Four of the six indigenous lands with the presence of isolated indigenous people in the Amazon protected by ordinances restricting the use of the area have their documents expired or with a period of validity considered by experts to be insufficient to guarantee their safety and life.
The renewal of these ordinances used to take place every three years. From the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government onwards, Funai (National Indian Foundation) adopted, however, the policy of extending the document for only six months.
Use restriction ordinances serve to protect indigenous people and territories until demarcation. Thus, officially, the entry or circulation of people who are not from Funai is prohibited.
When contacted, Funai did not respond until the publication of this text.
The change in Bolsonaro’s administration in relation to administrative acts, which should guarantee the security of these territories, contradicts the decision of the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Luís Roberto Barroso in ADPF (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental) nº 709. In August, 2020, due to the pandemic, Barroso ordered Funai to take measures to protect isolated indigenous people across the country.
In the decision, the minister states that, by “removing territorial protection on non-approved lands”, referring to sanitary barriers, Funai “signals to invaders” that there will be no fight against irregularities and creates an “invitation” to the practice of illicit “of all kinds”.
Among the threatened sites are the Ituna-Itatá indigenous lands, in southern Pará, and Piripkura, in Mato Grosso.
For both, the expired ordinances were renewed by Funai by virtue of a court decision. Ituna-Itatá had the restriction of use extended for six months from January this year. The decision for the Piripkura land, in March, guarantees the restriction of use until the final judgment of a public civil action that attempts to demarcate the territory.
In the decision on the piripkura area, Frederico Martins, judge of the Federal Civil and Criminal Court of the Juina Judiciary Subsection (MT), stated that “there is abundant evidence of a serious and serious” risk of environmental degradation and irregular occupation. The judge accused Funai of inertia in the demarcation, relaxation of indigenous protection and encouraging invaders.
On the other hand, the Jacareúba/Katawixi land, which also has traces of isolated areas, has had no renewal of the ordinance and administrative protection since December. The indigenous territory is in the arc of deforestation in the Amazon, pressured by the BR-319.
At the end of March, the Federal Public Ministry of Amazonas issued a recommendation to Funai for the immediate renewal of the restriction of use, under penalty of being held responsible for the “risk of genocide of the isolated” in the area. Nothing has been done so far. The last decree on this indigenous land was issued with a validity of four years and expired in December of last year.
The Pirititi Indigenous Land (RR) has a use restriction ordinance valid for six months, starting in December last year. In 2018, Ibama carried out the largest timber seizure in the history of the state of Roraima in Pirititi: 7,387 logs, equivalent to about 15,000 cubic meters of wood.
Former general coordinator of the CGIIRC (General Coordination of Isolated Indians and Recently Contacted by Funai) Bruno Pereira, a licensed servant of the foundation, points out that non-renewal can result in damage to the isolated.
“The structure of the State, the legal and administrative framework is fundamental for the existence of these Indians. Short-term restrictions that cannot be advanced only expose and make the indigenous vulnerable. They will not run to the STF and demand their rights. They go until the last moment in their territories”, says Pereira.
In the Amazon, according to Funai, there are 114 isolated indigenous groups living on demarcated lands, as is the case of Vale do Javari, in Amazonas, and in non-approved areas. Also according to Funai, 28 isolated groups out of the total have confirmed registration. The others depend on studies.
The groups that choose not to contact have their customs guaranteed in the 1988 Constitution, which also obliges, in its article 231, the Union to demarcate and protect the territories.
“It’s not that they don’t have contact. There is a history of interethnic relationships. What they reject is contact with our society, which led to the extermination of many of them”, says indigenist Elias Bigio, former general coordinator of the Coordination of Isolated Indians of Funai.
For the executive coordinator of Apib (Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil), Sônia Guajajara, the risk faced by isolated peoples is very serious. “There is an incitement through the speeches of this government to invade territories and approve flexibilization of environmental legislation”, she says.
“They are totally without the subsidy that guarantees their survival, without food, without water. So it’s their lives that are at risk. It’s not just the shooting part. It’s a threat because they don’t have the space they need to guarantee their survival. It’s not a matter of choosing to live there, they’ve always lived that way”, he adds.
Luciano Pohl, manager of Protection of the Rights of Isolated Indigenous Peoples and Recent Contact of Coiab (Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon), also highlights that the restriction of land use in which a new isolated people was found was not given recently.
According to Pohl, for seven months, Funai has ignored a statement from the FPE (Front for Ethno-Environmental Protection) Madeira Purus, which identified a new group of isolates in southern Amazonas, in an area pressured by illegal deforestation.
“It is an area where monitoring work was carried out and, in September of last year, a new indigenous group was discovered. They obtained a lot of information, confirming this people and they needed an ordinance to restrict their use. and were not attended”, he says.
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