#Resist
Dozens of civil society organizations unite in resistance against setbacks by the Brazilian government and its agribusiness allies
Over 90 institutions sign letter denouncing measures that violate human rights and jeopardize environmental protection
Environmental, indigenous, human rights and rural organizations have united in resistance against measures being adopted by the Temer government and the ruralista (agribusiness) caucus that violate human rights – especially those of indigenous and agricultural laborers – and jeopardize environmental protection. The group today released an open letter calling on other groups and people in society to join the cause. To date, more than 60 organizations have signed on. Click here to read the document.
“Denounce and resist” is the motto unifying these organizations into a coordinated resistance movement. Working on the national and regional level, the group will take action in the legislative, legal and public spheres, sparing no effort to prevent the Temer government and the ruralistas from taking Brazil back decades in terms of environmental protection and human rights.
Attacks on the environmental agenda are not new in Brazil, but the weakening of human rights and environmental protection systems has expanded exponentially since the ascension of Michel Temer to the presidency and the corresponding centralization and concentration of power of the ruralistas. For the “denounce and resist” movement, Temer now represents the biggest threat to be confronted by the environmental and human rights agenda.
The current administration has slashed funding for the Environment Ministry and began gutting the Indigenous Agency (Funai), in doing so abandoning indigenous peoples. The appointment of a military general to head the agency illustrates the government’s dictatorial views about dealing with indigenous issues. It is also worth noting that, together with increased deforestation, two tragic new records were set in 2016: the number of deaths in rural areas and the number of land conflicts. Not to mention the most recent barbarism, namely the brutal attack on the Gamela indigenous people in the state of Maranhão and the massacre of agricultural laborers in Colniza, in the state of Mato Grosso. And which areas are the ones with the most conflicts? Precisely those where the agricultural frontier is expanding, but also where there are mining, power generation and infrastructure projects.
Situations such as these could be the tip of the iceberg. The Provisional Executive Orders 756 and 758, for example, reduce Amazon rainforest conservation areas, while Provisional Executive Order 759 allows for the appropriation of public lands, abolishes the social use concept of land and eliminates land reform processes. Other measures that permit the sale of lands to foreign investors and authorize the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals have already been announced by members of the government.
Several indigenous land demarcation cases have been rejected by the Ministry of Justice and are now paralyzed – and the current Minister of Justice frequently attacks indigenous peoples. Furthermore, the President’s Chief of Staff, Eliseu Padilha, who is under investigation in connection with the “Operation Car Wash” corruption case and for land appropriation in Mato Grosso, is currently negotiating the reduction of existing conservation areas in the Amazon and promoting a bill that would essentially eliminate environmental licensing rules in Brazil.
The approval of these measures proposed by the agribusiness caucus would result in greater land concentration, the economic infeasibility of small-scale agricultural production, increased land grabbing of public lands and the commodification of rural settlements and agrarian reform. They would also prevent Brazil from complying with its international commitments on climate change and biodiversity.
Many of these proposals, when previously introduced, were halted by lack of popular support or constitutional violations, but now such measures find in the ruralista caucus, which dominates Congress and the Temer administration, enough support to skate through the legislative process at record speed via provisional executive orders, decrees and fast-track votes. Not even rights guaranteed by the Constitution are safe.
The following are the main potential setbacks:
Weakening of environmental licensing (Bill 3,729/2004 – General Licensing Law)
Annulment of indigenous rights and lands (Constitutional Amendment 215/2000 would dispense with indigenous land demarcation and Constitutional Amendment 132/2015 would compensate holders of property titles on indigenous lands)
Greater access for foreign investors to purchase land (Bill 2289/2007 and Bill 4059/2012)
Reduction of conservation areas (Provisional Executive Order 756/2016 and Provisional Executive Order 758/2016 would reduce the size of conservation areas in the Amazon rainforest in the state of Pará)
Reduction of regulations on agrochemicals (Bill 6299/2002 – known as the Poison Bill and Bill 34/2015 on labeling of GMOs)
Facilitation of land grabbing, occupation of public lands of high environmental value and the end of the concept of the social function of land (Provisional Executive Order 759/2016)
Attacks on the rights of agricultural workers (Bill 6422/2016 would change the rules on agricultural work, Constitutional Amendment 287/2016 – Pension Reform and Bill 432/2013 would change the definition of slave labor)
Attacks on the rights of riverine and maroon communities (Provisional Executive Order 759/2016 and Bill 3,729/2004)
Relaxation of regulations on mining (Bill 37/2011 would change the Mining Code)
Organizations that have joined the resistance so far:
350.org
Abraço Guarapiranga
Actionaid
AdT/Amigos da Terra
AFES/Ação Franciscana de Ecologia e Solidariedade
Aldeia Guarani Kalipty – Parelheiros
Aldeia Guarani Tenondé Porã – Parelheiros
ANA/Articulação Nacional de Agroecologia
Amazon Watch
APIB/Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil
Apremavi/Associação de Preservação do Meio Ambiente e da Vida
Articulação para o Monitoramento dos Direitos Humanos no Brasil
Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado
BVRio
Cáritas Nacional
Casa Ecoativa – Ilha do Bororé
CEBES/Centro Brasileiro de Estudos de Saúde
CBJP/Comissão Brasileira Justiça e Paz
CDDHEP/Centro de Defesa dos Direitos Humanos e Educação Popular do Acre
CIMI/Conselho Indigenista Missionário
Comissão Dominicana de Justiça e Paz do Brasil
Comitê Nacional em Defesa dos Territórios Frente à Mineração
Comissão Pró-Índio de São Paulo
CONAQ/Coordenação Nacional de Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas
Conectas Direitos Humanos
CONTAG/Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores Rurais Agricultores e Agricultoras Familiares
Coração Amazônico
Cooperapas/Cooperativa Agroecológica dos Produtores Rurais de Água Limpa -SP
CNS/Conselho Nacional das Populações Extrativistas
Consulta Popular
CPT/Comissão Pastoral da Terra
CUT/Central Única dos Trabalhadores
Engajamundo
Escola de Ativismo
Espaço de Formação Assessoria e Documentação
FAOR/Fórum da Amazônia Oriental
FASE/Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional
Fórum Mudanças Climáticas e Justiça Social
FURPA/Fundação Rio Parnaíba
Greenpeace Brasil
Grupo Carta de Belém
IBASE/Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas
ICV/Instituto Centro de Vida
IDESAM/Instituto de Conservação e Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Amazonas
IDS/Instituto Democracia e Sustentabilidade
IEMA/Instituto de Energia e Meio Ambiente
Intersindical – Central da Classe Trabalhadora
IMAFLORA/Instituto de Manejo e Certificação Florestal e Agrícola
Imargem – Arte, Meio Ambiente e Convivência
IMAZON/ Instituto do Homem e Meio Ambiente da Amazônia
INESC/ Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos
International Rivers Brasil
Instituto Pólis
Instituto Avaliação
ISA/Instituto Socioambiental
Justiça nos Trilhos
Liga Brasileira de Lésbicas
Mater Natura – Instituto de Estudos Ambientais
MAB/Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens
MAM/Movimento pela Soberania Popular na Mineração
MCP/Movimento Camponês Popular
MMC/Movimento de Mulheres Camponesas
Mogave/Movimento Garça Vermelha
Movimento Contra o Aeroporto de Parelheiros
Movimento Aeroporto de Parelheiros NÃO!
MPA/Movimento dos Pequenos Agricultores
MST/ Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra
MTST/Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto
Núcleo de Estudos das Diversidades, Intolerâncias e Conflitos – Diversitas/USP
Núcleo de Pesquisa e Extensão em Ambiente, Socioeconomia e Agroecologia/NUPEAS-UFAM
Observatório do Clima
Observatório de Favelas, da favela da Maré, Rio de Janeiro
OCCA/Observatório dos Conflitos do Campo – Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES)
Organon/Núcleo de estudo, pesquisa e extensão em mobilizações sociais da UFES
PAD/Processo de Articulação e Diálogo entre Agências Ecumênicas Européias e Parceiros Brasileiro
PHS/Hospitais Saudáveis
PFDC/Procuradoria Federal dos Direitos do Cidadão do MPF/Ministério Público Federal
PJR/Pastoral da Juventude Rural
Plataforma Operária e Camponesa para Energia
RAMH/Rede Acreana de Mulheres e Homens
Rede Brasileira de Informação Ambiental
Rede GTA/Grupo de Trabalho Amazônico
SAVE Brasil
Sinfrajupe/Serviço InterFranciscano de Justiça, Paz e Ecologia
SBE/Sociedade Brasileira de Espeleologia
SOS Mata Atlântica
Toxisphera Associação de Saúde Ambiental
UBM/União Brasileira de Mulheres
Uma Gota no Oceano
UNALGBT/União Nacional de Lésbicas, Gays, Bissexuais, Travestis e Transexuais
Via Campesina
WWF Brasil
Individual Signatures:
Anna Maria de Castro – Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
Antonio Ribeiro de Almeida Junior – Full Professor of the Department of Economics, Business Administration and Sociology at the Luiz de Queiroz Agricultural College – University of São Paulo
Cristiana Losekann – professor at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES)
Lazaro Camilo Recompensa Joseph – Professor of the Department of Economics and International Relations at the Federal University of Santa Maria
Liana Brito de Castro Araújo – Associate Professor at UECE
Lúcia Rincon – Professor at the Catholic University of Goiás
Luiz Alberto Gómez de Souza – University Professor and writer from Rio de Janeiro
Maciel Cover – Professor at the Federal University of Tocantins
Silvana Maria Gritti – Professor at Unipampa, Jaguarão Campus
Simone Wolff – Teacher from the Department of Social Sciences at the State University of Londrina (UEL)
