PLANT SPECIAL REPORT Indigenous Communities' Struggles for Recognition 28 September 2018
The laws supposed to protect traditional peoples’ rights to their lands and ways of livelihood are becoming progressively corroded in Brazil. The legal recognition of tenure rights is not a priority for the ruralist lobby and their political allies in Brasilia; in fact, they contrive to push for new “understandings” that effectively paralyze hundreds of current processes in the demarcation of indigenous lands. Community leaders continue their struggle for recognition despite death threats, assassinations and multiple schemes of encroachment into their lands and interwoven waterways.
One of the latest obstacles to the ongoing struggle, is the published legal opinion, 001/2017, from the Federal Attorney General’s office, which stated that only those lands occupied by indigenous peoples by 1988 -- when the new Constitution was approved, could rightly be considered for demarcation procedures and as belonging to the indigenous communities. For years, the ruralist wing, guiding central and local government policies, has been aggressively pushing for ways to halt processes related to the rights of traditional peoples to their lands. President Temer and his ministers are fulfilling the electoral promise made to these powerful allies.
Many indigenous and supportive NGO organizations have issued statements, conducted protests and made calls to expose this latest setback dressed up in pretentious legal directives. Not only is it a flagrant violation of the Constitutional protections for traditional peoples, but it is clearly orchestrated to facilitate land-grabbing interests and agroindustry that ride rough shod over communal land use and rights.
However, just two days ago, on August 24, 2018, the division of the Federal Prosecutors Office (MPFin Portuguese), which works directly on defending the rights of indigenous and traditional peoples, issued three statements calling for the revocation of 001/2017. They affirm and argue that such an opinion is ill-founded, and that it causes serious damage to the many complex and long delayed processes of the necessary demarcation of indigenous lands. Read the MPF statements on:http://www.mpf.mp.br/pgr/noticias-pgr/mpf-reafirma-posicionamento-contra-marco-temporal-para-demarcacao-de-terras-indigenas
The defense by Federal Prosecutors of traditional peoples’ rights is heroic in the face of deliberate financial and personnel cutbacks by the central government, all of which contribute greatly towards the Amazonian region’s increased violence and administrative disorder.
In fact, the voice of the MPF, together with that of some notable Public Defenders, is foremost in calling attention to another externally imposed mechanism on indigenous territories, which seeks to interpret and put in place “solutions” for protecting traditional peoples and their habitats, known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation). This is touted as a global solution to global warming but is, mostly, a mechanism hiding behind a “green” mask for fossil driven industries to continue business as usual.
During some 12 years of following the inroads into traditional lands by REDD entrepreneurs, PLANT has exposed rights abuse, named local operatives eager to become beneficiaries of easy cash, andquestioned the sudden emergence of a drove of experts ready to concoct strikingly similar projects of so-called “environmental services” for which they are awarded steep payments. REDD projects are supposed to offset climate change by putting a price on Nature and, consequently, reducing traditional peoples’ cultural relations to their lands to a mere monetary value. Critical opinions from around the world about the pitfalls of such schemes are rejected. Furthermore, the methods used in the calculation of carbon storage in the forests are highly questionable: Not all trees perform the same role and they go through many different cycles during their lifetimes. Carbon storage linked to ancient tropical forest soilsand waterwayshas not been taken into account by the “Valuation of Nature” discourse.
The REDD scheme in the Amazonian region has been politically driven and has been aided by traditional conservation NGO’s who are, themselves, recipients of REDD finance. No space has been allowed to examine a series of critical questions, such as (a) the deceptive way REDD schemes are often presented to traditional communities, for whom a primarily market approach to Mother Earth is incomprehensible and traumatic; (b) the need to take into consideration comparative studies of the outcomes of REDD projects around the world; and (c) the detrimental consequences on vulnerable traditional cultures when their understanding of ancient biomes becomes suddenly overridden by outside interests.
UN REDD schemes have recently widened their strategic ambitions. They go beyond particular local projects to include whole regional and country programs, or what has been labeled “jurisdictional REDD”, which have direct support from The Governor’s Climate and Forests Task Force(GCF). Check out the new cooperation with the UN, announced in glowing terms at the annual governor’s meeting in California earlier this month at: https://gcftf.org/news/2018/9/12/undp-announces-first-group-of-projects-to-support-jurisdictional-redd-strategies-and-investment-plans
“Alexis Arthur, coordinator of UNDP’s support to the GCF Task Force announced the first 31 jurisdictions to receive funding totaling over $10m. Importantly, she noted, these projects represent a gender-responsive, inclusive approach to REDD+, engaging indigenous peoples and the private sector. Subnational jurisdictions play a critical role in reducing emissions from deforestation and this funding will support the GCF members to build the foundation for innovative programs and financing in the future.”
Outside the negotiation meeting halls in California, and absent from stake-holders round table debates, were representatives of indigenous peoples who continue to protest at the way they and their lands are being programmed behind their backs. They point to the persistent evasion of responsibility for the continual expansion of fossil fuel drilling by those same countries and industries lending financial support to REDD. Climate change and pollution are not, therefore, being addressed with honesty, transparency and due respect towards traditional peoples and their struggles for recognition and legal tenure. It seems that “jurisdictional REDD” will now allow for easy access to schemes on the lands of indigenous peoples, and that the urgent need for demarcation is not addressed.
The Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) of the Brazilian Catholic Bishops Conference documents and analyses cases of violence towards indigenous peoples throughout the country. According to reports available, during 2017 there was “a continuous and systematic increase” in violence; this relates especially to records of suicides, assassinations, infant mortality rates, and the erosion of protective measures by government authorities to defend indigenous community rights to their ancestral lands.The three states that had the highest number of reported assassinations were Roraima (33), Amazonas (28) and Mato Grosso do Sul (17).
The CIMI report further affirms the findings published by Global Witness two months ago. “Annual figures show at least 207 land and environmental activists were killed in 2017 across 22 countries, almost 4 a week, making it the worst year on record.” The report further states that “Brazil recorded the worst year on record anywhere in the world, with 57 murders in 2017.” The report in English is found at: https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/environmental-activists/at-what-cost
Finally, we would like to call attention to a recent and timely study from the Stockholm Resilience Center of Stockholm University, which analyses foreign capital flows into the beef and soy producing sectors operating in the Brazilian Amazon, two sectors linked to deforestation. The researchersfound that for over a decade, about 70 percent of foreign capital – or some $18.4 billion – reached the operating companies in the Brazilian Amazon after being routed through subsidiaries in low or zero tax rate jurisdictions, such as the Cayman Islands. Benefits to investors are: legal efficiency, tax-minimization and secrecy. Go to: http://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2018-08-13-the-hidden-environmental-consequences-of-tax-havens.html
Carefully researched and objective studies on the money flows around REDD and the disappearance of billions of dollars can be found at:
(a)https://wrm.org.uy/books-and-briefings/redd-a-collection-of-conflicts-contradictions-and-lies/ “REDD: A Collection of Conflicts, Contradictions and Liespresents summaries of reports from 24 REDD projects or programmes with a common characteristic: they all show a number of structural characteristics that undermine forest peoples’ rights or, fail to address deforestation. As offset projects, they all fail to address the climate crisis because, by definition, offset projects do not reduce overall emissions: emission reductions claimed in one place justify extra emissions elsewhere. What is needed, however, are overall reductions – and steep ones, in particular in industrialized countries. Offsets, by definition, cannot help achieve that goal, they are a distraction.”
(b)http://carboncrooks.tvCarbon Crooks: a film about carbon, credits and crooks” “The EU's first carbon credit was put on sale in 2005. The idea was that the trading of carbon would reduce CO2 emissions and thereby curb global warming. But the system has collapsed and instead Denmark became the center of one of the world's fastest growing scams. Experts and Europol estimate that the European treasuries lost some 10 billion EURO to hackers and VAT fraudsters from around the world. The carbon credit system has collapsed and prices have dropped by 90 percent. It has never been cheaper to pollute than today and carbon emissions have never been higher in the history of mankind.” (c)https://redd-monitor.org “Once a week, “REDD in the News” brings a round-up of the week’s news on REDD, keeping you up-to-date on the latest developments. During the week, REDD-Monitor provides opinions and analysis of the latest developments in the world of REDD. REDD-Monitor also carries out longer interviews with REDD actors, and has posted a series of Guest Posts.”