Reserve coordinator in the Amazon is threatened by mining – 03/22/2023 – Environment

ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation) had to remove a public servant from his workplace –an extractive reserve in the Amazon– due to death threats attributed to illegal mining operators in the region. A decision by the Justice of Amazonas in favor of a prospector aggravated the situation, according to organizations operating in the area.

Manoel Silva da Cunha is coordinator of the Médio Juruá extractive reserve, an area of ​​287,000 hectares –almost twice the size of the city of São Paulo– in the region of Carauari (AM). Due to threats and attempts to intimidate him and his family, ICMBio removed him from the region and took him to an undisclosed location.

“He is safe,” the agency said in a statement. “The institute vehemently condemns the threats suffered by the server and understands the risks to life as real.”

Reserves such as Médio Juruá are Union lands intended for traditional extractivist populations. Among these populations are indigenous, riverside and small farmers. Inspection is an attribution of ICMBio.

In Médio Juruá, extractivism is mainly focused on managing pirarucu, açaí and andiroba. The region, well preserved, suffers from illegal mining offensives, practiced by means of dredgers.

In November 2022, an operation by the PF (Federal Police) and Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), with the support of ICMBio, promoted the seizure of mining equipment in the region of Itamarati (AM), city which is also on the bank of the Juruá river – the Médio Juruá reserve is located between the two municipalities.

There was destruction of a garimpo raft and seizure of a speedboat, which would support the raft, according to the inspection bodies.

The speedboat deposit term was drawn up in Cunha’s name, as he is the ICMBio server responsible for managing the extractive reserve. The vehicle was under the custody of the agency and remains so.

In December, the man who claims to be the owner of the speedboat filed a lawsuit with the Justice of Amazonas and said that the asset had been taken by Cunha – without mentioning that he is an ICMBio employee and without saying that there had been an operation against illegal mining. . He asked to get the good back.

Judge Francisco Carlos de Queiroz, on duty at the 14th Civil and Work Accidents Court in Manaus, issued an injunction on December 16 with an order for the immediate return of the speedboat to the owner. The magistrate authorized the use of force by the PM to comply with the decision.

On the last 17th, the Middle Juruá Territory Forum, which brings together organizations that operate in the region, communicated the MPF (Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office) in Amazonas about the existence of the judicial decision and about the risks of the food episode even more offensive of illegal mining in the area.

The MPF stated, in a petition forwarded to the Federal Court, that the man who claimed the speedboat –Dilvan Lucio Simioni– omitted from the Justice of Amazonas the existence of a PF operation, the seizure made by a federal public servant in the exercise of his duties and that this server was just a trustee on behalf of ICMBio, not someone who had appropriated the speedboat.

The Federal Justice, on the 18th, determined the suspension of the return of the speedboat. The general command of the PM of Amazonas was officiated so that it would not act in forceful actions that would guarantee this restitution.

A Sheet, Judge Francisco Queiroz said that he accepted the decision of the Federal Court and issued a new decision to suspend the return of the vessel. “The date of the request made was close to the beginning of the forensic recess, the good could disappear. In the records, all these facts are not included”, said the magistrate.

According to Queiroz, the plaintiff’s omission may have been “light”. “The speedboat involved is a matter for Federal Justice. Common Justice has no jurisdiction. This is a classic case of omission to take advantage. I was taken by surprise about this situation.”

On the 6th, the Federal Justice in Amazonas condemned Simioni and others involved for illegal exploitation of gold in the region of Maués (AM).

Simioni told the report that he was “fooled by lawyers” in the case related to the sentence. He was imprisoned for six days. “I bought the land in 2014, and the licenses [para operação do garimpo] were fake,” he said.

In the case of the speedboat, Simioni said he had lent the boat to someone to go fishing, and he ended up losing the vehicle. “He owes me the boat. There was never any mining in that region. In Maués, yes, there was.”

Questioned about having deceived the Justice, he replied: “I only have the fourth grade, I cannot say if the Justice was deceived. I never was in person with the lawyer [que fez a petição à Justiça]”. Simioni said he had no knowledge of threats made to the ICMBio server.

According to the Middle Juruá Territory Forum, Cunha and family members had been receiving more and more death threats. “There are several reports about the presence of hooded people, from outside the communities, who have been asking for their whereabouts along the Juruá river.”

The threats are retaliation for actions against mining and a sense of impunity could revive illegal gold mining activities in the region, the forum said. “Illegal mining is an activity that takes place around the reserve and puts pressure on the unit,” said ICMBio in a statement.

This is the second death threat reported in an extractive reserve in less than two weeks.

The other case occurred in the Tapajós Arapiuns reserve, in the region of Santarém and Aveiro, west of Pará.

The action of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government in favor of logging without prior consultation with traditional communities has fueled conflicts and divisions in the conservation unit, which is one of the largest extractive reserves in the Brazilian Amazon.

The animosity reached its peak on the 3rd, with the sharing of WhatsApp audios with death threats to indigenous and extractive leaders who represent communities in the reserve.

In one of the audios, a man, referring to a female leader, says he told her in a meeting that he would “put a projectile in her brain” if she didn’t “keep up with her word”.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}