Thousands of Indigenous people set up camp in Brasília, the capital city of Brazil, for five days in April to draw attention to their incessant battles against illegal gold mining and deforestation on their territories ahead of upcoming climate talks.
“There is no solution to the climate crisis without the recognition and protection of our territorial rights,” they wrote in a statement that called on the government to demarcate more Indigenous territories in the Amazon.
The gathering of an estimated 8,000 people from across the country, other parts of South America, the Pacific Islands and Australia came at a critical juncture, as Brazil’s Supreme Court considered a proposal that would strip Indigenous Peoples of the right to veto projects that have an impact on their ancestral lands, including mining. It also would make it easier for non-Indigenous settlers to temporarily remain on demarcated Indigenous territory.
“The UN has already warned that this proposal weakens Indigenous sovereignty and violates international human rights law,” the Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil, a major Indigenous rights advocacy group in Brazil, said in a statement. “It represents a serious threat to environmental protection, given that Indigenous territories are critical to mitigating climate change and preserving biodiversity.”
The proposed legislation is tied to the “time frame thesis” law in Brazil that states that Indigenous Peoples have rights only to land they occupied in October 1988. Communities say that law disregards the history of violence they suffered that made it impossible for them to occupy their traditional territories. The law was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court but was passed by the government anyway last year. It is now undergoing a “conciliation” process, in which Indigenous Peoples have a minority voice, and a new bill is being drafted.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, has placed climate and Indigenous Peoples at the centre of his third term as leader of the largest country in Latin America. Reversing course from his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, whose aggressive deregulation saw rates of deforestation in the Amazon surge, da Silva is trumpeting the arrival of the UN climate conference, COP30, in the northern city of Belém in November. He has reinstated climate funds, brought back stricter greenhouse gas controls and vowed to end deforestation of the world’s largest rainforest by 2030. He has also prioritized the rights of Indigenous Peoples, naming the country’s first Indigenous minister and, after significant delays, demarcated 13 new Indigenous territories. “We are an administration that respects the Indigenous Peoples, recognizes their rights, and works day and night to protect them,” Da Silva said in April.
But many first peoples note that the pace of change is too slow, and they don’t want it to go unnoticed as the country prepares to welcome international delegates for the climate conference. The rally in Brasília included tense encounters with security forces, who on one occasion lobbed tear gas at protesters as they marched toward the Congressional building.
Kari Guajajara, a lawyer, told Al Jazeera at the Brasília gathering that Indigenous communities have made significant strides in reclaiming territory. But they have also suffered more invasions from illegal miners, poachers and loggers. “It’s a never-ending struggle,” she said.
Take the plight of the Yanomami, one of the largest tribes in Brazil, who live in relative isolation in remote forest outposts. Numbering some 30,000 people, the Yanomami have suffered the devastating impacts of rampant illegal gold mining, which has polluted their riverways. A study in 2023 found that 84% of the nearly 300 Yanomami people from which researchers took samples had levels of mercury high enough to cause health problems. Mercury, which is commonly used to process gold in illegal mining, was also found in fish in the river the Yanomami rely on for food. “Our people are being poisoned and our women are afraid to bear children,” Dario Kopenawa, a Yanomami leader, said at the Indigenous gathering.
Da Silva stepped up efforts to combat illegal mining with dedicated teams sent in to patrol the deep crevices of the Amazon waterways. But Kopenawa says that protection has come and gone. “As soon as the armed forces left, the illegal miners returned,” he said. “Every day we see their planes coming and going. Sometimes 15 per day.”
Indigenous leaders such as Kopenawa plan to bring these and other urgent issues to the forefront at COP30, stressing that their “significant” participation in decision-making processes is essential to environmental protection efforts.
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