At the end of his term, Bolsonaro allows the exploitation of forests on indigenous lands

According to the normative instruction that authorizes these activities, the objective is to establish “guidelines and procedures for the preparation, analysis, approval and monitoring of a Community Sustainable Forest Management Plan for the exploitation of timber resources in indigenous lands”.

The main target of illegal exploitation, indigenous lands Today, they are the last frontier in environmental conservation, where the largest areas of forest are preserved, precisely because they are demarcated lands.

Socio-environmental organizations fear that the measure will end up further facilitating the criminal exploitation that already occurs, due to failures in inspections and monitoring of these activities, which are often used to “launder” the illegal removal of wood.

From the text published by Ibama e Funai, logging may be carried out by “indigenous organizations or through organizations of mixed composition”, that is, with non-indigenous. According to Ibama and Funai, “the protection of the country's laws is extended to indigenous people, in the same terms as they apply to other Brazilians”.

Juliana de Paula Batista, lawyer at the Instituto Socioambiental, states that the instruction was published without consulting indigenous representative bodies and that it disregards the ways in which people manage their territories.

“This instruction allows entities made up of white people to manage forestry on the land. This goes against the exclusive enjoyment that indigenous people have of the riches of rivers, lakes and soils, provided for in the Federal Constitution,” he told the Estadão. “The text also disrespects the Indian Statute, which prohibits non-indigenous people from carrying out extractive activities on indigenous lands. The act by Funai and Ibama is absurd, illegal, unconstitutional and attempts to release yet another herd when the Bolsonaro government lights out.”

Questioned by the report on the normative instruction, senator Randolfe Rodrigues (Rede-AP), said he will take the case to the Federal Supreme Court. “We are going to the STF to overturn the measure,” he said.

O Estadão The publication also shared with members of the transition of the elected government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The information is that this normative instruction published this Friday (16) will be part of the recommendations for acts that should be revoked at the beginning of 2023. In this case, specifically, those who could revoke the instruction are the new presidents of Ibama and Funai , because it is a decision published by both bodies.

(To Estadão Content)

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