Listen now<\/p>\n
\nThis article is a summary of the fifth episode of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada, a new podcast series from Di\u00e1logo Chino, available in Portuguese only. Listen here<\/a>.
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But it\u2019s also here in Bras\u00edlia that resistance is happening, inside and outside parliament, and new projects for the future of the biome are being discussed.<\/p>\n
The national capital is the last stop in Di\u00e1logo Chino\u2019s new podcast series, Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada<\/a>, produced in association with Trov\u00e3o M\u00eddia. Across five episodes, we have travelled along the BR-163 highway, a route that illustrates how soybean agriculture, cattle farming, logging and mining have expanded throughout the Amazon over the last five decades.<\/p>\n The colonisation and economic exploitation of the forest<\/a> did not occur naturally or spontaneously: they were only possible because this model is perpetuated in the halls of power in the Brazilian capital.<\/p>\n Among the main issues currently being discussed in Bras\u00edlia is the marco temporal<\/em><\/a> \u2013 the \u201ctemporal milestone\u201d that sets a historical cut-off date for the demarcation of indigenous territories, and which has spurred heated debate among environmental activists and pro-agriculture ruralists. This lawsuit in the Federal Supreme Court argues that indigenous peoples can only claim lands where they were on before 5 October 1988, when the country\u2019s constitution was ratified.<\/p>\n The action arose from a land dispute of the Xokleng ethnic group, in the state of Santa Catarina, but the decision will serve as a reference for all demarcations of indigenous lands in the country. The debate has exposed how the ruralist bench of the national congress and institutions linked to agriculture and cattle ranching seek to expand the sector across Brazilian lands, not only in the Amazon. <\/div>\u201cWe cannot randomly accept that indigenous demarcation be carried out without having clear criteria,\u201d said former federal deputy Neri Geller, who was formerly vice-president of the Parliamentary Agricultural Front, the ruralist caucus. Although a supporter of Jair Bolsonaro in years past, Geller is now backing<\/a> former President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, who is leading in the polls in the presidential race ahead of elections on Sunday 2 October.<\/p>\n Many indigenous leaders have spoken out over the marco temporal<\/em> case. The proposal, these groups say, disregards the expulsions, forced removals<\/a> and all the violence suffered before the entry of the constitution. They fear that the right to territories, taken back after decades of struggles, will be lost, as well as to those that are still in the process of demarcation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to claim all these rights in the face of setbacks and this government\u2019s genocidal attack on all indigenous peoples in regions all over Brazil,\u201d said Laura Parintintin, an indigenous leader and student, at a protest in Bras\u00edlia in June.<\/p>\n But this dispute is not recent. The discussion around the marco temporal<\/em> in the supreme court illustrates a battle for land that has permeated the country\u2019s entire history. \u201cThe formation of the Brazilian state is based not only on concepts, but also on alliances with ruralists [that have existed] since Brazil has been Brazil,\u201d explains Mayr\u00e1 Lima, a political scientist at the University of Bras\u00edlia, who researches the ruralist benches in Congress.<\/p>\n Today, the Parliamentary Agricultural Front has 280 members and meets on agribusiness-related issues. Beyond the discussion of the marco temporal<\/em> in the supreme court, the caucus has supported the approval of bills such as the regularisation of mining in indigenous territories<\/a>, changes in environmental licensing<\/a> (which Geller led), more flexible approval of pesticides<\/a> and the granting of amnesty for illegal occupation<\/a> of public lands. These projects have been dubbed by environmentalists as the \u201cdestruction package\u201d.<\/p>\n It is logical that the Amazon needs infrastructure and public services, but in the right way<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe need to move forward in these bottlenecks that we defend here in congress,\u201d said Geller. \u201cYou have to preserve, but what about the people who need to eat?\u201d<\/p>\n Ruralists in Congress have gained greater political backing during the Bolsonaro government. \u201cI want to say that this government here is yours,\u201d the president told<\/a> deputies from the ruralist caucus in 2019.<\/p>\n This backing explains the support that sectors linked to agribusiness have given to Bolsonaro, as previous episodes of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada have discussed. This alliance resulted in policies of zero demarcations of indigenous territories by the current government, the dismantling of environmental inspection agencies<\/a>, and upheaval at the ministry of environment itself.<\/p>\n The administration began to move to \u201coverthrow environmental legislation\u201d, according to Suely Ara\u00fajo, former president of environmental protection agency IBAMA and a legislative advisor for nearly 30 years. \u201cThe parliamentarians who act on behalf of the environment have always been few. But the civil society organisations had important support in the Ministry of the Environment, regardless of the president. In the Bolsonaro government this has been reversed,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n Ara\u00fajo says that her fight over the past four years in Bras\u00edlia \u201chas been to prevent, all the time, every day, the retrogression of environmental legislation\u201d. She says the pitching of environmental preservation against economic development, as suggested by Geller, is outdated.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is logical that the Amazon needs infrastructure and public services, but in the right way. Models that are not designed for the Amazon, and of environmental degradation, are not the future,\u201d she says. \u201cWhat the Amazon needs is a standing forest, investment in science, technology and respect and appreciation of traditional knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n We have non-indigenous supporters, but it\u2019s different when an indigenous relative is there<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Polls have so far suggested that the looming presidential elections will bring a change of government and, according to specialists like Ara\u00fajo and Lima, a realignment of Bras\u00edlia\u2019s priorities on indigenous and environmental issues.<\/p>\n At protests in the capital, young leaders told us that the last years of the current government were important in bringing indigenous groups together, to organise themselves and dispute spaces of power, for example in indigenous peoples standing as candidates in national and regional elections.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is through these spaces that we will be able to change something in the indigenous issue,\u201d said Thaira Pripra, a student who came to protest against the marco temporal<\/em>. \u201cWe have non-indigenous supporters, but it\u2019s different when an indigenous relative is there.\u201d<\/p>\n According to her, hope lies in people like Jo\u00eania Wapixana, the only indigenous representative in congress, as well as in the possibility of electing a bancada do cocar<\/em> \u2013 a \u201cbench of the headdress\u201d made up of indigenous and pro-indigenous voices.<\/p>\n The fifth and final episode of Amaz\u00f4nia Ocupada is now available, in Portuguese only, on Spotify<\/a>, Apple<\/a>, Amazon<\/a> and Deezer<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the final part of our Amazon series, we visit Bras\u00edlia, where disputes over the exploitation of the forest are being fought<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":50058941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[50039902],"tags":[506,555],"country":[50000021],"class_list":["post-50058952","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forests","tag-amazon","tag-indigenous-peoples","country-brazil"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"protesta](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/protesta-indigenas-brasil_MidiaNinja-scaled.jpg\")
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