RIGHTS-BRAZIL:
Pantanal Indians
Threatened by
Deforestation
By Mario Osava*
CAMPO GRANDE, Brazil,
(Tierramérica) - The
indigenous peoples of
the central-western
Brazilian state of Mato
Grosso do Sul do not
look like the tribes
portrayed in film,
decked out in colourful
clothing and adornments
and depending on their
natural surroundings to
survive in the Amazon
jungle. But some of
their problems are
similar to their
Amazonian counterparts,
and in some cases even
more serious.
The problems that stand
out are the lack of land
to grow crops and the
destruction of the
environment.
The few communities
lucky enough to have
forest land face the
threat of losing it.
That is the case of
those who live in the
Mato Grosso Pantanal, a
vast wetland ecosystem
whose preservation is
among Brazil’s foremost
environmental concerns,
although the Amazon
jungle tends to draw
most of the attention.
Forests in the
settlement area of the
Kadiweu are logged to
feed the growing demand
of the steel mill in
Corumbá, in the heart of
the Pantanal, said
Alessandro Menezes, head
of Ecology and Action, a
local non-governmental
organisation, in an
interview with
Tierramérica.
The MMX company, which
since 2007 has been
producing steel or pig
iron in Corumbá, has
already faced a ban for
using illegal
plant-based charcoal,
but continues to operate
under a temporary
judicial order.
The environmental
authorities have twice
seized the charcoal
coming from the native
forests that is destined
for the steel mill.
Before building the
plant, MMX had signed an
agreement with the
Attorney General's
Office and the state
government to acquire
coal only from
reforested areas, not
virgin forests. For
violating the agreement
several times, the
company was fined one
million reais (560,000
dollars).
The needs of the Corumbá
iron and steel complex,
made up of four large
companies, far outstrip
the available
plant-based charcoal
that can be produced by
nearby plantation
forestry initiatives,
says Sonia Hess,
professor at the Federal
University of Mato
Grosso do Sul.
As a result, nearly
3,500 tons of native
trees are turned into
charcoal each day.
Furthermore, the
environmental
authorities state that
native Mato Grosso
forests also supply the
steel mills in
neighbouring Minas
Gerais state. This
industrial sector is
known for having
devastated extensive
tracts of forest in that
southern state and
repeating the damage in
the eastern Amazon,
related to the
exploitation of immense
reserves of iron ore in
Sierra de Carajás, in
the northern state of
Pará.
The charcoal producers
are taking advantage of
the fact that part of
the Kadiweu territory
"is in litigation, still
occupied by large
landowners," despite
recognition that it is
indigenous land, said
Menezes. Also under
threat are areas of
another native community
of the Pantanal, the
Terena people, he added.
In Taunay, one of the
Terena areas,
deforestation has
accelerated recently
because of the
possibility of the
future delineation and
handover of land to
indigenous communities,
said Lisio Lili, a
Terena Indian and former
local leader of the
National Indigenous
Foundation. Charcoal and
cattle are the interests
driving the destruction
of the forests, he said.
"We are drawing up a map
of the indigenous
communities of the
Pantanal" in order to
record their history and
paint a picture of their
current conditions, and
to get a clear picture
of threats like
deforestation and the
advances of monoculture
farming, as well as to
study possibilities for
future productive and
educational projects,
Lili told Tierramérica.
The environmentalists
"are our allies," he
stressed.
The defence of the
Pantanal is among the
priorities of the
leftist administration
of President Luiz Inácio
Lula da Silva. This
wetland area, which
extends into Bolivia and
Paraguay, holds vast
biological diversity and
is an eco-tourism
destination.
In the 1980s, a number
of international
campaigns were carried
out to protect its
wildlife, especially the
"jacaré" (Caiman yacare),
a species of alligator
that has been
overexploited to harvest
its skin for export.
The Pantanal wildlife is
also threatened by a
channel to connect the
Paraguay and Paraná
rivers, and by the
expansion of crops like
soybeans and sugarcane,
notes Menezes.
Expanding the channel --
increasingly important
for exporting steel and
farm products through
Paraguay and the River
Plate -- requires
megaprojects that would
alter the flows of the
watershed and throw the
Pantanal ecosystem into
chaos, environmentalists
fear.
In other parts of Mato
Grosso do Sul, which is
home to Brazil's second
largest indigenous
population after
Amazonas state, the
problems are different.
The Guaraní, who
represent 60 percent of
the nearly 65,000
Indians in the state,
are fighting desperately
to expand their formal
land titles, even if the
areas are completely
deforested.
Unlike the Kadiweu,
whose nearly 2,000
members have a reserve
of 538,536 hectares, the
Guaraní -- especially
the Kaiwoá branch, the
most numerous in Mato
Grosso do Sul -- live in
"confinement", according
to anthropologists.
In Dourados, a district
rich in agriculture,
more than 12,000
indigenous peoples live
on just 3,500 hectares
of land, with no forest
cover -- a complex
situation for a
community with nomadic
forest traditions.
Because the land is
insufficient to sustain
them, many work for
wages, mostly as
sugarcane cutters. The
desperation is seen as
one of the reasons
underlying the high
murder and suicide rates
among the Kaiwoá.
(*Mario Osava is an IPS
correspondent.
Originally published by
Latin American
newspapers that are part
of the Tierramérica
network. Tierramérica is
a specialised news
service produced by IPS
with the backing of the
United Nations
Development Programme
and the United Nations
Environment Programme.)
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