Expansion of indigenous land in SC may cause the municipality to close its doors

The resumption of the judgment of the indigenous temporal framework by the Federal Supreme Court (STF) increased the anguish of about 500 families of small farmers who live in the Alto Vale do Itajaí region, in Santa Catarina. If the ministers understand that the date of promulgation of the Constitution should not be used as a time frame for demarcation, the expansion of an indigenous land in the region is more likely to be concluded, after decades of judicial imbroglio, which would force these families to leave their properties, resulting in great damage to the economies of the municipalities, which depend on rural activity.

The Indigenous Land (TI) in question is Ibirama-La Klanô, a reserve located near the municipalities of Vitor Meireles, José Boiteux, Doutor Pedrinho and Itaiópolis. It currently has 14,000 hectares, where 505 indigenous people live, according to the 2022 Indigenous Census. thousand hectares – the equivalent of 73.2 hectares for each person who currently inhabits the area.

If that happens, the small farmers of Vitor Meireles, for example, estimate that they will stop producing up to 50% of the economic movement generated by agriculture. Taking into account that at least 60% of economic activity comes from agriculture, the future of the municipality is uncertain.

With the possibility of expropriation, the families of small farmers may have to leave behind the history that some have been building for six generations. This is the case of farmer Francisco Jeremias, 63, who lives on a 15-hectare property in Vitor Meireles, with his wife, four children, daughters-in-law and six grandchildren. As spokesman for the families possibly affected, Jeremias fears that a “death sentence” will be signed in the STF judgment. “If the STF is against the timeframe, the death sentence for the family farmer here in the region has been signed. For us, if you take away the land, you will take away life”, said the farmer.

Economic impacts exposes uncertainty about the future of municipalities

Vitor Meireles will be the city most affected by the alleged expansion of the Ibirama-La Klanô Indigenous Land. The reserve may cover 48.8% of the municipality’s territory (the equivalent of 18,000 hectares in Vitor Meireles). Without being able to count on almost half of its production area, the small town of 5,300 inhabitants must suffer the economic impacts, especially in agriculture.

A survey carried out by the Association of Municipalities of Alto Vale do Itajaí (Amavi) in 2018 showed that Vitor Meireles had 64.3% of his economic activity concentrated in agriculture, livestock and related services, with a turnover of BRL 49.25 million. In the same year, an analytical report prepared by the municipal government showed that the 10 locations potentially affected by the intended expansion of the indigenous land, had an economic turnover of R$ 22.75 million.

In these ten locations in the rural areas of Vitor Meireles, the properties are mostly 15 hectares each. The approximately 400 families that inhabit the area produce milk, beans, corn, tobacco, soybeans, cattle, pigs, fish, in addition to planting eucalyptus and fruit trees such as oranges and tangerines.

Without the economic movement of agriculture, the future of the municipality is uncertain. “The municipality will have a new reality [se a ampliação da TI for confirmada]. There is little way to predict how this will happen. In local trade, for example? How will this behave? This is an uncertain thing, we will have to find out from other realities where something similar has already happened”, evaluates the deputy mayor of Vitor Meireles, Ivanor Boing.

As for the farmer Francisco Jeremias, without the agricultural production of the 400 families that live in the rural area of ​​Vitor Meireles, the municipality could “close its doors”.

Uncertainty over property rights causes farmers to avoid investment

The deputy mayor of Vitor Meireles, Ivanor Boing, said that for at least 20 years the municipality has been suffering the impacts of the possible expansion of the indigenous land. The 14,000 hectares where the indigenous people live today were reserved for them in 1927, however, the expansion was declared through an ordinance published in 2003. Since then, some farmers have abandoned their properties. “Many properties there have been abandoned. In some, people reforested and left. They were afraid of something happening overnight and not being there anymore. And then, how is it?”, said the deputy mayor.

“Our ancestors, grandparents and great-grandparents always respected the limits of the indigenous land. We lived in harmony until the ordinance came to expand the area”, remembers the farmer Francisco Jeremias when referring to Ordinance n° 1.128/2003, of the Ministry of Justice. “In season [da publicação da portaria]only a part of the families wanted to go to court because the lawyers said that our titles were too old and that there was no way to touch our properties”, said the farmer.

According to one of the lawyers for the farming families involved in the case, Salesiano Durigon, most of the domain and possession titles in the region were obtained between 1911 and 1922.

“In 1926, the government of Santa Catarina donated the indigenous land area to the Indian Protection Service (SPI) with registration number 21.105 in the Luiz Isolani de Ibirama registry office. In 1952, an agreement between the state government and the SPI defined the area’s extension, made official in 1965, duly titled by a notary. In 1967, it was established that the land belongs to the Union. In 1987, the area of ​​14,000 hectares was registered as belonging to the Union”, explained the lawyer.

In the face of years of uncertainty about property rights, Jeremias said that several farmers are holding back investments in properties. “Here on my property, we wanted to expand, buy a corn dryer. But with that insecurity, it doesn’t work. We are holding back investments and 90% of families are in the same situation”, said the farmer from Vitor Meireles.

In case they are expropriated, farmers affected by the demarcation do not know where they will go

In the event of expanding the demarcation of the Ibirama-La Klanô Indigenous Land, the farmers do not know where they are going. The current legislation only guarantees them compensation for existing improvements on the properties, but does not guarantee a new piece of land to those who are expropriated. The spokesperson for farmers in Vitor Meireles highlights the situation of the elderly.

“A person like me, over 60 years old, is going to do what in a city, for example? It is very difficult to maintain. We are clamoring for attention, because this could become a major social disgrace in our region. Have you ever thought about taking land from the farmer? And then where do they go?” asks Francisco Jeremias.

In Vitor Meireles there are no areas that can be used for the resettlement of families. “The government’s proposal is for these people to join the Agrarian Reform queue. Incra is not even able to establish what it already has. Now imagine all these families”, emphasized the deputy mayor, Boing.

In the case of demarcation of indigenous lands, it is up to the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai) to regularize these territories, resolving issues involving non-indigenous people who may inhabit the area. In the case of dispossessed farmers, only those who have the profile to become beneficiaries of the National Agrarian Reform Program enter the register of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra). Thus, if they hold a position, job or remunerated public function or have income from non-agricultural activities greater than three monthly minimum wages or one minimum wage per capita, for example, farmers cannot be selected by Incra.

“Incra promotes the regularization of families in settlements, based on the removal process initiated by Funai and completed by the institute. The non-intruders are the 3rd public in the order of preference for the Agrarian Reform”, stated, through a note, the INCRA communication office. Therefore, when new settlement projects are created, the farmers lag behind the dispossessed and who may work on the dispossessed properties. Landless rural workers in a situation of social vulnerability are the fourth public in the order of preference.

STF deals with a specific case and the general repercussions for the demarcation of indigenous lands

The judgment, resumed once again on the 30th at the STF, should put an end to the impasse in the Santa Catarina case and establish the general repercussions on the other demarcations of indigenous lands in the country. At the STF, at least 219 other similar processes are underway on a time frame awaiting the thesis to be judged.

The extraordinary resource that will determine the general repercussion came from a lawsuit filed by Funai against the current Institute of the Environment of Santa Catarina (IMA) – formerly known as the Environment Foundation (Fatma). In 2009, indigenous people invaded a part of the Sassafras Reserve, and the state government filed a lawsuit to repossess the area.

Although the general repercussion determines a jurisprudence for the judgment of other similar cases related to the demarcation of indigenous lands, the case of Santa Catarina may have a different solution. That is, the ministers can define, for example, that for the general repercussion the time frame is not valid, but for the case of the expansion of the TI Ibirama-La Klanô, the property titles are valid and the time frame is respected.