Minister highlights resumption of demarcation of indigenous lands.

Brazil Agency - The Minister for Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajaraja, stated today (28) that the federal recognition of the right of indigenous communities to six more reserves marks the resumption of the process of approving these lands, which had been stalled since the previous government.

“We are resuming the demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil,” said the minister, while participating in the closing of the 19th edition of the Free Land Camp (ATL), an assembly that the indigenous movement has held annually since 2004 in Brasília, and which, according to the organizers, attracted around 5 participants from all over the country this year.

During the event, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the decrees officially recognizing six more indigenous territories. Distributed across six states (Acre, Alagoas, Amazonas, Ceará, Goiás, and Rio Grande do Sul), these areas were recognized as territories of traditional indigenous occupation through the publication of so-called declaratory decrees between 1996 and 2015. The completion of the demarcation process, however, depended on presidential approval.

The initial expectation was that the federal government would announce, on the 19th of this month, when Indigenous Peoples' Day is celebrated, the recognition of these peoples' right to the exclusive use of the lands that belonged to their ancestors. In January, Minister Sonia Guajajara herself informed media outlets of Empresa Brasil de Comunicação (EBC), including Agência Brasil, that 14 demarcation processes were ready to be approved. Today, the minister cited one of the reasons for the delay in the announcement.

“We are still in the final stages of these processes. Upon updating them, we saw that some documentary evidence is still missing. We submitted these processes to the Civil House, which was unable to complete them [in time for them to be approved today],” said the minister, assuring that, as soon as they meet again, the members of the National Council for Indigenous Policy (CNPI) will establish a work agenda to analyze both the eight processes that are about to be completed and others.

The re-establishment of the CNPI was another measure announced by the federal Executive Branch this Friday. Responsible for the political guidelines of government actions aimed at indigenous peoples, the CNPI will be composed of representatives from the Public Sector and indigenous organizations.

“We will establish the council, which will define a timeline to update both the eight processes that were not signed today and for Funai [National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples] to continue working to complete [other] reports and to form new working groups. I cannot yet give dates, but we will work believing that we will have more areas officially recognized by the end of this year,” added Sonia Guajajara. The minister assured that the federal government is working to recognize the right of all indigenous communities to their traditional territories.

“I want to reaffirm and reiterate the commitment to, together, move forward with the demarcation and protection of indigenous lands so that we can change the reality of the destruction of our biomes and natural resources, in defense of our sociocultural diversity and our indigenous lives,” added the minister, before noting that land demarcation faces resistance, including in Parliament.

“There is a strong bloc in the National Congress that is against [indigenous demands]. The rural and mining blocs are organizing, making various moves against the demarcation of indigenous lands, but we will not stop moving forward with what is our constitutional right. It is the Union's duty to demarcate indigenous territories. You heard President Lula's speech [at the closing of ATL2023]. He spoke of this commitment to move forward with the demarcation processes. And I, as minister, will work to ensure that these processes follow their normal course throughout the four years of this government.”

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Kleber Karipuna, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), stated that the approval of six new indigenous lands and the release of R$ 12,3 million for Funai to invest in recovering the productive capacity of the Yanomami indigenous communities in Roraima; as well as the recreation of the CNPI and the creation of the Management Committee of the National Policy for Territorial and Environmental Management of Indigenous Lands are "positive." Even so, the indigenous movement will continue to demand the effective implementation of the policy for the demarcation of indigenous lands, Karipuna said.

“Our assessment is that the result of the coordination we carried out with our representative bodies in the government is initially positive, but it is clear that the indigenous movement understands that this is a starting point in the process of resuming the demarcation of indigenous lands that we have been demanding for years. The approval of six lands is already very significant, but we will continue to demand and claim our rights in order to move forward in relation to several other areas that are still under analysis,” he added.