Quilombolas forcibly removed from public hearing on landfill in Pará

By Danilo dos Santos – From Cenarium

MANAUS (AM) – Representatives of quilombola communities were forcibly removed from the table of a public hearing held last Tuesday, the 19th, in the city of Bujaru, in Pará, the host State of the 30th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30). The hearing, convened by the state government, addressed the Urban Solid Waste Final Disposal Complex (CTR), a landfill planned to be installed in the city to receive solid waste from the Belém Metropolitan Region (RMB).

A video released by state deputy Lívia Duarte (PSOL-PA) shows the moment when a woman is grabbed by the arm and taken off the stage. “If the law determines that there must be free consultation and guides the populations impacted by major projects, then it must be enforced (…) The scene of the quilombola woman being expelled from the table is emblematic. We will take action,” she stated.

In the Plenary of the Federal Senate, senator Beto Faro (PT-PA) spoke on the installation of the landfill, also on Tuesday. He stated that the project threatens floodplain areas and river springs in the State, as well as endangering communities living in the region. “That is a region where the backflow comes, to the municipality of Acará, an area prone to flooding, floodplain region, and contamination there will be inevitable,” he said.

The day before the hearing, the Pará State Secretariat of Environment and Sustainability (Semas-PA) received a recommendation from the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF) for the immediate suspension of the public hearing. According to the MPF, the hearing does not meet the legal requirement of holding a Free, Prior and Informed Consultation (FPIC) with quilombola and riverside communities potentially affected by the project.

The recommendation emphasizes that no procedure related to the project should take place before the FPIC, as required by Convention No. 169 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), ratified by Brazil, which guarantees the right of traditional peoples to be consulted in cases of administrative or legislative measures likely to affect them.

In the document, federal prosecutors who are part of the Nucleus for Forest, Field and Water Peoples (Nupovos) in Pará warn that the absence of dialogue with these populations compromises the legality of the process: “The omission of directly impacted communities and the lack of prior consultation reveal a flaw in the formation of the administrative decision, capable of nullifying the entire licensing process,” they state.

Bujaru

In the municipality of Bujaru, in northeastern Pará, quilombola communities such as São Judas Tadeu keep alive the heritage of their ancestors through family farming, cultural practices, and religious traditions. Officially recognized by the Palmares Cultural Foundation and granted land title in 2018, the community is one of the symbols of Black resistance in the region. Despite its historical and environmental importance, the quilombolas of Bujaru still face precarious infrastructure and lack of access to basic public services, while struggling for greater visibility and for policies that ensure the protection of their territories and ways of life.

Edited by Adrisa De Góes
Reviewed by Gustavo Gilona
Translated from Portuguese by Gustô Alves