A manifesto signed by over 300 civil society organizations condemns the processing of Bill 2930/2023 in the Federal Senate.
ACurrently under review by the Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Committee (CRA) and under the rapporteurship of Senator Soraya Thronicke (Podemos-MS), Bill (PL) 2.930/2023 is scheduled for a vote this Wednesday, August 23. If approved, it will proceed to the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) and, subsequently, to a vote in the Plenary, scheduled for September 5.
The project in question allows for several arbitrary actions against indigenous peoples and their lands, which today protect 24% of what remains of the Amazon Rainforest and provide an invaluable environmental service to all Brazilians, such as maintaining regular rainfall in the Central-South region of the country. One of these arbitrary actions is allowing the Union to reclaim "indigenous reserves" based on subjective criteria, which would pose an immediate risk. at least 66 territories, inhabited by more than 70 indigenous people and with a total area of 440 hectaresIt is important to mention that these are lands that have already been regularized and consolidated, and that this possibility would provoke legal uncertainty, violence, and invasions with the expectation of reviewing legally perfected acts. Furthermore, it presents the following setbacks:
It applies the "time frame" to all demarcations of Indigenous Lands. making a process that is already complex and often time-consuming unfeasible.
- It establishes that the demarcation may be contested at all stages of the process. administrative process, which would make its completion difficult.
- It exempts highly impactful activities (construction of roads, hydroelectric dams, transmission lines, etc.) from the requirement of free, prior, and informed consultation with the affected indigenous communities, contradicting the provisions of the Federal Constitution and international legislation ratified by the Brazilian State.
- It legalizes the leasing of indigenous lands ("rural partnerships") for the planting of large areas of monoculture, without any environmental protection rules, stimulating a significant increase in deforestation in the country, especially in the Amazon, where 98% of indigenous territories are concentrated.
- This opens loopholes for the end of the policy of no contact with isolated indigenous groups, allowing contact in cases of "public interest," which could be carried out by companies and even by missionary associations.
Given the dangers this bill represents, 309 civil society organizations (including ISPN) working on indigenous, indigenist, environmental, human rights, and education and research issues, drafted a letter expressing their opposition to its processing.