Deforestation in Amazon could increase up to four times, according to ‘Isolated or Decimated’ report

Nicole Gomes – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The new report of the campaign entitled “Isolated or Decimated”, published on Monday, 14, points out that the Jacareúba-Katawaki Indigenous Land, located in the municipalities of Canutama and Lábrea as one of the regions that is suffering constant invasions and even with records of the existence of isolated indigenous people, remains unprotected since December 2021. Therefore, if the scenario does not change and government measures are not taken, deforestation may be four times greater than the historical average from 2012 to 2016.

The Rural Environmental Cadastre System (Sicar) registers 639 irregular registrations of invaders, which threaten more than 60 thousand hectares inside the Indigenous Land. Furthermore, according to the Project to Monitor Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite (Prodes/Inpe), 5,889.4 hectares had already been deforested in the interior of Jacareúba by July 2021, corresponding to more than three million trees felled.

This same territory has been under study since 2007 and had a Restriction of Use ordinance, which was renewed for ten consecutive years, however, the agreement came to an end in December 2021 and with the entry of the new government. The “New Funai” has chosen not to take the necessary measures to guarantee the protection of the isolated peoples of these Indigenous Lands (TIs).

Isolated Peoples

In a conversation with CENARIUM MAGAZINE, the coordinator of the Protected Areas Monitoring Program of the Socio-environmental Institute (ISA), Antonio Oviedo, explained how deforestation threatens isolated indigenous peoples in the Amazon.

“Deforestation within indigenous territories promotes a loss of biodiversity and natural ecosystems that impact the food security of these peoples. The isolated groups depend on the forest to collect extractivism products, to manufacture utensils for their malocas. Therefore, criminals degrade and destroy these forest resources, which are essential for the social reproduction of isolated groups”, stated the researcher.

On the other hand, there is also deforestation that occurs outside the indigenous territories with risks for the isolated groups. “As the landscape and environment outside indigenous lands is degraded by deforestation, this generates an “Edge Effect”, which can also promote negative impacts inside the indigenous territories. For example, when on the outer border of an indigenous land there is pastureland and farmers set fire to manage it, this fire often invades the forests and ecosystems of indigenous lands and impacts the forest resources of these peoples”, explained Antônio.

Environmental Impacts

Also according to the ISA coordinator, there are numerous studies that show the role of the forest in carbon capture, an important characteristic for the maintenance of the planet’s climate.

“The main cause of climate deregulation is the greenhouse effect, which is the excessive release of carbon from the atmosphere, from the burning of fossil fuels, which is like a blanket over the planet, maintaining a temperature and hindering the exchange of energy between the earth and the atmosphere. So, the more we burn, the more the planet’s temperature rises, causing all this mess in the climate. In the old days we had the four seasons of the year much more delimited, nowadays during the summer period we have drought (summer rains) of 20 to 30 days or the opposite, as it happened recently in Petrópolis, in Rio de Janeiro”, said Oviedo.

Environmental Charges and Policies

Thus, as deforestation increases and the amount of forest on the planet decreases, the Earth’s capacity to regulate temperature drops, and the tendency of the greenhouse effect and global warming intensifies. To reverse this situation, it is necessary to direct attention to environmental policies in the country.

“A primary and urgent measure is the restoration of the environmental policy in Brazil, especially the environmental enforcement actions and implementation of management mechanisms of protected areas. A second point, especially in the election period, is for the civil society to charge and inform itself about the current policy and government has promoted for the environmental policy and has fostered environmental crime,” defended Antônio Oviedo.

Petition for the protection of Indigenous Lands

Due to the neglect of the isolated peoples, the “Isolated and Decimated” campaign, organized by the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), together with the Observatory of Human Rights of the Isolated and Newly-Contacted Peoples (Opi) and with the support of allied organizations, is promoting actions to give visibility to the violence and danger that groups of isolated peoples are facing.

To support the cause, you can access and sign the petition www.isoladosoudizimados.org.