Brazil delays key Indigenous land rights trial

AFP
Wed, June 7, 2023

Indigenous Brazilians demonstrate in Brasilia June 7, 2023 against the 1988 time limit for recognizing certain Indigenous lands (Evaristo SA)

Brazil's Supreme Court on Wednesday postponed a critical trial over Indigenous ancestral land rights as demonstrators protested in the capital.

The case -- which began in 2021 and has been called "the trial of the century" for the country's native peoples -- could remove protected status for some native lands, opening them up to agribusiness and mining.

Hundreds of Indigenous people from all over the country have camped in Brasilia this week in anticipation of the trial, which had been set to begin Wednesday.

The delay came when one of the judges asked for more time to review the case, which asks whether the government should recognize protected Indigenous lands where the current inhabitants were not living when the country's 1988 constitution was adopted.

So far, three of 10 judges have voted on the case -- one in favor of the 1988 cut-off, or against the native peoples, and two with the opposite opinion.

Now, the court has 90 days to set a new date for the vote to proceed.

The matter revolves around the Brazilian constitution's protection of Indigenous lands.

The agribusiness lobby argues those protections should apply only to lands whose inhabitants were present there in 1988, when the constitution was adopted.

Indigenous rights activists argue the constitution mentions no such time limit, and that native inhabitants have often been forced from their ancestral lands.

Members from 20 different ethnic groups, along with the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara, were present at the court Wednesday.

The trial's deferral is "emotionally draining" for Brazilian communities waiting for an answer, Daniel Pataxo, a leader of the Pataxo people in northeastern Bahia state said.

"It ends up being a lack of respect for us as human beings," the 38-year-old, who traveled to Brasilia for the trial, told AFP outside the court, where dozens of Indigenous people had gathered.

Elsewhere in Brazil, roadblocks were set up by Indigenous people in at least three different states Wednesday, authorities said.

Last week, the lower chamber of Congress passed a bill in favor of the 1988 time limit, in a blow to leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who campaigned on protecting Indigenous rights.

Brazil counts nearly 800 Indigenous territories, though around a third of them have yet to be officially defined, according to the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (FUNA).

Environmentalists say protecting Indigenous reservations is one of the best ways to stop the destruction of the Amazon, a critical resource in the race to curb climate change.

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Brazilian Amazon Deforestation Falls 31% Under Lula

By AFP - 

Agence France Presse

June 7, 2023

Aerial view of a burnt area in Labrea, southern Amazonas State, 

Brazil, on September 17, 2022

MICHAEL DANTAS

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 31 percent in the first five months of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration versus the same period last year, officials said Wednesday.

Satellite monitoring detected 1,986 square kilometers (767 square miles) of forest cover destroyed in Brazil's share of the world's biggest rainforest from January to May, down from 2,867 square kilometers for the same period in 2022, according to the national space agency's DETER surveillance program.

The figures from space agency INPE were welcome news for environmentalists pinning their hopes on veteran leftist Lula, who took office on January 1 vowing to fight for zero illegal deforestation after a surge in clear-cutting and fires in the Amazon under his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).

Under Bolsonaro, an ally of Brazil's powerful agribusiness sector, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon increased by more than 75 percent versus the previous decade.

Lula marked World Environment Day on Monday by announcing a sweeping new plan to combat deforestation, with hundreds of targets and objectives, including the immediate seizure of half the territory being illegally exploited for logging, farming, mining or other activities on protected lands.

"Brazil plays a major role in the balance of our planet's climate, largely thanks to the Amazon," Lula said.

"Preventing deforestation in the Amazon also helps reduce global warming."

Experts say the new government's real test on deforestation will start in the coming months, with the onset of drier weather in the Amazon from around July -- typically peak season for deforestation and forest fires.

The Lula administration has suffered a series of setbacks on the environment this week at the hands of Brazil's Congress, in which conservative foes of Lula hold the majority.


Last week, lawmakers passed bills cutting the powers of the environment and Indigenous-affairs ministries and dramatically curbing the protection of Indigenous lands.