After months of waiting, 200 bureaucratic procedures and no response, the Institute regrets the forced cancellation, the only one in its 32 years of existence.
Projects from seven indigenous and pro-indigenous organizations approved to receive support from the Amazon Fund/BNDES were canceled due to lack of approval from the National Indian Foundation (Funai). The organizations have been waiting for ten months for the document required by the funding agency and have, during this time, gone through 211 bureaucratic procedures across various Funai departments, with countless trips back and forth to the Directorate for the Promotion of Sustainable Development (DPDS). The projects, totaling R$ 1,5 million, were selected by the Fund for the Promotion of Productive Eco-social Landscapes (PPP-ECOS), managed by the Institute for Society, Population and Nature (ISPN).
This is the first time the PPP-ECOS Fund has cancelled projects due to the failure to obtain a document issued by a public body. Active in Brazil since 1994, PPP-ECOS has launched 34 calls for proposals and contracted more than 600 projects in its 28 years of existence, with resources from various funders. With this unprecedented cancellation, eight peoples from nine indigenous territories, representing more than 800 families, will no longer be directly benefited. The affected peoples are the Xavante (Pimentel Barbosa and Marãiwatsédé Indigenous Territories); Kuikuro (Xingu Indigenous Park); Zoró (Zoró Indigenous Territory); Krikati (Krikati Indigenous Territory); Ka'apor (Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory); Gavião (Gavião Indigenous Territory); Apinajé (Apinajé Indigenous Territory); and Krahô (Kraolândia Indigenous Territory).
Leading states in violations
With a focus on sustainable production and conservation of the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, the projects would be implemented in the states of Mato Grosso, Tocantins, and Maranhão, three of the states most affected by deforestation and fires in recent years. Indigenous territories are responsible for maintaining the native vegetation in a region of rampant monoculture expansion. The list of territorial violence faced by the peoples of these states is extensive.
According to data from SAD Cerrado, the highest concentration of deforested areas in the biome during the first half of 2022 is in Maranhão, which accounts for 26,4% of all deforestation detected in the Cerrado in 2022. Mato Grosso, according to Mapbiomas data, was the state most affected by fires between 1985 and 2020. The state is also one of the leaders in deaths of indigenous children aged 0 to 5. According to the Report on Violence Against Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (Sesai) recorded 109 deaths. Mato Grosso also ranks second in the number of registered territorial conflicts. The environmental reality of these federative units highlights the need for projects that promote conservation and strengthen territorial and environmental management strategies for indigenous peoples.
Project content: environmental conservation
With resources from the Amazon Fund/BNDES, the PPP-ECOS Fund has already supported 88 projects since 2013. In 2019, the contract with the Amazon Fund was renewed to support, until 2023, the execution of 60 new projects by family farming, indigenous, and indigenist organizations in the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, and Mato Grosso. This group includes the seven projects prevented by the lack of access to the Funai document. The request for approval was filed on December 9, 2021, by ISPN. For ISPN, it was surprising that Funai delayed issuing a document for so long, to the point of canceling projects that benefit indigenous peoples.
Indigenous and pro-indigenous organizations presented conservation and sustainable production projects directly related to food security, involving various production chains, such as Brazil nuts and seeds for restoration, with the objectives of creating alternative income generation, improving family nutrition, implementing fire management, conserving natural resources, structuring and improving the management of community-based agro-industries, and providing inputs for the forest restoration chain in the region. All projects were based on the Federal Constitution and directly aligned with the precepts of the National Policy for Territorial and Environmental Management of Indigenous Lands (PNGATI).
For ISPN, the requirement for Funai's approval violates the autonomy and recognition of the self-determination of indigenous peoples guaranteed in the 1988 Federal Constitution. “We understand that coordination with the indigenous policy implemented by Funai will always be of great importance for the execution of indigenous projects, but the approval document proved to be flawed, mainly because it disregards the fact that the 1988 Constitution superseded the Brazilian State's guardianship of Indigenous Peoples,” states Rodrigo Noleto, coordinator of ISPN's Amazon Program.
“With an explicitly anti-indigenous government, like the one we have now, this type of resource, which should be easily accessible, has ended up hostage to a deliberate operation by the state bureaucracy that ultimately aims to prevent it from being granted. Because of this rule, indigenous peoples are the only segment harmed, leaving them on the margins of the process,” he adds.
About the PPP-ECOS Fund
The Fund for the Promotion of Productive Eco-social Landscapes is the main strategy adopted by ISPN, based on supporting peoples, traditional communities, family farmers and their organizations. Through it, ISPN raises and allocates resources to projects of community organizations that work for environmental conservation through the sustainable use of natural resources, generating economic and social benefits. Today, the PPP-ECOS funder portfolio includes the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), the Amazon Fund/BNDES, the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU).
About ISPN
ISPN is a non-profit civil society organization based in Brasília, which for 32 years has been working towards development with social equity and environmental balance, supporting traditional peoples and communities and family farmers in the development of sustainable activities and strategies for adapting to climate change. Visit: ispn.org.br
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