ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — The Brazilian Amazon is home to the largest concentration of uncontacted Indigenous communities in the world. These communities live in extremely remote parts of the Amazon and on designated reservations throughout the extensive rainforest. Environmental protection police have historically served as allies to these communities. However, since President Jair Bolsonaro’s election in 2019, the government has weakened environmental protection agencies, leaving Indigenous communities under threat and having to police the region themselves in certain instances. This reduction in environmental policing along with deregulatory legislation instituted by Bolsonaro’s administration is a coordinated effort to increase economic output from the region. Deforestation efforts are now rampant while the largest federal agency aimed at advocacy for Indigenous populations, FUNAI, has seen a substantial decrease in employees and funding.
Background on Brazil’s Indigenous Communities
Estimates indicate that “human settlements” have existed in the Amazon for more than 30,000 years. Many of the Indigenous communities existing today have descended from ancestors who formed part of these settlements. These people know the land better than anyone and have figured out ways to survive for thousands of years.
Although many ancient traditions are still in existence today, such as hunting with poison-tipped blow-darts, there are some Indigenous communities who have adapted to survive with modern weapons such as guns. This is not only due to the increased efficiency and ease of use of guns but also out of necessity. The supply of historically important game is dwindling as a result of illegal poaching.
With the decrease in game availability, Indigenous communities have had to take action. This has led Indigenous communities to make use of guns when it comes to dealing with illegal poachers. In an interview with The Borgen Project, Jessica Carey-Webb, a professor at the University of New Mexico with a background in Brazilian and Indigenous studies, provides some additional information on the situation.
Deforestation and Deregulation in Brazil
In regard to Brazil’s history of governmental deforestation, Carey-Webb says, “This is a process that was occurring pre-Bolsonaro, most prominently during the Brazilian dictatorship, where the military government was intent on developing the Amazon and began construction on the Trans-Amazonia highway.”
She explains further, “There have always been threats to environmental protections in the Amazon. However, [from]the early 2000s until about 2012, deforestation trends in the region went down due to new environmental legislation and increased monitoring led by the environmental minister at the time, Marina Silva.”
Remote parts of the Brazilian Amazon have struggled with the issue of poaching for a long time. However, the prevalence of poaching has only increased under Bolsonaro’s administration and deregulatory rainforest policies. Carey-Webb continues, “Once Bolsonaro was elected, he began spouting the same rhetoric as the dictatorship, that the future of Brazil’s progress [depends]on increased developmental projects like dams and mining.”
Bolsonaro’s Deregulation of the Amazon
The Amazon Rainforest is the world’s rainforest. It is home to an extremely complex ecosystem, and as mentioned, the largest concentration of uncontacted Indigenous communities. Bolsonaro has openly stated his intentions to take advantage of the expansive Amazon’s economic potential. This has led to increased deforestation with a focus on logging and clearing land for ranches. Specifically, Brazil has seen a 12% reduction in tree cover from 2001 to 2021.
Bolsonaro has put these economic intentions into action through policy as Carey-Webb notes. “Bolsonaro has passed a sweeping set of bills that would open up Amazonian land to increased mining, decrease protections on Indigenous held land, dismantle environmental agencies and broadly lead toward more destruction of the region. So, in short, deregulation is not something specific to Bolsonaro, but it has become a much worse problem during his tenure.”
Murders in the Amazon
This has also opened the door to widespread illegal activity, namely poaching, illegal fishing and violence, in the now virtually unregulated region. This is evident in the June 2022 murders of Indigenous expert and advocate Bruno Pereira, along with British journalist Dom Phillips, in the remote Javari valley region of the Amazon.
At the time, Phillips was conducting research for a book he intended to write on how to preserve the Amazon, while Pereira, a former member of FUNAI, helped to introduce Phillips to potential interviewees. Investigators suspect that the murders of Phillips and Pereira connect to “illegal fishing and poaching in indigenous territories,” NPR says. In particular, Pereira had “led high-profile efforts to stop illegal fishing and gold prospecting,” making him a potential target for disgruntled poachers.
A Lawless Area
Many activists state that these murders are a result of the deregulatory efforts taken by Bolsonaro’s administration as the region has essentially become lawless where poachers can act with impunity.
Pereira and Phillips are not the only Indigenous advocates to be killed in Brazil recently. Front Line Defenders notes at least 27 human rights defenders deaths in Brazil in 2021 alone, making Brazil “one of the most dangerous countries in the world for environmental defenders and journalists.” The absence of human rights defenders exacerbates the already dangerous situation for Indigenous communities under threat.
The government has been working closely with mining companies to ramp up production in the Amazon and has begun construction of “hydroelectric dam complexes” to provide cheap electricity for the mines. These dams are poised to remove many Indigenous peoples from their land and restrict access to water systems, impacting Indigenous livelihoods.
Some forcibly removed Indigenous peoples must now live in shacks on the side of roads. Private militias hired by ranchers target these Indigenous people, ensuring that they do not return to their now-occupied territory.
Solutions to Protect Indigenous Communities Under Threat
When asked about how to potentially reverse the devolving situation in the Amazon, Carey-Webb states, “First and foremost, there needs to be a clearer process toward establishing and demarcating Indigenous and quilombo-held land within the Amazon. There also needs to be increased monitoring of existing Indigenous held land to ensure that wildcat miners and other deforesters cannot encroach.”
Carey-Webb also highlights the solution of providing illegal poachers and ranchers with income-generating opportunities in other industries. “For the people involved in illegal mining or cattle ranching, there should be government incentives to help move them into a different industry. There is a massive problem of large-scale monoculture plantations in the Amazon that have forced smaller farmers into these types of illegal activities and that have threatened Indigenous and quilombo lands,” she says.
Organizations Taking Action
Amazon Watch, established in 1996, aims to safeguard the Amazon rainforest and uphold the rights of Indigenous communities under threat. By working with other Indigenous and environmental groups, Amazon Watch leads “campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems,” its website says.
The Kayapo Project is an initiative to help the Kayapo Indigenous community and its territories located in the Southeastern Amazon. Several Kayapo organizations collaborate to protect Indigenous lands and empower the Kayapo people by implementing environmental surveillance initiatives and developing “sustainable enterprises” for people to derive income, among other efforts.
In short, Brazil’s Indigenous communities would benefit from governmental legislation that holds their best interests in mind. Now, amid the nation’s presidential election, the fate of the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous people’s rights rests on the voting results.
– Devin Welsh
Photo: Flickr