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INDIGENOUS RIGHTS

Brazil's government revokes norm on logging on indigenous lands

Authorization was granted by the previous administration last December

O Liberal

With information from Agência Brasil

18/01/2023

The federal government of Brazil has revoked an administrative act of former president Jair Bolsonaro that regulated logging on indigenous lands. The act did not take effect, as it was revoked on the date it was supposed to take effect: January 16. The announcement of the revocation was made by the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara.

According to the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai), the measure implemented last year violated the Federal Constitution and the "Statute of the Indian", in addition to infringing international treaties to which Brazil is a signatory, such as Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which provides for prior consultation with indigenous communities and which has not been complied with, according to federal agencies.

The Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, used her social networks to reinforce the message of the Ministry and the federal government. "Our commitment is to the protection of indigenous lands", she wrote.

Last month, when it was still subordinated to the Ministry of Justice and Public Safety, the indigenous body justified the edition of the first normative instruction by assuring that it "established the guidelines and procedures for sustainable forest management on indigenous lands."

At the time, Funai informed, in a note, that the authorization for indigenous organizations or mixed composition to develop extractive activities in areas of the Union of exclusive usufruct of different indigenous peoples would allow the expansion of "income generation" in the villages.

The foundation also guaranteed that the regulation of sustainable management in indigenous areas would help combat illegal deforestation and that the communities would be consulted and that the entire management process would be duly inspected.

At the end of last year, the Federal Prosecution Office (MPF) had already questioned the regulation, opening an inquiry to investigate the exploitation of wood on indigenous lands. At the time, the agency gave Ibama and Funai ten days to detail the studies that served as a basis for authorizing the forest management.