When the Brazilian indigenous leaders gathered in Xingu Park in the Amazon end their four-day meeting tomorrow, they will likely have consensus on how they will approach opposing the planned legalisation of between 500 and 800 garimpo mines, as well as the opening up of their reservations to logging and large-scale farming.
It has been reported that the government, led by President Jair Bolsonaro, intends to place a bill to this effect before the Brazil Congress very soon as it is thoroughly behind exploiting the mineral wealth of the Amazon and opening up some of the vast land to commercial agricultural pursuits and other ventures. Mr Bolsonaro has also been quoted as vowing to “integrate” the country’s indigenous people into the broader society and economy.
This is not Mr Bolsonaro’s opening salvo to gain access to indigenous land, a lot of which has not yet been demarcated. In January last year, he transferred the authority for designating indigenous land and granting environmental licenses for businesses on indigenous reserves from the government’s indigenous affairs agency to the Agriculture Ministry. However, in May, this was overturned by congress. But there is no guarantee that the current proposed legislation will face the same slap down, as Brazil has a fragmented congress with Mr Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal Party being the second largest. If they manage to rally enough votes to get the bill passed, then the Amazon will be in real trouble and the fires that caused an international outcry last year will seem like child’s play.
Unfortunately, although there are indigenous people in congress, there are not enough of them to make a difference. Tribal leaders do not really have a say. They can oppose and demur when consulted but would have to adhere to whatever legislation is passed. Further, not all of Brazil’s indigenous people are on the same page. According to several online news sources, the government has already approached some indigenous leaders and promised that their people would be compensated for the use of their land; reportedly some of them are amenable. If this is indeed the case, then it gives true meaning to the term ‘divide and conquer’.
The problems in the Amazon are not just in Brazil. They are just more prominent because Brazil contains the largest section, some 60 percent of the 2.1 million square miles. Illegal mining and logging also takes place in forests in the other seven countries – Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, a department of France.
Brazil’s government contends that the illegal activity by garimpeiros is what is damaging the environment and legalising and regulating it would allow for greater control. But nothing could be further from the truth. If the country cannot properly police the areas currently being invaded, how can it possibly manage larger areas once they are opened up for exploitation? Who is to say that the opening up will not bring even more miners and what will stop them from despoiling other virgin forest once they have depleted the resources in the area open to them? While these are all hypotheticals, they are worthy of consideration.
Lest we forget, the Amazon is not only the world’s largest rainforest, but is home to perhaps 30 percent of all the flora and fauna found in the entire world. The thought of what could be lost through opening up areas to exploitation, compounded by what is currently being lost daily owing to natural and manmade events is disconcerting.
While economic exploitation can be beneficial to a country, attention must be paid to other costs. There is no amount of money in the world that can reverse the extinction of species, for example. What is worse is that there is so much uncertainty. No one can say for sure, not even scientists, what species might be affected or lost completely. And although it is known that these losses affect the world’s ecological balance, no one knows exactly how it will be affected and what the ramifications might be 20, 30 or 50 years from now. Yet so many seem willing to take the risk.
What is troubling is that none of this exploitation would be necessary if Brazil’s resources had not been mismanaged in the first place. While it is touted as an economic powerhouse in South America, Brazil’s national gross debt was 79.8 percent of its gross domestic product last year, which means the country is facing financial hardship. This might be one of the reasons, apart from his nonsensical disbelief in climate change, that is, that Mr Bolsonaro is fixated on opening up land to mining and farming. But there is no reason to believe that his government would be any better than the others in the past at properly managing the country’s resources and that is the kicker.
If Mr Bolsonaro succeeds in his plans to exploit more of the Amazon, then he might be able to attract investment into the country. But look at what it stands to lose.