Civil House blocks approvals of indigenous lands – 08/12/2023 – Environment

Last Wednesday (9) was the International Day of Indigenous Peoples and also the day after the Amazon Summit, which brought together the heads of state of the region, in Belém.

There was a strong expectation, in the indigenous movement, in civil society and in the government itself, that President Lula would sign the homologation decrees for eight ILs (indigenous lands), already physically demarcated, whose processes had been shelved since the Bolsonaro government. The date passed without the decrees being edited.

The Constitution determines that the Union demarcate and protect the ILs, which was not complied with by the previous administration. Lula promised to resume and conclude all pending demarcation processes.

When he took over, he found 14 of them in the drawer. Six were ratified in April, when it was said, in relation to the other eight, that there were still necessary formal adjustments and that the edition of the respective decrees would take place later on.

With the adjustments completed and the files being forwarded from the Ministry of Justice to the Civil House, it was expected that they would now be ratified.

In recent days, information has circulated that only two approvals would be announced, as there were no demonstrations to the contrary in these cases. After all, no decree was published, and the government claimed that the coincidence of the date with the end of the summit made the announcements inappropriate.

In fact, the Civil House’s vacillation in the face of extemporaneous demonstrations to the contrary is inappropriate.

The fear is that it means ignorance about the administrative process of demarcation and, on the other hand, it casts doubt on the government’s political will and President Lula’s commitment to resolve, once and for all, the pending issues that still exist over about a third of the ILs with files filed with Funai (National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples).

Different from what many think, it is not the approval decree that defines the limits of an IT. It is the penultimate stage of a multi-phase process that begins with the creation, by Funai, of a working group to prepare the identification study.

It is up to the president of the indigenist body to approve it or not. There are deadlines for the manifestation and contestations of interested parties.

After that, the Ministry of Justice approves or rejects the limits or may ask Funai to take new steps. If these limits are approved, the indigenist body proceeds with their physical demarcation and digitization. Only then is approval carried out by means of a presidential decree.

It is worth remembering that these eight lands, as well as the other six that were homologated, had their limits defined many years ago by ministerial ordinances, that significant public resources have already been invested in the physical demarcation work and that there are no pending administrative issues or judicial decisions that prevent their approvals.

It is also worth remembering that we are still discussing Bolsonaro’s drawer and that there are another 240 areas with processes open at Funai and pending in some instance of the government awaiting conclusion.

If the government soon becomes entangled in the pendencies inherited from Bolsonaro, what can be expected from the process as a whole?

The Planalto should have known that the definition of the limits of these lands preceded the demarcations. The question arises: are you going to sit on top of the processes or return them to Funai at this point, prolonging conflicts and postponing solutions?

President Lula needs to fix the situation, as there are communities involved and local tensions. The lack of definition by the Chief of Staff affects the discourse and may even provoke a government crisis. It’s better to unscrew.