Funai points out possible presence of isolated indigenous people in AM – 02/08/2024 – Environment

Funai (National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples) pointed out a “great possibility” of the presence of isolated indigenous people in an area with gas exploration in the region of Itapiranga (AM), 300 km from Manaus.

The affirmation of the agency’s technical area was made in a letter sent to the MPF (Federal Public Ministry) in Amazonas, which said there was a “serious and imminent risk to the lives of isolated peoples” due to the project.

Given the risk, there must be “urgent judicial intervention”, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The Funai and MPF documents were prepared on the 1st.

Gas exploration in the so-called Campo Azulão, in Itapiranga and Silves (AM), is carried out by the company Eneva. The input is taken to a thermoelectric plant in Roraima, which is responsible for 50% of electricity generation in the state, according to the company.

In a note, Eneva states that no indigenous or quilombola communities were identified in the area, according to Funai and Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) bases. “There is nothing to talk about in the absence of indigenous or quilombola studies, as there is no legal provision for this”, he states.

The company’s advisors forwarded Funai’s cartographic analysis, carried out in 2023, which shows the Paraná do Arauató Indigenous Land, dos Muras, on the Amazon River, as the closest to Campo Azulão, 27.85 km away. The territory is demarcated. Another indigenous area, without demarcation, is 26.51 km from the project, according to the document.

“We always use the official databases. If new information appears, we maintain dialogue to minimize the impact possible”, says Felipe Roza, environmental manager at Eneva.

For the project, Eneva – a company that has BTG Pactual, Cambuhy, Dynamo, Atmos and Partners Alpha in its corporate structure – approached the Amazonas environmental agency to obtain the necessary licenses. Thus, licensing was conducted by Ipaam (Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute), not by Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).

Last year, Ibama used a statement from the company itself to withdraw from conducting licensing, as the Sheet showed in a September 2023 report. In the self-declaratory document, Eneva said that the projects do not impact indigenous lands.

Both Funai and the MPI (Ministry of Indigenous Peoples), however, stated that the licensing ignored the presence of indigenous people in the region and the impact of the project on traditional communities. The agencies requested the suspension of the licenses.

The MPF asked the Federal Court to determine that these processes should be conducted by Ibama, not by Ipaam.

Indigenous people need to be consulted, as provided for in convention number 169 of the ILO (International Labor Organization), and a study of the indigenous component – ​​necessary when works impact traditional communities – needs to be prepared, according to MPF and Funai.

Now, evidence is emerging of the presence of indigenous people in voluntary isolation in the region. The detection of a family, with the possibility that it belongs to an isolated people, was carried out by the CPT (Pastoral Land Commission) of Itacoatiara (AM).

In a report sent to Funai, the CPT described a survey carried out in August 2023 on indigenous peoples in the Itapiranga region. In addition to its presence in communities, a team decided to expand its incursion into the region.

On the Uatumã River, 4 km into the forest, members of the CPT say they came across five indigenous people, some of them naked, or with vines tied around their heads and waists. They did not carry bows and arrows, they spoke their own language, they are light brown with black hair, according to the report sent to Funai.

Among the ethnicities in the region are Muras, Mundurukus and Gaviões.

“Funai had already collected other reports about the presence of isolated indigenous people in the Jabuti riverside community, on the right bank of the Jatapu river, in the interfluve with the Uatumã river, the river where the sighting by CPT members occurred”, stated the coordination of isolated indigenous people and recent contact by Funai, in response to questions from the MPF.

“Although there is, to date, no official record, one cannot rule out the possibility that it is a hitherto unknown group or fragment of a group in isolation that has migrated from the Jatapu region or elsewhere to the area during a period of most recent”, said the Funai coordinator, for whom it is “essential” that activities take place to confirm the group.

According to the MPF, this search should lead to adjustments in the licensing process. Any mineral extraction in the region should only occur if there is a guarantee that there will be no harm to isolated peoples, according to Funai.

The CPT told Funai that there are seven villages in Silves, with 235 families; two in Itapiranga, with 14 families; and a family of isolated indigenous people “surprisingly spotted in the forest close to one of the gas blocks being explored by Eneva”, as stated in a document from the MPF.

The Public Prosecutor Fernando Merloto Soave, in the petition sent to the Court, said that the site explored by Eneva overlaps an area of ​​riverside dwellers and extractivists, who want to create a sustainable development reserve, a fishing area with an agreement approved by the Ibama and also the Gavião Real Indigenous Land, in the process of demarcation with Funai.

The MPF called for the immediate suspension of all ongoing environmental licensing processes at the Amazonas agency, the suspension of the exploration of gas and oil wells where there is overlap with traditional communities and the transfer of licensing to Ibama.

The Prosecutor’s statement took place in the course of a lawsuit filed by Aspac (Association of Silves for Environmental and Cultural Preservation) and representatives of Mura indigenous people. According to the action, the licensing was carried out without environmental impact studies and without consultation with indigenous and quilombola communities.

In May 2023, during the course of the action, the Federal Court in Amazonas temporarily suspended the licenses granted by Ipaam in Campo Azulão. Eneva filed an appeal against the decision, which was accepted by the TRF (Federal Regional Court) of the 1st Region, guaranteeing the validity of the licenses.