BRAZILIAN GROUPS PROPOSE ‘SQUATTER’ LANDS TO BE CONVERTED INTO NATIONAL PARKS

21 April 2001

Brasilia, Brazil – Greenpeace and eight other civil organisations presented a proposal last week to the Brazilian Parliamentary Commission to transform 100 million hectares of forest, or one fourth of the Brazilian Amazon, into National Parks, Biological reserves, and areas for sustainable development. The commission is currently investigating the squatting in public lands in the Amazon by loggers and farmers. According to the Brazilian Minister of Agrarian Development, Raul Jungmann, 100 million ha of Amazon forest were illegally ‘privatised’ by farmers and loggers using fake papers, complacent registration officials and legal, but suspicious judicial decisions.(1)

During the ongoing investigations, the commission discovered that only one landlord, Falb Farias, illegally controls more than 10 million ha of the Amazon forest. Falb is currently in jail.

In the last five years, the registers of 62 million ha of lands have already been cancelled in Brazil. Of those, 18 million were destined for the Agrarian Reform programme, providing lands to more than 500,000 families. Data from 1997 indicates that 88 percent of the settlements happened within the Amazon region.

“The properties disabled by the government should be destined for sustainable and community use instead of the standard settlement model,” said Greenpeace Amazon campaigner Paulo Adario. “Moreover, the Commission should recommend to the Brazilian Federal Government that non-inhabited lands recovered from “grileiros” (squatters) should be turned into parks, biological reserves and even into National Forests managed according to FSC standards,” he added.(2)

Greenpeace Amazon campaigner Nilo D’Avila, who was one of the witnesses at yesterday’s Parliamentary Commission hearing in Brasilia, submitted the non-governmental organisations' proposal to commission members (3) at the end of his speech. He also handed to the parliamentarians a set of documents proving how lands are being illegally used by “grileiros” to endorse loans from financial institutions. “Meanwhile, traditional communities such as rubber tappers and fishermen have no access to credit lines because of the lack of land titles,” said D’Avila. “The grilagem speeds the rhythm of destruction, as it directly contributes to low quality development,” said Adílson Vieira, from the NGO Comissão Pastoral da Terra, also present at the parliamentary hearing. “Besides, the people from Amazon rural areas are forced to head to urban centres hoping for better life conditions, which only increases the social problems.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon, +55 92 9985500
Gina Sanchez, Greenpeace International, +31 6 270 00 064

Notes

1. Judge Daniel Nunes, of the Amazonas State Justice Tribunal was accused by the government of being part of the "grilagem mafia" (squatter's mafia). He is currently suspended.

2. National Forests (Flonas) are public forest destined to sustainable use, including well managed logging. The Brazilian government plans to increase from the existing 15,2 million ha, to 50 million ha, the areas of Flonas, in order to supply at least 50 percent of the industrial needs for timber. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is the only international certification system to give consumers a label providing a verifiable guarantee that wood products are coming from ecologically well managed forests.

3. The NGOS that signed the proposal are: Fórum Permanente de Debates da Amazônia (FORAM), Grupo de Trabalho Amazônico (GTA), Comissão Pastoral da Terra, Conselho Indigenista Missionário (CIMI), Fundação Vitória Amazônica, Greenpeace, Instituto de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Amazônico, Oficina Escola de Lutheria da Amazônia e Sociedade de Pesquisa e Conservação da Amazônia.