1. Background:

The way of life that distinguishes indigenous populations from one another and the rest of Brazilian society is inexorably attached to the land they inhabit.  In some cases it is the particular tract of land that has been inhabited by their ancestors that is of particular importance, in other cases it is the nature of the land, the condition of the forest and its natural resources that allow indigenous populations to define their distinct cultures.

The influx of NeoBrazilians into the Amazon River basin over the last century has drastically reduced the amount of land held by the indigenous people.  Whether a product of accident or intention, enormous tracts of land that were once the territory of indigenous people, usable as hunting grounds and farmland and the source of all sustenance for the indigenous peoples, are now the property of large corporations, wealthy landowners, small scale farmers, speculators and the government.  Needless to say, that for the indigenous people who have lost these lands, their ability to support themselves has been badly damaged by loss of territory.  This loss of land, coupled with the other side effects of NeoBrazilian expansion: epidemics, alcoholism, acculturation, enslavement and genocide, have devastated both the populations and cultures of the indigenous people of the Amazon.

Currently, there exists a legal process that permits the Native Amazonians to obtain the land rights to the land that they inhabit.  However, the laws, the execution of them, and the enforcement of them are all flawed. 

Built into the structure of Decree 1,775/96 is a clause permitting anybody to challenge the ownership of demarcated lands.  Should the challenge prevail in court, a decision made by a single judge, the demarcation process is halted and the indigenous people do not receive the legal rights to their land.  This often leads, in the end, to the claiming of their land by another party, the governance of whom the inhabitants are required to bear.

As the decisions regarding the validity of challenges to the demarcated lands is dependant on a small group of individuals, corruption is not uncommon.  Often the challenging party is a large corporation, wishing to establish plantations or hydroelectric facilities for example, that holds very real power over the decision of the ruling court.

Even after land has been demarcated, it is very difficult to enforce the property rights of the indigenous people.  Encroachment by both large corporations, farmers, loggers and miners has caused the deterioration of demarcated lands throughout the Amazon.  The nature of the Amazon, a remote and difficult-to-penetrate forest, has made enforcement of land rights an extremely difficult task for the government.  In many cases, the natives themselves have taken the responsibility of enforcing their land claims upon themselves, resulting in inter-racial hostilities and unnecessary violence.

After assessing the situation, Project Amazonia recommends that Decree 1,775/96 be modified to ensure that the indigenous people of Brazil are guaranteed a minimum quantity and quality of land upon which to live and maintain their cultural uniqueness.

 Figure 1: Amazonas Region

(courtesy of the National Indian Foundation of Brazil (FUNAI))

 

2. Problem:

a)      Legal challenges often lead to the denial of legitimate land claims by indigenous people.

b)      The settlements of these legal challenges often do not provide fair compensation to the indigenous people.

c)      Possession of adequate land is essential to the survival of the indigenous peoples of Brazil as well as their unique cultures and pools of knowledge.

d)      There exists no mechanism to ensure that the indigenous people of Brazil retain legal claim to the area of land necessary for their survival under the aforementioned legal challenges.

e)      Vast quantities of knowledge held by the indigenous population, concerning the presence and extraction of natural resources within the rainforest, remain inaccessible to the rest of Brazilian Society and the World.

3. Plan:

Project Amazonia recommends that the Brazilian Government:

1.      lock the minimum amount of land demarcated to Indigenous people at its current value of 940,000 square kilometers,

2.      is held responsible to maintain the area and quality of demarcated land held by individual indigenous groups should legal challenges be settled against their favor,

3.      establish a government agency under the Ministry of Science and Technology, with input from the Ministry of the Interior, FUNAI and the National Institute of Industrial Property to regulates both the collection of indigenous knowledge regarding the existence and application of natural resources within the Amazon and the distribution of corresponding royalties among the appropriate indigenous groups.

4. Procedure: 

Phase 1 (Approximate Duration: 10 to 20 weeks): Establishing the Indigenous Coexistence Project-eXperiment (ICP-X)

                   Infrastructure: The ICP-X will research and determine the best choices for project infrastructure - such as the location of the ICP-X Brazilian headquarters, human resources, communications systems, and etcetera.                        

                  Public Relations: The ICP-X will initiate contact and relations with the proper Brazilian government agencies, conservation interest groups, and Brazilian public.  Brazilian government contacts include, but are not limited to: the National Indian Foundation of Brazil (FUNAI), the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the National Environment Council (CONAMA), the Amazon Region Protected Areas (ARPA), the provincial government of Amazonas the System for Vigilance of the Amazon Region (SIVAM), the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of the Interior, and the President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.  Conservation interest group contacts include, but are not limited to, the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), Greenpeace, Socioambiental, the Coordinating Committee of Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA).  Finally, public relations with the Brazilian public will include focusing efforts on education programs outside of school, publicity events (such as public meetings and/or marches), and media outlets (such as radio, television, press releases, and internet advertisements).

                  

Phase 2:    (Approximate Duration: 6 months to 1 year): ICP-X Implementation:

                                    Legislative Recommendation: Though the ICP-X has no direct governing or legislative power, it aims to effect change through legislative recommendation.  The ICP-X will present a proposal to the government of Amazonas, outlined in the plan above and explained further below:

ICP-X recommends that the government of Amazonas amend Decree 1,775/96 in order to:

1.      Fix the minimum amount of land demarcated to Indigenous people at its current value of 940,000 square kilometers.  With this policy in place, any demarcated land taken away from indigenous people must be replaced to them in full at another location.  Land distributed to replace successfully challenged demarcated land will be paid for and provided by the provincial government, creating a built-in “checks and balance” system on the courts.

2.   Protect the quality of demarcated land held by individual indigenous groups should legal challenges be settled against their favor.  This aspect of our plan ensures that successfully challenged demarcated land is replaced by land of equal or greater value.  Without this clause, companies would legally challenge demarcated lands and merely replace the land with land of far poorer quality, thus making a profit.  Furthermore, land used to replace challenged land must have a reasonable portion of the land adjacent to previously demarcated land.  This second component ensures that the cultural and historical ties of an Indigenous group are not wholly lost in the court challenge.  This aspect of ICP-X provides an effective bulwark for this type of corruption.

3.   Establish the Agency for the Cooperative Dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge (ACDIK), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, with input from the Ministry of the Interior, FUNAI and the National Institute of Industrial Property to regulates both the collection of indigenous knowledge regarding the existence and application of natural resources within the Amazon and the distribution of corresponding royalties among the appropriate indigenous groups.  This third and final aspect of our proposal will protect the Indigenous people from bio-piracy while simultaneously opening up a legitimate, legal market for the use of internationally unknown biological information by establishing patent regulations.  These patent regulations will provide royalties to the indigenous people for the information they sell to researchers.  Furthermore, information regarding the agricultural and sustainable living practices of Indigenous people could prove invaluable to future preservation efforts and land conservation. 

                  The ICP-X will lobby the government of Amazonas to educate legislators and advance conservationist motives.  Lobbyists will aid legislators in research compilation and proposal construction. 

                  The ICP-X public relations team will continue and advance education and promotional programs to the Brazilian government, the public interest groups, and to the people of Brazil.  Specific attention and emphasis will be placed on organizations and people of the Amazonas province.

                  The ICP-X will conduct constant analysis of progress toward proposal confirmation.  Weekly reports, to be publicly released, will document the success, drawbacks, and future of the proposal.  Every six (6) months, the ICP-X will publicly release its “Semiannual Report on the Status of the Indigenous Cooperation Project-eXperiment”. 

                  Phase 2 ends when the Decree is amended in a manner in compliance with the above proposal, as determined by the ICP-X.

Phase 3: (Approximate Duration: three (3) years): ICP-X in Action

                   The amended Decree 1,775/96 will take effect in all demarcation disputes.              

                  The ICP-X public relations team will continue and advance education and promotional programs to the Brazilian government, the public interest groups, and to the people of Brazil.  Specific attention and emphasis will be placed on organizations and people of the Amazonas province.

                   The ICP-X will monitor court rulings, giving particular attention to cases in which the challenge is successful.  Court analysts, working hand in hand with environmental experts, will determine the legitimacy and quality of land granted to Indigenous people.  These analysts will produce weekly reports, entitled “ICP-X: Recent Court Analysis”, outlining and explaining the court events of the week.  Furthermore, the analysts will compile the “ICP-X: Semiannual Report on the Court System” to be publicly released.

                   The ACDIK will collaborate with indigenous people and interested researchers as outlined by the proposal. 

                   The ACDIK oversight team will monitor and analyze the agreements and interactions between indigenous people and researchers.  Analysis will determine the legitimacy of agreements, outlining the beneficial and detrimental effects to the indigenous people.  This team will further investigate any unwelcome interaction with Indigenous groups that explicitly decline cooperation offers. 

                   The ACDIK oversight team will produce weekly reports, entitled “ACDIK Recent Agreements and Experimental Analysis”, outlining and explaining the notable events of the week.  Furthermore, the analysts will compile the “ACDIK: Semiannual Report on the Cooperative Dissemination of Indigenous Knowledge” to be publicly released.             

                  Phase 3 is complete at the end of three (3) years.

Phase 4: (Approximate Duration: 2 to 3 months): Project Analysis

               The ICP-X and ACDIK will conduct project research to determine the overall success of the program and the status of the problems stated above.

              When these analysis teams are confident in their understanding of the status of the ICP-X and ACDIK, they will publicly release the “Indigenous Cooperation Project-Experiment Abstract and Analysis”, that outlines the successes, failures, and projections for the project. 

                   All aspects of Phase Three (3) will continue, while the analysis teams compile their Phase 4 results.               

                  Phase Four (4) ends upon release of the Abstract.

 Phase 5: (Approximate Duration: Indefinite): Project Expansion:

              Based upon the previously released success or failure of ICP-X and ACDIK, the ICP will determine whether to propose the ICP to the Brazilian national government, to adjust or alter the ICP-X in an effort to adapt to new understanding of the situation, or to abort the ICP and ICP-X completely.  If the ICP determines, as we predict, to expand the ICP to the national level, the procedure for expansion will mirror the phase-based plan of the ICP-X, with modifications made as the ICP determines necessary.

5. Funding and Administration:

	Administration and infrastructure for public relations campaign.
	Funding: Current projections include (all figures in US dollars):

-   100,000       Headquarters Construction

-   300,000       Personnel

-   100,000    Brazilian Government Public Relations

-     10,000     Conservation Interest Group Public Relations

-   700,000    Brazilian General Public Relations

-   120,000    Annual Administrative Overhead (Utilities, Analyses, etc.)

   1,330,000  TOTAL for First Year

	Administration and infrastructure to inform Indigenous people of their new rights.  Many current agencies, like FUNAI, are already in place to do so.
	Method and Agency for the Indexation of land quality.
	Legislative Recommendation: Though the ICP-X has no direct governing or legislative power, it aims to effect change through legislative recommendation. The ICP-X will present a proposal to the government of Amazonas, outlined in the plan above and explained further below:

6. Testing:

            Prior to the implementation of Phase 3 of ICP-X, IBAMA will need to determine the quality and availability of land surrounding all currently challenged territories within Amazonas utilizing Project Amazonia’s Forest Quality Index Method and the infrastructure of SIVAM.  ICP-X will need to understand the quality and availability of this land to determine the feasibility of shifting or expanding the territory of native groups under the proposed legislation.

            Before the ACDIK attempts communication with the indigenous groups of Amazonas, FUNAI will need to conduct a survey to determine which groups wish to participate in the program.  The decision to participate must be made by whatever governing structure exists within each individual group, with adequate respect paid to cultural differences in the decision-making process.  Steps will be taken to ensure that all decision making bodies within a group have determined that the given group desires to cooperate with the ACDIK.  It is important that the ACDIK respects decisions by indigenous groups to refrain from involvement.

            Tests to be run during this experiment in land-demarcation and knowledge acquisition:

	Determine whether and to what extent the number of challenges made to demarcation claims is affected by the amended Decree 1,775/96.
	Determine whether and to what extent the number of challenges approved  is affected by the amended Decree 1,775/96.
	Determine whether and to what extent the number of complaints concerning corruption in the demarcation legal process are affected by the amended Decree 1,775/96.
	Determine how effective the amended Decree 1,775/96 is at maintaining the area and quality of indigenous lands within Amazonas.
	Determine whether the indigenous populations of Amazonas feel that their claim to their land has been affected by the amending of Decree 1,775/96.
	Determine the effectiveness of ACDIK’s information gathering techniques and whether the ACDIK produces any revenue for the Brazilian Federal Government.
	Determine the response of indigenous groups that have cooperated with the ACDIK to the ACDIK’s information gathering campaign.
	Determine whether the desire of groups that initially refused to cooperate with ACDIK changes over the course of Phase 3.
	Determine whether and to what extent the indigenous populations of Amazonas stabilize over the course of the program.

7. Externalities: 

Corruption is a constant problem for state and local governments within the Amazon.  Though certain measures have been included in this plan to reduce the impact that corrupt government officials have on the effectiveness of this program, it is impossible to make guarantees.  This program is intended to be profitable for Brazilian society as a whole; however there exists the potential for individuals of power to undercut the entire effort.

Although the ACDIK will be working diligently to prevent the unnecessary and unsanitary interaction between Indigenous people and researchers, it is possible that some disease will enter and affect tribes. 

Though most indigenous people have an undeniable attachment to their land, some may decide to move out of their current territories, thus complicating the situation. 

If indigenous people perceive the project as a threat, is likely they will not cooperate and instead act with hostility towards our workers.  In light of this plan’s safeguards, this is wholly unlikely.

 8.  Expected Results:

            Following the amending of Decree 1,776/96, the number of successful challenges to the demarcation of indigenous lands may drop as the body that decides the validity of these challenges becomes accountable for replacing lost indigenous lands.  If this occurs, it is expected that those challenges that succeed will have a more legitimate claim than those that failed. 

This program should improve the standard of living for the indigenous people of Amazonas as well as their relations with NeoBrazilians.  The populations of indigenous groups within Amazonas will increase (or slow their decline) at a faster rate than populations of groups outside of Amazonas.  This is expected because the amending of Decree 1,775/96 is intended to increase the indigenous population’s sense of security and their perception of their own wealth, thus encouraging them to repopulate their groups more readily.  Also, studies¹ have illustrated that indigenous groups within the Amazon that experience gradual, limited and friendly contact with NeoBrazilians prior to expanded contact are better able to adapt and survive what would otherwise be more damaging interaction with NeoBrazilians.  This indicates that those groups that agree to cooperate with ACDIK should show an increased survival rate for expanded contact with NeoBrazilians.

The Brazilian Federal Government and participating indigenous groups may receive revenues from the ACDIK’s patent sharing program.  The ACDIK will also fuel an acceleration of medicinal research and the efficient exploitation of resources within the Brazilian Rainforest.

            Possible negative effects that may result from ICP-X include epidemics, increased deforestation rates and an economic slowdown in Amazonas.  Epidemics may result from the initial contact between indigenous populations and ACDIK personnel, as native populations do possess the necessary immunity to diseases carried by some NeoBrazilians.  Deforestation or other forms of damaging natural resource exploitation may result from the dissemination of knowledge by the ACDIK that is not properly regulated. Because of this, it is crucial that steps are taken to uphold standards of sustainable extraction.  Though the growth of economic activity in Amazonas may be hurt by the constraints imposed by the amended Decree 1775/96, it is unlikely due to the expansive nature of Amazonas and the wide distribution of its natural resources.

 

Next: Sustainable Land Management - Land Distribution->

1: Charles Wagley: The Effects of Depopulation upon the Social Organizations as Illustrated by the Tapirape Indians, The New York Academy of Sciences, New York, 1940