Lula must announce 2 demarcations of indigenous lands – 09/04/2023 – Daily life

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) should make official, this Tuesday (5), the demarcation of two more indigenous lands, within a package of announcements that will be made on Amazon Day.

These are the territories of Rio Gregório, in Tarauacá (AC), and Acapuri de Cima, in Fonte Boa (AM). They are part of a group of eight demarcation processes that are ready for approval – now, the government is preparing a schedule to announce the next six to be demarcated by the end of the year.

“The expectation is to finish with these other six by the end of the year. It is more a question of alignment of dates”, he said to Sheet Sonia Guajajara, Minister of Indigenous Peoples.

She was in the territory of Rio Gregório this weekend to notify the local indigenous people that the demarcation would be concluded.

These two lands were already ready for final homologation by the Presidency since the Amazon Summit, which took place in August, in Belém (PA). At the time, as shown by Sheetdue to a lack of alignment between the Civil House and Itamaraty, the announcement was cancelled.

So, Lula’s team evaluated that, as it was an international event, it would not be up to the president to use the ceremony for acts related to domestic issues in the country.

For Amazon Day, celebrated this Tuesday, the government is preparing a package of announcements, which includes new conservation units, measures to speed up the process for Union lands in the Legal Amazon to become areas of environmental protection, in addition to expanding regularization land ownership in the region, whose objective is to contain land grabbing and deforestation.

Lula wants to emphasize that, under his command, Brazil changed its environmental policy and the treatment given to the Amazon. According to members of the Planalto Palace, the objective is to show sustainability as a PT brand and make a counterpoint to former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

One example is that, in 2020, on Amazon Day, Bolsonaro only posted a video in which he appears alongside former Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles (PL-SP) —criticized by environmentalists.

In the video, Salles highlighted a program requested by Bolsonaro called Adopt a Park. “For those who really want to help, in the 132 conservation units, put your hand in your pocket and leave the field of speech”, said the former minister at the time.

In the first year of government, Bolsonaro limited himself to launching an advertising campaign saying that he sovereignly reaffirmed his protective actions. The material was vetoed by CNN in Europe due to its political content, mainly because of the mention of sovereignty.

In order to accelerate the process of land regularization in the Amazon, the government will reinvigorate the Technical Destination Chamber, which is formed by different federal bodies with some land attribution.

There is the possibility that, also at this Tuesday’s event, an announcement will be made of the allocation of two pieces of land to indigenous peoples.

In addition, the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples is working on a schedule, together with the Ministry of Justice, for the demarcation of new lands and the advancement of the processes currently in progress.

The calendar will not only contain the date of the announcements, but also a process of preparing the demarcations, which includes trips to the regions of the territories, conversations with local, municipal and state authorities, and with agribusiness representatives.

Internally, the indigenous ministry assesses that the expectation for the demarcations has intensified the tension between landowners and the peoples. Therefore, the idea is that the minister herself makes this pilgrimage, to mitigate the possibility of new cases of conflicts.

“I want to establish a relationship that is more harmonious, because the way it is, it often ends up being dangerous for the indigenous people who are in the areas that are undergoing demarcation processes”, says Guajajara.

“There is a narrative that the demarcation will take land from farmers, take villages and even reduce cities. There is a terror placed in relation to demarcations”, he adds.

According to the minister, the intention is to give more transparency to the bureaucratic process, how it is done and to emphasize that, during it, there is space for those who are against the demarcation to present their contestation.

Guajajara also says that just the fact that the government announced, at the beginning of the year, that it was going to give priority to the approval of a list of 14 indigenous territories, heightened the tension in those places.

“It generated conflicts, it generated threats, you know, and a lot of people started calling us to visit [ao território], because he was in a vulnerable situation. We cannot be irresponsible either, we have to guarantee the safety of the indigenous people of these lands”, he added.