Brazil: Bolsonaro unveils bill to allow commercial mining on Indigenous land

[Resurgence]

Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, unveiled a controversial bill on Wednesday that would allow commercial mining on protected Indigenous lands, delivering on a campaign promise that has shocked tribal leaders and environmentalists.

The bill to regulate mining including oil and gas projects, as well as hydroelectric dams, on Indigenous reservations for the first time, will be sent to congress this week. Brazil’s constitution currently does not rule out mining on reservations, but does not allow it because it has not been regulated.

Bolsonaro has long alleged that Brazil’s Indigenous people occupy too much land – 13% of the country – and hinder economic development of untold mineral resources, from gold and diamonds to niobium and rare earths.

But leaders of most of Brazil’s 300 tribes oppose mining on their reservations and say that allowing commercial mining would undermine their communities and wipe out their cultures, which are already threatened by increasing invasions by illegal loggers and wildcat miners.

Environmentalists who see the Indigenous communities as the best guardians of Brazil’s tropical forests warn that mining will speed up deforestation.

The proposal includes provisions to consult Indigenous communities and would require congressional approval for any mining or hydroelectric power generation project. Government officials have said, however, that Indigenous communities would not have the right to veto projects once authorized by congress.

Bolsonaro also separately plans to allow large-scale commercial agriculture on Indigenous reservations, which is not permitted under current environmental laws.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/f...-land-bill

[dueda]

The indigenous populations have different views on those matters.

On some areas, minning and wood chopping has been going (allowed or not) for decades, just under tribes' control, so the "Indians" get the money otherwise gold-rush prospectors and minning syndicates would. In the end, they become like the American casino operating tribes.

On other areas, either the natives are against it, because traditions, environmental, or invasion concerns, or even because they just didn't have had yet the taste of power and luxury, or know very well those things will go for the crooked politicians (cough, bolso's sons) instead.

Btw, "bolso" in Portugese means "pocket", while "naro" is an common Italian suffix, found in the name Gennaro wich is related to an old "two-faced deity".
https://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Gennaro

Old news in the brave world, as most civilizations just wiped out their (and their neighbors') natives.

[Resurgence]

The indigenous populations have different views on those matters.

On some areas, minning and wood chopping has been going (allowed or not) for decades, just under tribes' control, so the "Indians" get the money otherwise gold-rush prospectors and minning syndicates would. In the end, they become like the American casino operating tribes.

On other areas, either the natives are against it, because traditions, environmental, or invasion concerns, or even because they just didn't have had yet the taste of power and luxury, or know very well those things will go for the crooked politicians (cough, bolso's sons) instead.

Btw, "bolso" in Portugese means "pocket", while "naro" is an common Italian suffix, found in the name Gennaro wich is related to an old "two-faced deity".
https://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Gennaro

Old news in the brave world, as most civilizations just wiped out their (and their neighbors') natives.

Deforestation under Bolsonaro has increased by 85%.

Mr Bolsonaro has long denied responsibility for attempts to cut back the Amazon by illegal loggers and ranchers, who are believed to be at least in part to blame for the mass wildfires that swept the rainforest in the summer of 2019, which immolated 2.24 million acres of land once teeming with life.

However, data released by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) that covers the entire length of his tenure in office has shown the organisation marked 9,166 square kilometres of rainforest with deforestation warnings across 2019, compared to 4,946 square kilometres in 2018.

In November, a study published in Scientific Reports found fires and the resulting soot from the rainforest was directly responsible for melting glaciers in the Andes more than 1,000 miles away.



Since Bolsonaro came to power in January 2019, he has weakened the environment ministry, loosened controls on economic exploitation of the Amazon, halted demarcation of Indigenous land and encouraged mining and farming interests to expand in the region.

Since the president criticized the government’s main monitoring agency, it has issued fewer penalties than at any time in 11 years and the number of inspection operations is down 70% from last year.

His environment minister, Ricardo Salles, who was convicted for environmental fraud and had never visited the Amazon region before 2019, has further undermined morale by failing to appoint regional chiefs and by firing veteran inspectors. Earlier this week, Folha reported he was moving to privatize the satellite monitoring of the forest.

He has also vexed donors Norway and Germany by proposing to weaken the voice of civil society in deciding how the $1.3bn Amazon Fund is spent.

Bolsonaro’s oldest son, Flavio, recently proposed a reform of the forest code that would remove the obligation of farmers in the Amazon to maintain forest cover on 50-80% of their property. This measure would reportedly open up an area larger than Iran for extractive industries. A growing wave of speculative land claims are being registered inside reserves, which is putting more pressure on the boundaries.

Carlos Rittl, the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, an NGO formed by a coalition of environmental groups, said:

“The spike in deforestation is depressing, but hardly surprising: you have a government in Brazil who is dismantling nearly every environmental policy put in place since 1992 and who is harassing federal environmental agents, thus empowering environmental criminals.”

Another factor is an expansion of infrastructure projects, including roads and hydroelectric plants. The Brazilian state that suffered the greatest deforestation was Pará, which is home to the BR163 road through the Amazon and the Belo Monte dam.



In July 2019, Bolsonaro was questioned by journalists regarding opening up Indigenous territory to mining. He said:

“You want the Indigenous People to carry on like prehistoric men with no access to technology, science, information, and the wonders of modernity. Indigenous People want to work, they want to produce and they can’t. They live isolated in their areas like cavemen. What most of the foreign press do to Brazil and against these human beings is a crime.”

Yes, of course, it is much better for them to abandon their native lands and way of life, to stop protecting the rainforests, and for them to be introduced to the "wonders of modernity" like tax and debt slavery. That is certainly not elevating those people.


https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world...85541.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/j...-bolsonaro

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/j...orestation

[dueda]

Deforestation under Bolsonaro has increased by 85%.

Yes, of course, it is much better for them to abandon their native lands and way of life, to stop protecting the rainforests, and for them to be introduced to the "wonders of modernity" like tax and debt slavery to the state and corporations. That is certainly elevating those people, isn't it? 

Be careful with data in Brazil, statistics are so wrong that we never know if they are too low or too high and by how much, but seldom they're real. That said, I don't doubt environmental damage has increased recently, they (greedy bullies and their lackeys, the politicians) have been doing it for decades, just they found a more vigorous yaysayer.

Makes me wonder (pun unintentional, but very apropos) what should we do about it: Go back to the woods, live like Amish, or just cancel all bank services? I once met with Indians and they use clothes now; they say they changed and feel unconfortable as their grandparents used to live. Not that they love what is happening, but many do want some progress. They even use Facebook.

[waregim]

What needs to happen is education and industrialization.

Use its wealth to created *publicly owned* maquilladoras, fully unionized. Not doing this is what killed Venezuela.

With the wu-flu which is apparently targeted at Asians (ACE-2 Receptors, anyone?) , we need a China replacement.
Brazil is in a perfect spot for that to service Atlantic/Med ports.

Microchips, instead of big hootered ho's.

All Balsoballs needs is the right bribe. But the CIA wont let a raw materials country industrialize. It is something that empires simply do not do. A policy that fed the American Revolution, in fact.

[dueda]

I make mine your words, Waregim, but sadly it's not gonna happen. That's why I left that bubble bun orgasmord sextravaganza. It's good only for the corrupt or the ones who don't (have a) mind. Even the indigenous population can see it by now. Also helps the fact CIA is supplying them with free gigabit internet and other "goods".