministry.
Amidst the controversy, the CNPCT decided to create a working group with four representatives to discuss, over a year, criteria for the recognition of traditional peoples and communities. The group’s result will be evaluated in December of next year.
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