Beija-flor leva enredo sobre Amapá e conquista Carnaval no Rio

RIO DE JANEIRO - A Escola de Samba Beija-Flor de Nilópolis venceu o carnaval carioca em 2008, segundo apuração realizada nesta quarta-feira (6). A Escola apresentou a história do Macapá, capital do Amapá, que completou 250 anos na segunda-feira (4). As belezas naturais e artesanato deram o tom ao desfile que teve o enredo “Macapaba: equinócio solar, viagens fantásticas do meio do mundo”. Com a vitória, a escola soma 11 títulos na elite do carnaval do Rio. Apenas nos últimos 11 anos, foram seis vitórias: em 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 e 2008.O grande destaque da escola ficou por conta do abre-alas “Brilho de fogo - o rastro iluminado”, que juntou dois carros e trouxe logo à frente um gigante beija-flor vermelho. Segundo o carnavalesco Alexandre Louzada, foram gastos R$ 150 mil só na compra de acetato. O investimento também foi pesado na iluminação, para dar à alegoria um visual incandescente, como o do sol. Nela, 50 beijas-flores cobertos por penas ganharam as mais diversas formas, integrando-se ao visual do carro.

Antes dele, a agremiação apresentou uma ala das crianças vestidas com cores fortes — vermelho, laranja e amarelo, também como o sol –, uma dupla multicolorida de Mestre-Sala e Porta-Bandeira e uma comissão de frente totalmente dourada. Nela, os integrantes representaram o momento em que o beija-flor de Nilópolis conhece o beija-flor de Macapá, conhecido lá como brilho-de-fogo. Um único integrante da comissão carregava em sua fantasia 1,2 mil lâmpadas.

Na seqüência do carro abre-alas, uma ala formada por componentes com fantasias diferentes mostrou a pororoca, o encontro das águas do rio com as águas do mar. Os integrantes fantasiados de peixes e aqueles que representavam a espuma das ondas fizeram uma coreografia em referência a esse fenômeno.

Na contramão das escolas que exibem celebridades à frente da bateria, a Beija-Flor tem como rainha de bateria Raíssa Oliveira, 17 anos, que não é nem atriz nem modelo. Raíssa é a mais jovem mulher a ocupar esse posto na elite do carnaval carioca.

A Beija-Flor venceu o carnaval carioca com 399,3 pontos de 400 possíveis. Em segundo lugar, ficou Salgueiro e, em terceiro, Grande Rio. Foram rebaixadas Porto da Pedra e São Clemente.

Fonte: g1.globo.com
06 de fevereiro de 2008

 

Entrevista | Indigenous People Challenge Peru’s Soy Highway

 Indigenous People Challenge Peru’s Soy Highway

An Interview with Julio Cusurichi

 Zachary Hurwitz | August 31, 2007

Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)

The Initiative for the Regional Integration of Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) is the latest in a series of disastrous international bank-financed schemes to bring “development” to the Amazon basin. Launched in 2000 by the governments of the region and taking advantage of a confluence of regional financing from major international finance institutions, IIRSA contains 350 projects that include ecologically damaging highway, dam, pipeline, and port projects. Many of these will open up new areas to large-scale, export-oriented agricultural production and energy extraction in the Amazon basin. The following is an interview with 2007 Goldman Environmental Prize winner Julio Cusurichi, representative of the Federación Nativa de Madre de Dios (FENAMAD).

A set of megaprojects of such size and reach offers the opportunity to reexamine the question of what “development” really means, who creates it, and who benefits from it. IIRSA is a new chapter in the decades-long history of top-down development decisions bankrolled by International Financial Institutions (IFIs) that are in the business of recycling international capital in order to create incentives for further corporate expansion and growth.

Historically, infrastructure megaprojects bankrolled by IFIs in areas like the tropical forests of the Amazon have led to increased poverty, displacement, exposure to disease vectors, cultural erosion, and violent conflicts for indigenous peoples. Nonetheless, South American governments and international banks have paid little attention to the voices of civil society and indigenous peoples whose lives will be directly and adversely affected by the construction of these projects.

The Interoceanic Sur highway in Madre de Dios, Peru is designed to increase transport of Brazilian soy to the Pacific coast, where it will be shipped to Asian markets for use as feed grain and in biodiesel production. The road, already under construction, is one of the 31 first-stage IIRSA projects scheduled for completion by the year 2010. The highway is financed by the Andean Development Corporation (CAF), the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and the Peruvian government.

The highway opens up areas of the Peruvian Amazon formerly closed to corporate agriculture and energy interests. It also opens up a Pandora’s Box of issues surrounding the costs and benefits of road construction in the Amazon basin. For some, the highway represents a greater opportunity for smallholders, campesinos, and indigenous peoples to get their goods to market and receive exported goods from areas such as Cuzco and Rio Branco, Brazil. For others, the road will increase the pressure from expanding agribusiness and energy corporations on land held by already vulnerable peasant farmers and indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation.

Eighty percent of the entire Peruvian Amazon is now open to bidding from oil companies from across the world. Hunt Oil of Texas has acquired the concession for block 76, almost entirely superimposed upon the recently-created Amarakaeri Communal Reserve.

In an interview in Puerto Maldonado, 2007 Goldman Environmental Prize winner and representative of the Federación Nativa de Madre de Dios, Julio Cusurichi tells of the impacts of IIRSA’s Interoceanic Sur highway, expansion of agribusiness, and increased oil extraction for the indigenous peoples of Madre de Dios, Peru. Cusurichi notes that the construction of the Interoceanic Sur will follow in the tradition of destructive highway projects in the Amazon if larger issues such as the urgent need for legal recognition of indigenous peoples and demarcation of their territories, clear economic and ecological zoning laws, integral social and environmental impact studies, and development plans to benefit the local populations are not attended to first.

ZH: Julio, tell us about the Interoceanic Sur highway—how is it going to affect the indigenous peoples of the province of Madre de Dios?

JC: The Interoceanic is going to be a threat more than a benefit for indigenous people, because the Interoceanic cannot be separated from its larger context, which is IIRSA. And IIRSA isn’t just the Interoceanic, it contains projects for the entire Amazon basin. But the Interoceanic worries us as indigenous people since, for one, the regional populations are simply uninformed about the projects … The majority of people don’t have any idea of the effects that this Interoceanic highway is going to have.

One important point has to do with legal land titles for indigenous territories. If we don’t guarantee judicial security for our lands, we will be exposed to large waves of migration that will come in over this road to get lands. So if our regional and national governments don’t have a vision of how to guarantee the rights of the territories of indigenous people, we’re going to have a serious threat.

The other important point is the environmental impact. We’ve learned that in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Interoceanic, only a few areas are considered. There are zones that will be affected directly but also zones affected indirectly. They’ve created a barrier of three kilometers from the road to prevent environmental impacts, but the impacts won’t be felt only within those three kilometers. Environmental impacts are felt at a regional level. So, they’re fulfilling their obligation to the norm that regulates directly affected zones, but this norm does not reflect the reality of regional impacts. This study, if they limit themselves to the norm, will not take into account the regional situation.

On the matter of agriculture, specifically cattle ranchers, a lot of people have already acquired land titles. If the government doesn’t take into account the need to grant secure land titles to native peoples and peasant farmers who don’t have them, it will be a major concern. We as FENAMAD have led the discussion and debate on this issue and now there’s an alliance of federations here in Madre de Dios working to present our observations on the EIA.

We presented a technical report (to the Minister of Transportation) making observations on the EIA of the highway. For example, the current EIA doesn’t take into account the impacts of the highway on Tampobata National Reserve or on Amakaeri Communal Reserve where many indigenous people live, and it has incorrect information about impacts on native communities living in Bahuaja Sonene National Park. The EIA also treats the river basins in the area in a fragmentary and generic way. We hope that these and other constructive and fair observations will be incorporated into the EIA for the benefit of the region.

We know that the Interoceanic project and projects for so-called “development” are going to benefit large agricultural interests and not local populations. Local populations are not prepared economically to benefit from the highway and there’s been no interest on the part of the national or regional government to give us at least a few incentives to prepare ourselves in every sense—economically and socially—to see how we could benefit somehow from the highway.

If the government doesn’t promote a sustainable vision for our region, what we’re going to see are large trucks passing through here, big businesses from the Brazilian side. There they have a broad vision of expanding soy cultivation, which is not going to be very positive, since the territorial space for cultivation is going to affect indigenous peoples, riverside communities, and rural communities. So this is only a capitalist vision, not a vision that will help the poor populations of our country.

ZH: Why hasn’t the Peruvian government finished the legal demarcation of indigenous lands here in Madre de Dios?

JC: If there are fewer indigenous territories demarcated, it’s easier for the government to occupy the Amazon. If there’s more demarcation, then the territories are already occupied. We’ve occupied the Amazon for thousands of years, but we lack legitimacy. When the government talks about occupation, sometimes there’s a community that isn’t recognized, that doesn’t have a land title—and if they’re not legally recognized, they don’t exist on the level of country data. We have existed since before the formation of nation-states, but some of us are not legally recognized. A priority should be to legally recognize these territories. And not only indigenous territories, but the territories of chestnut producers, and small-scale loggers who have lived a long time in the region, also must be recognized.

ZH: Which indigenous peoples have not had their territories demarcated yet?

JC: For example, the Masenawa from Puerto Azul— and some extensions of territories that are still pending: Arasaire, Diamante, Boca Inambari, and Pilar. We need to focus first on these land titles and then work on other matters if we can. If we don’t guarantee juridical security for indigenous peoples, it will cause a big problem, because the previous land titles were issued from an occidental perspective and were very small. They didn’t include the whole territory, they didn’t include where we hunted, the land we used in our daily activities. They would say to us, “Let’s see, there are 40 ‘indios’ here, multiplied by 20 hectares,” and get the total from that. The first land titles did not originate from an indigenous vision of our territory. Only the most recent land titles have improved because we’ve pushed for a vision of territory that’s integral.

ZH: Are you worried that, if and when the Interoceanic is completed, soy will begin to invade Madre de Dios?

JC: Not only will soy invade, there will also be a lot of migration. With the highway, all of a sudden we’re going to see major investment come in and buy up a lot of territory, a lot of agricultural zones, and we’re going to get to a point where we depend on one large landowner who has a lot of hectares. And we won’t have any alternatives to offer. What will happen is that we’ll fall into the hands of the investors.

And then we won’t be able to confront that social and economic problem. Many small-scale farmers, chestnut producers, and loggers are going to lose their rights, because they won’t be able to offer products or negotiate, and this will cause chaos. The regional government isn’t taking this into account and they don’t have any vision of how this highway will benefit the communities through sustainable activities, for example ecotourism. We cannot compete with Brazil’s economic industries. We’re already working in ecotourism in some native communities here in Madre de Dios. So the question is to how to reinforce these initiatives, how to transform some specific products to add value. We have forest resources; are we going to sell raw timber, or should we start to put a factory here to add value, search for international markets, and not fall into the same old patterns?

We should already be debating this, but the regional governments are asleep. Social organizations are knocking on their door so they can at least wake up and see how to really get a regional economy going here in Madre de Dios.

ZH: Will the Interoceanic Sur highway exacerbate existing problems for indigenous peoples in Madre de Dios?

JC: Yes—one is the problem of oil extraction. There are four oil blocks here in Madre de Dios; 80% of the province has been rented to oil operators. Nothing has been considered or taken into account before licensing these oil blocks—for example, how to meet the requirements of the International Labor Organization’s Convention 169.1 Oil blocks have been leased throughout Peru without taking into account the interests of the inhabitants of the Amazon, both indigenous people and farmers … Here in Peru decisions are made in the capital, not in coordination with each regional government or with their local populations. This model is wrong. The Peruvian government signed onto ILO 169, but its requirements are not being met.

Oil activity in Peru has brought more harm than good. We know what is happening to our brothers and sisters the Achuar of the Corrientes and Pastaza Rivers, our brothers and sisters the Shipibo from Cannan de Kachiyako, our Machiguenga brothers and sisters of the Urubamba River. I’ve been there to visit, and I’ve seen their despair, caused by the loss of territory, the contamination of their rivers, health problems of children and elders; and so it worries us that the Peruvian government is avoiding all responsibility to the indigenous people of Madre de Dios by leasing these four oil blocks. We know these blocks will only benefit a small group that manages these oil companies, and not the local population.

The second problem is illegal logging, which is advancing with few controls. We as indigenous people have been demanding, since 2001, the creation of observation posts to minimize the impacts of illegal logging—we’ve helped the Peruvian government by pushing forward this program of sustainable forest management. We have led by applying the forestry law with a much more long-term, sustainable vision—but the government hands out the concessions and turns around and walks away.

There are small-scale peasant producers who are trying to secure support from the government, but the government doesn’t support them as much as they do the large oil companies. The Peruvian government goes into debt for the large oil companies, using loans that we Peruvians have to pay back, to begin the oil projects. But for the sustainable forestry concessions, which are for small business people from the area, there’s no support. So why have we supported small-scale peasant producers, like chestnut producers? Because we want to organize our territories so that there’s no longer illegal logging, and so that the rights of the territories of indigenous people in voluntary isolation are respected.

We respect their self-determination. Because of this we’ve put forth alternatives such as a territorial reserve for isolated peoples that was approved in 2002. But it hasn’t served its purpose, since illegal loggers still invade these lands by the thousands. In other words, it doesn’t work. It’s not fulfilling its role, there’s no control over fauna and flora. So we are creating observation and control posts with the help of allies and friends to see how we can control these lands, similar to the model of the FUNAI in Brazil.2 We’re thinking in the same way as the FUNAI, to observe the lands of isolated indigenous people in Madre de Dios.

And the third problem, which I would address to the governments of industrial countries such as the United States, is climate change. I will never tire of saying that climate change is the responsibility of so-called developed countries. They are the ones that are causing these great changes in climate, and we don’t want to hide the fact that nature is responding because humans don’t have a harmonious relationship with nature. It’s because of this that nature is responding in a dangerous way.

We’re here showing to the world what our vision is and how international policies should be oriented to fit the realities of Amazonian countries. These are some of the visions of our ancestors, who still serve as guides to orient our peoples so that great chaos doesn’t happen, so great changes don’t happen while we don’t have the tools to mitigate their effects. Both sides need to work together—the so-called developed countries have to listen to us, and include us in their policy proposals to help mitigate climate change.

ZH: Could the Interoceanic Sur bring benefits?

JC: Yes, if it comes with other social packages, as I mentioned. But if the Interoceanic comes on its own, and the population can’t discuss it, debate it, and propose some economic steps that are more in accord with our reality, it’s going to be more harmful for us.

If there’s willingness to discuss which activities should be promoted in Madre de Dios, if there are resources to assure judicial security for indigenous lands, and to mitigate environmental impacts, so that we as social organizations can monitor the environmental impacts, then yes. So with this active participation in the affected zones, I think we can at least mitigate the impacts of the highway. The project was created from above, it’s being carried out as a national policy; and if it’s carried out without considering all of the points I’ve indicated, ten years from now we’ll be looking at real chaos, and I hope to be alive to show you what’s happened. I think at least my people will still exist, and we will always be adding these matters into the debate.

End Notes

1. Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization stipulates the rights of indigenous peoples to make decisions regarding the use of natural resources in their territory.
2. FUNAI, Fundação Nacional do Indio, is the Brazilian National Indigenous Protection Agency. FUNAI maintains observation and health posts outside of many indigenous territories in Brazil. FUNAI has been previously criticized for its role in the militarization of indigenous populations and the spread of disease.

Zachary Hurwitz is a graduate student at the Department of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin. During 2007 he was the IIRSA Program Associate for Amazon Watch, an environmental organization based in San Francisco, California, and he contributes to the Americas Policy Program at www.americaspolicy.org.

 

For More Information

Amazon Watch www.amazonwatch.org

FENAMAD is a regional member of Asociación Interétnica de Desarrollo de la Selva Peruana (AIDESEP): www.aidesep.org.pe

A comprehensive case study of observations to the Interoceanic Sur Environmental Impact Assessment was made by Marc Dourojeanni in 2006, found here: www.biceca.org/proxy/Document.135.aspx

Asociación Labor/Núcleo Amigos de la Tierra Peru: www.labor.org.pe

Goldman Environmental Prize: Profile of 2007 Winner Julio Cusurichi Palacios www.goldmanprize.org/node608

Bank Information Center: Profile of the Interoceanic Sur Highway www.biceca.org/en/Project.Overview.312.aspx

in Americas Program Voices of the Countryside

 

Colombia’s Newest Park Protects Rare Wildlife, Indigenous Peoples

A small corner of Colombia’s new Serrania de los Churumbelos Auka Wasi National Park (Photo courtesy Environment Ministry of Colombia

 

BOGOTA, Colombia, August 31, 2007 (ENS) - The government of Colombia has created a new national park for the protection of one of the greatest areas of biodiversity in the country, inhabited by such rare and endangered animals as the Andean bear, jaguar, puma and tapir.

The new park stretches from the lowlands of the Amazon Basin to the slopes of the Andean Mountains, covering 97,180 hectares, or 375 square miles.

Environment, Air and Territorial Development Minister Juan Lozano Ramirez announced the creation of the Serrania de los Churumbelos Auka Wasi National Park in Bogota on Thursday.

“In the new national park, 461 species of birds have been registered - equivalent to 26 percent of the birds in all of the country, the minister said. “They are not only important for their representativeness at the national level, but for the fact that 77 percent of them depend on the ecosystem conserved in the protected area.”

The Churumbelos mountainous area is recognized for its great biodiversity. Some 30 species of amphibians and 16 species of reptiles live in the newly protected area as well as more than 140 species of butterflies, and 825 species of plants.

“We will mobilize to all of Colombian society in support of our natural parks,” said Lozano Ramirez.

The global conservation organization WWF participated in the process that led to the declaration of the new park and will help implement the management plan, which includes the promotion of conservation and sustainable development in and around the newly protected area.

“The new park significantly increases the network of protected areas that are so important for the conservation of Andean and Amazon ecosystems,” said Luis Germán Naranjo, WWF-Colombia’s ecoregional conservation director.

“Our work with the Colombian parks authorities will boost activities to preserve the Amazon Basin at local, regional, national and international levels,” said Naranjo.

This new protected area will be a valuable opportunity to conserve and to consolidate the culture of the indigenous communities, the Inga and Yanaconas, and to assist them in the recovery of their cultural practices, Naranjo said.

 

For these communities, the Churumbelos mountains are a place where territory and culture are based on a single concept, fundamental in the symbolic and material recreation of their culture.

It is believed that the Andaqui ethnic group lives in voluntary isolation from modern societies at the headwaters of the Forge and Mandiyaco rivers in the Churumbelos mountains. The creation of the national park protects the territory occupied by this ethnic group, under the precautionary principle, Naranjo said.

Minister Lozano Ramirez announced the new park during a Forum on the International Ecosystems of the Millenium. Speaking at the event, he emphasized that the environment is not a secondary consideration for his government, but on the contrary “is a subject of state that engages at the highest level the public responsibilities of the official agencies.”

In 2008, the minister said, Colombia’s National System of Natural Parks will have the largest financial investment in its history.

 

In addition to several agencies of the Colombian government, the park was created with the assistance of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through the project Piedemonte Andino-Amazo’nico Colombia, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Global Environment Facility, and the United Nations, WWF Colombia and the Institute of Etnobiología.

in ens-newswire 

 

Activist and indigenous people in danger in the Amazon

 

This video is a little long, but it is an amazing view of the dangers faced by activists working in places like this.

 

From the Guardian’s website:

Paulo Adário, the coordinator of Greenpeace’s Amazonia campaign, who led the mission subsequently complained that ‘We heard from the Mayor and all of the others that the Constitution does not exist in Juína, there is no right to go and see, no freedom of the press. It is completely unacceptable that ranchers, with the support of the local authorities, can violate our freedom of movement and freedom of expression in this way.’Unfortunately such threats are both very real and very common in Brazil today. Over the past 30 years, 1,237 rural workers, union leaders and activist have been killed in Brazilian land disputes and only a tiny handful people have ever been convicted as a result.

I have huge respect for journalists and activist who put their lives on the line to get the truth out. But as Paulo reminded me by email:

We could leave the region with our plane and - that Tuesday - remove the two Opan guys. But the Enawene will stay there forever, and Opan needs to come back to help them. They are under threat, not us.

He’s right. They’ve asked for our help, and brave people like that deserve it. One way we can help to keep them safe is to spread the word. So please forward this video around.

 

Survival International is also calling on people to write emails and letters. Also see the OPAN website.

 

post do Andrew no Blog Making Waves

 

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August 30, 2007

 

Threats and intimidation down Amazon way

 

As the narrator of this startling video states, “working in the Amazon forest is not for the faint of heart.” In the past, people from campaigning organisations have been bullied by land owners and workers, facing intimidation, violence, death threats and even murder. The most recent example, documented in the video from Greenpeace Brazil, happened just last week and seeing footage of a situation verging on outright violence, I’ve found a new level of respect for the men and women who put themselves in the firing line.

 

 

The trouble began when a group of representatives from Greenpeace and Operation Native Amazon (an organisation working with forest communities), along with two French journalists, went to visit the indigenous Enawene-Nawe people near the town of Juina in Mato Grosso state. All they wanted to do was document their way of life in the forest, but were prevented from doing so by an angry mob of farmers and local officials.

 

Attempts to negotiate failed as it became clear that the farmers considered themselves as owners of not just the land and roads, but also the Enawene-Nawe as well. As the group are escorted away by a convoy of Jeeps and pick-up trucks, this appalling affront to civil liberties in a democratic country is a shock to the system, particularly as the town mayor was helping to run them out of town. At least they could leave, but the Enawene-Nawe’s lands are surrounded by farms which are continually encroaching on the forest.

 

When it comes down to it, the rights of a community who have lived there for generations are being challenged by the commercial ambitions of farmers who have been cutting down the forest for perhaps 20 years. I know who I’m backing.

 

post do Jamie no Blog Making Waves

 

ONG lança campanha para salvar tribos isoladas da Amazônia

BBC Brasil - BBC

 

Tamanho do texto? A A A A

Componentes.montarControleTexto(”ctrl_texto”)

 

- A organização não-governamental Survival International lançou nesta quarta-feira uma campanha para proteger tribos isoladas da Amazônia.

De acordo com a ONG, que produziu um filme para a campanha, mais de cem tribos em todo o mundo continuam sem manter contato com a civilização.

“Elas representam os povos mais vulneráveis do mundo, que podem ser exterminados nos próximos 20 anos caso os seus direitos a um território não sejam reconhecidos e defendidos”, afirmou a atriz Julie Christie, estrela do filme Doutor Jivago (1965) e narradora do filme.

A campanha da ONG defende o direito desses índios de viverem isolados e alega que o contato com o “homem branco” trouxe conseqüências negativas a várias tribos.

A organização cita o exemplo dos akuntsu, um povo das florestas de Rondônia. Hoje, há apenas seis sobreviventes dessa tribo.

De acordo com a Survival, quando a Funai tentou entrar em contato com os akuntsu em 1995, descobriu que criadores de gado tinham invadido as terras deles e massacrado quase todos.

Depois da matança, segundo a ONG, os agressores teriam destruído as ocas com tratores para eliminar provas do crime.

“Um dos homens (que sobreviveram ao ataque), Pupak, ainda guarda uma bala de chumbo nas costas e conta que homens armados o perseguiram a cavalo. Eles vivem em um pequeno resto de floresta”, diz o texto da Survival.

Outro exemplo citado pela ONG para justificar a necessidade de isolamento dos índios é o da tribo Awá, um povo de caçadores nômades do leste da Amazônia.

De acordo com a Survival International, hoje os awá estão sob pressão de enormes projetos agroindustriais, criadores de gado e grileiros.

“Estamos sendo encurralados pelos brancos. Eles estão sempre avançando e agora estão quase em cima de nós. Estamos sempre em fuga. Amamos a floresta porque nascemos aqui e sabemos como sobreviver a partir dela. Sem a floresta, vamos sumir, vamos ser extintos”, afirmou um líder indígena dos awá, To”o, à ONG. BBC Brasil - Todos os direitos reservados. É proibido todo tipo de reprodução sem autorização por escrito da BBC.

via Estadão

 

Good legal ruling in Amazon case

From the Independent last week:

An eight-month investigation by Greenpeace into the land scam, revealed that the Brazilian land reform agency, INCRA, had set up large settlements in rainforest areas instead of placing them in already deforested areas, and settling urban families who promptly sold logging rights to major timber companies.”Instead of helping, the official efforts are putting in place mechanisms to ensure the supply of timber to loggers. This opens the door to further forest destruction and climate change,” says Greenpeace’s André Muggiati.

A prosecutor took up the case, but of course the government said we were off the mark. Now a federal judge has ruled the case has merit. The judge also ruled that INCRA was operating improperly, without regard for environmental laws, and that no further settlements are allowed without the approval of the Brazil’s federal environmental agency.

 

Link: Amazon forest carved up in resettlement scam

in Blog Making Waves

 

Indians blog to defend against illegal logging along the Brazil-Peru Frontier

by Jose Murilo Junior

The Ashaninkas are the largest indigenous group in the Peruvian Amazon and differently from the majority of the South American original dwellers, their cultural identity is greatly preserved. Apart from being among the native nations of the continent connected with the traditional use of Ayahuasca, the Ashaninkas are specially known for their use of beautiful cotton robes, or cushmas, which are woven by the Ashaninka women for the men of their tribe. Cushmas are an Ashaninka’s most prized possession and there is a very long tradition of giving and exchanging cushmas and cloth with nyomparis (or trading partners) which linked distant Ashaninka villages into cycles of meetings, collaboration and resource sharing.

Accounts from the beginning of the last century tells about some Ashaninka groups that escaped from the Peruvian “caucheiros” [rubber tappers], and today a few hundred of them live on the Brazilian side of the border. There are stories about the braveness of the skilled warriors who expulsed the wild Amahuakas from the area around the Amonia River in the Upper Juruá. These few groups achieved the ownership of their land in the 90s, after many decades of struggle against the successive waves of colonization, and nowadays they strive to engage in activities that can help them to communicate with the world, and better defend their land and their culture from their current enemies.

It’s been a month since the blog of the Ashaninka Society of the Rio Amônia (Apiwtxa), has been decrying that workers from the Peruvian company Venao Forestal had illegally crossed into Brazil, and were now logging mahogany and cedar there. On a recent expedition to supervise the border, the Brazilian Ashaninkas were received with death threats from a task leader of the Peruvian company, which raised some worries about the possibility of violent clashes in the region. The power of the Internet and the blogs for outreach and networking have recently been discovered by some of the young leaders of these communities, and this fact is surely making a difference in the present struggles faced by their people.

“I have a friend who I see as a kind of Guardian, a Guardian of the border. He lives at the Upper Juruá, in the Apiwtxa community, and he is from the Ashaninka people. His name is Benki Piyãko. Some days ago I received an email from him reporting about a case not detailed, but which has troubled him. To those who are not following the recent events at the Brazilian-Peruvian border, Peruvian logging companies continue to invade our forests. An encirclement is advancing. Benki’s indigenous territory and its people have been victimized for years, and the sad new is that the invasion has reached the Upper Juruá Reserve on its West and South borders (see post “Encirclement on the Border). Well, there was an Ibama’s [Ministry of Environment] action along with the Army on the border, and some persons were imprisoned. All the dirty work from the Peruvian companies involves suspect alliances (on which terms?) with indigenous people living on the region. There are things like logging companies backing handling plans of indigenous communities, who will in the end sell them the wood. One of the Army’s tenants told Benki that a resident from the reserve who had guided that expedition was receiving death threats from “Peruvian Indians”, who might have been looking for him at his house. The case has not unfolded into a more serious situation, but it has alerted the Guardian. “As a leader of the Apiwtxa community, I see it as a dirty strategy of the company Venao to manipulate our indigenous relatives to generate conflict with our Brazilian country, threatening persons and communities”.

Guardião - A Flora

What makes this case notable, however, is that Venao Forestal has been FSC certified by SmartWood, which awarded the certificate in April 2007 after an evaluation in September-October 2006. According to OlyEcology, “Forestal Venao is infamous in Ucayali, Peru for their indifference to laws, indigenous people, and the rainforest environment. They have built an illegal, non-state sanctioned logging road from the banks of the Ucayali to the Juruá basin on the Brazilian border. This is no small skid trail, but a network of roads whose main trunk extends over 120 kilometers”.

The blog from the Ashaninka Society of the Rio Amônia (Apiwtxa) has been the instrument for announcing that the group would “take immediate action to stop the advance of this exploitation”, and the intention to “appeal to international courts to protect Brazilian sovereignty, their territory, the preservation area, and the still existent biodiversity of the region.” It is important to follow what will be done in a certification system which certifies a company deserving the blacklist.

“From our side, we demand to be consulted this time, which is something that did not happen before the SmartWood / Rainforest Alliance certified Forestal Venao in April of this year. We hope that as long as we obtain the confirmation of its illegal activities on Brazilian territory, as well as in Peru, the certification will be immediately canceled, according to a commitment by the Alliance.”

Forestal Venao investigada no Peru e no Brasil - Apiwtxa

The Ashaninka are so intimate with the forest that they see their own clothing as akin to the plants covering of the earth. The young Ashaninka leader Benki Piyãko actively uses the latest Internet tools to reach out to the world, giving a global voice to the forest and the wisdom of his people, as the following eloquent message testifies.

http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/08/26/indians-blog-to-defend-against-illegal-logging-along-the-brazil-peru-frontier/

 

Juiz manda interditar 99 assentamentos no Oeste do Pará

Manaus, Brasil — Relatório do Greenpeace denuncia esquema envolvendo criação de assentamentos-fantasmas do Incra para a exploração de madeira por empresas.

Liminar concedida pelo juiz federal Francisco de Assis Garcês Castro Júnior, da Subseção de Santarém, determinou a interdição de 99 projetos de assentamento criados desde 2005 pelo Instituto Nacional de Colonização e Reforma Agrária (Incra) na região oeste do Pará. As famílias já assentadas não serão obrigadas a sair de onde estão, mas ficarão impedidas de receber os créditos da Reforma Agrária e qualquer documento que ateste legalmente a posse plena dos lotes.

O pedido para interdição desses assentamentos até o julgamento da ação que pede o cancelamento das suas portarias de criação foi encaminhado à Justiça pelo Ministério Público Federal no início de agosto. Na semana passada, o Greenpeace lançou relatório denunciando esquema envolvendo criação de assentamentos do Incra para exploração de madeira, com ampla repercussão na imprensa nacional e internacional.

O juiz Castro Junior também proibiu a Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente (Sectam) de emitir novos licenciamentos em projetos do Incra, como vinha fazendo, sob pena de ser multada em R$ 10 mil por dia. A interdição, segundo o juiz federal, vai perdurar até que o Incra obedeça às exigências legais que atribuem ao Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (Ibama), e não a um órgão estadual, a competência de fazer estudos de viabilidade e de emitir licença prévia de projetos de assentamento para os quais são repassados recursos federais.

“É uma decisão importante”, afirmou André Muggiati, da Campanha Amazônia do Greenpeace. “Esperamos que o Incra não comece uma batalha judicial recorrendo da decisão e inicie uma investigação séria sobre o caso. Além disso, os madeireiros envolvidos em atividades dentro das áreas de assentamentos devem ser retirados do local para barrar a destruição da floresta”.

O relatório do Greenpeace revela que o órgão estimulou parcerias entre madeireiras e supostas associações de assentados, em um esquema que prejudica a floresta amazônica e famílias de trabalhadores rurais sem-terra. A investigação, realizada nos últimos oito meses, mostra que o Incra acelerou a criação de dezenas de assentamentos nas áreas ricas em recursos florestais para atender aos interesses das empresas madeireiras. Alguns deles são assentamentos-fantasma – que existem no papel, mas não contam com nenhum morador.

Pelo esquema, as empresas madeireiras assumem parte das obrigações na implementação dos assentamentos – como a construção de estradas e escolas, que seriam tarefas do Incra. Em troca, ficam com o direito de explorar a madeira da área. Os acordos também ajudariam o Incra a superestimar o número total de famílias supostamente assentadas em 2006. Das 136 mil famílias assentadas no ano passado, 34 mil estão na região de Santarém.

Historicamente, a exploração predatória de madeira abre as portas da devastação da floresta. A Amazônia brasileira perdeu mais de 700 mil quilômetros quadrados de sua cobertura florestal nas últimas quatro décadas. O desmatamento e as queimadas são a principal contribuição brasileira ao aquecimento global, colocando o País na incômoda posição de quarto maior emissor mundial de gases que provocam o efeito estufa.

 

Mais informações:

Assentamentos de Papel, Madeira de Lei - Parceria entre Incra e madeireiros ameaça a Amazônia

 

Ministério aguarda “denúncia formal” para investigar assentamentos-fantasma

Manaus, Brasil — Fotografias georreferenciadas comprovam irregularidades e atividade madeireira predatória dentro e no entorno de assentamentos na região de Santarém, no Pará

O Ministério do Desenvolvimento Agrário informou hoje, por meio de sua assessoria, que não vai instaurar qualquer procedimento investigativo sobre as denúncias contidas no relatório do Greenpeace “Assentamentos de Papel, Madeira de Lei” , antes de receber um pedido formal de investigação. A denúncia foi apresentada no programa Fantástico, da TV Globo (19/08), e no jornal inglês The Independent (21/08), que publicou hoje nova reportagem sobre o assunto, dizendo que o governo brasileiro vai iniciar investigação.

O Greenpeace protocolou no MDA um pedido oficial de audiência com o ministro Guilherme Cassel, para entregar o relatório e discutir pessoalmente os crimes denunciados. “O ministério não pode deixar casos dessa gravidade passarem em branco. É necessário investigar minuciosamente e pedir a retirada de madeireiras e grileiros dessas áreas o mais rápido possível”, afirmou André Muggiati, da Campanha Amazônia do Greenpeace. O relatório “Assentamentos de Papel, Madeira de Lei” já foi encaminhado para o Ministério Público Federal, em Santarém.

O Sindicato de Trabalhadores e Trabalhadoras Rurais de Santarém e a Associação dos Servidores da Reforma Agrária do Oeste do Pará (formada por funcionários do Incra) publicaram notas confirmando as denúncias e também solicitando apuração.

Em vez de iniciar investigações imediatamente, o MDA publicou em seu site uma nota  refutando dados apresentados pelo Greenpeace e buscando desqualificar a denúncia. A resposta do Greenpeace às incorreções da nota do MDA segue abaixo.

Clique aqui para ver fotos georreferenciadas dos sobrevôos e das missões de campo que a equipe do Greenpeace realizou durante a investigação sobre os assentamentos-fantasma criados pelo Incra no oeste do Pará. Para visualizar as fotos e imagens de satélite da área é preciso ter instalado o aplicativo Google Earth. Se você não possui, clique aqui para fazer o download.

RESPOSTAS À NOTA PUBLICADA PELO MDA SOBRE REPORTAGEM DO FANTÁSTICO E RELATÓRIO DO GREENPEACE

Algumas incorreções na nota de resposta do MDA referente à reportagem sobre “assentamentos-fantasma”, veiculada no programa Fantástico no último domingo, com base em dados do relatório do Greenpeace “Assentamentos de Papel: Madeira de Lei”:

- O relatório do Greenpeace, o programa do Fantástico e a investigação do Ministério Público Federal denunciam um esquema de exploração predatória de madeira;

- O MDA afirma que o desmatamento mostrado pelo Fantástico no assentamento Santa Clara foi realizado pelo grileiro Donizeti Pires de Oliveira. O desmatamento de Donizeti Pires foi denunciado pelo Greenpeace em 2006, com um banner de 160 metros quadrados, exposto pela organização e destruído, no local, pelo grileiro. Esse desmatamento está localizado *FORA* do assentamento Santa Clara e *NÃO* foi exibido pelo Fantástico;

- O MDA afirma que em apenas dois assentamentos há acordos entre assentados e madeireiras. O Greenpeace reuniu documentação, referenciada no relatório “Assentamentos de Papel: Madeira de Lei”, demonstrando que esses acordos existem em pelo menos cinco assentamentos. Na reportagem do Fantástico, o presidente do Sindicato das Indústrias Madeireiras do Oeste do Pará, Luiz Carlos Tremonte, admitiu a existência desses acordos. Na CPI da biopirataria, na Câmara dos Deputados, em 2006, o próprio Tremonte afirmou que os madeireiros estariam indicando ao Incra o local onde gostariam que os assentamentos fossem criados. Diversos casos de acordos entre associações de assentados e madeireiros foram relatados à equipe de pesquisa do Greenpeace e precisam ser investigados pelo governo;

- O MDA afirma que nenhum dos assentamentos envolveu deslocamento de populações de região. O Greenpeace reuniu dezenas de “Espelhos da Unidade Familiar”, documento do próprio Incra, que demonstram que alguns dos assentados encontram-se a mais de mil quilômetros de distância do assentamento para os quais foram designados e, às vezes, até mesmo em outro estado. Ofícios encaminhados por assentados ao Incra também apontam erros de colocação em assentamentos;

- O MDA diz que não existem “assentamentos-fantasma” e menciona um Termo de Ajustamento de Conduta (TAC) entre o Ministério Público Federal e o Incra, pelo qual os assentados devem aguardar o licenciamento ambiental antes de irem para os assentamentos. O que o MDA não diz é que continua descumprindo esse Termo e o próprio Ministério Público Federal pediu, na semana passada o cancelamento da portaria de criação de 99 assentamentos na região de Santarém, por não estarem licenciados. Essas pessoas não deveriam sequer ter sido “assentadas” ou seja, serem contabilizadas em RBs (Registros de Beneficiários) do Incra. Não deveriam, também, ser contabilizadas como “assentadas”, na prestação de contas do cumprimento de metas da reforma agrária do governo.

Aguardamos a providências do Ministério no sentido de investigar as denúncias, conforme menciona a nota.

Mais informações:

Assentamentos de Papel, Madeira de Lei - Parceria entre Incra e madeireiros ameaça a Amazônia

Escândalo: Incra cria assentamentos-fantasma para madeireiras no Pará

in Greenpeace

 

Fazendeiros e políticos expulsam Greenpeace, organizações e jornalistas de Juína (MT)

Foto de Juína Brasil
Paulo Adario às margens do Rio Juruena com Atainaene escoltado por PMs.

 

 

Juína, Brasil — Greenpeace e Opan pedem investigação contra fazendeiros e políticos que expulsaram as organizações e dois jornalistas franceses da cidade de Juína, no Mato Grosso.

O Greenpeace e a organização indigenista Opan (Operação Amazônia Nativa) pediram hoje ao Ministério Público Federal a apuração dos graves incidentes ocorridos há dois dias em Juína, no Mato Grosso, que resultaram na expulsão, por fazendeiros, de um grupo de representantes da Opan, ativistas do Greenpeace e dois jornalistas franceses. Entre os ambientalistas estava o coordenador do Greenpeace na Amazônia, Paulo Adario.

Veja as imagens:

 

Cópias de duas horas de imagens em vídeo documentando ameaças, ofensas e o processo de expulsão do grupo foram entregues agora à tarde ao Procurador Federal da República em Mato Grosso, Mário Lúcio Avelar. Pela manhã, Adario fez um pronunciamento sobre o assunto durante reunião especial do Conselho Nacional de Meio Ambiente (Conama) que se realiza em Cuiabá, e pediu providências das autoridades estaduais e federais. Ontem, durante a abertura da reunião, o governador Blairo Maggi anunciou que irá pedir a presença do Exército para enfrentar a grilagem e garantir a ordem no noroeste do estado, onde está Juína. O governo do estado havia sido informado no dia anterior que o Greenpeace, a Opan e jornalistas estavam praticamente mantidos como reféns num hotel da cidade, cercados por quase uma centena de fazendeiros.

“Ao mesmo tempo em que o governo celebra e assume o mérito pela queda das taxas de desmatamento na Amazônia, o episódio em Juína mostra que sua presença ou é rala ou ainda está muito longe daqui”, disse Paulo Adário, coordenador da campanha da Amazônia do Greenpeace, que fazia parte do grupo. “É inaceitável que fazendeiros, com o apoio de autoridades locais, cerceiem a liberdade que todo cidadão tem de ir e vir e revoguem a Lei de Imprensa, cassando o direito de jornalistas exercerem sua profissão com segurança”.

O grupo do Greenpeace, da Opan e os jornalistas franceses foram expulsos por fazendeiros na segunda-feira pela manhã (20/08), depois de ser mantido durante toda a noite sob vigilância em um hotel da cidade. O grupo de nove pessoas estava de passagem por Juína e seguia em direção à terra indígena Enawene-Nawe. O objetivo da viagem era documentar áreas recém-desmatadas, além de mostrar a convivência de um povo indígena que vive de agricultura e pesca com a floresta e seu papel em preservar a biodiversidade.

No final da tarde de domingo, fazendeiros abordaram integrantes das duas organizações no hotel onde estavam hospedados, querendo saber quem eram e o que estavam fazendo em Juína. A área onde está localizada a terra indígena está em disputa entre os Enawene Nawe e os fazendeiros e expressa o conflito da expansão agrícola sobre áreas protegidas e territórios de povos indígenas.

Os índios reivindicam a reintegração de parte do território tradicional que teria ficado de fora da demarcação e que contém uma área de pesca cerimonial, fundamental nos rituais sagrados dos Enawene. Os fazendeiros, por sua vez, alegam que a terra é deles e estão dispostos a lutar para mantê-las. Eles se mostraram muito irritados quando souberam que jornalistas integravam o grupo que estava no hotel.

Na manhã seguinte, o local foi cercado por dezenas de fazendeiros e o presidente da Câmara Municipal, vereador Francisco Pedroso, o Chicão (DEM), que exigiam esclarecimento sobre os objetivos dos visitantes. O grupo foi levado à Câmara Municipal, onde uma sessão especial foi rapidamente organizada. Estavam presentes o prefeito da cidade, Hilton Campos (PR), o presidente da Câmara, o presidente da OAB, o presidente da Associação dos Produtores Rurais da região do Rio Preto(Aprurp), Aderval Bento, vários vereadores e mais de 50 fazendeiros. E também a polícia. Durante seis horas, os fazendeiros e repetiram que a entrada do grupo na terra Enawene Nawe não seria permitida e que seria “perigoso” insistir na viagem. Esmurrando a mesa, o prefeito de Juína, Hilton Campos, afirmou que não iria permitir a ida do grupo para o Rio Preto, sendo aplaudido fervorosamente pelos colegas fazendeiros.

Para evitar maiores conflitos, a viagem foi cancelada. O grupo, então, se dirigiu ao local de encontro com os Enawene, uma ponte sobre o Rio Preto, a 60 km de distância, para dar a eles combustível e comida para a volta. A viagem foi feita sob escolta policial, para garantir a segurança dos jornalistas, da Opan e do Greenpeace. Mas nem isso evitou que os fazendeiros, que acompanharam a viagem de ida e volta em 8 oito caminhonetes lotadas, continuassem intimidando e ameaçando o grupo. O grupo se refugiou no hotel de onde não pôde sair nem para comer. Uma viatura da Polícia Militar ficou na área, para impedir qualquer tentativa de invasão, mas não conseguiu impedir que um fotógrafo fosse agredido. Os fazendeiros fizeram uma vigília na frente do hotel durante toda a noite.

De manhã cedo, 30 caminhonetes lotadas de fazendeiros, com faróis acessos a buzinando sem parar, insultando e ameaçando o grupo, escoltaram o grupo, que estava protegido por duas viaturas policiais, até o aeroporto.Foram advertidos a decolar imediatamente, ou o avião seria queimado. No momento, todos se encontram em segurança em Cuiabá.

 

in Greenpeace