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Staff
Repórter Brasil - Organisation for Communication and Social Projects
General coordinationLeonardo Sakamoto
Biofuel Watch CenterMarcel Gomes (coordenation)Verena Glass
“In SOmeOne elSe’S landS”expansion of the soybean and sugarcane frontierson indigenous territories in mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil
authorVerena Glass
SupevisionMarcel Gomes
PicturesVerena Glass
mapsRoberta Roxi
TranslationRoberto Cataldo/Verso Tradutores
artGustavo Monteiro
administrative supportFabiana Garcia
São PauloBruxelas St., 169, São Paulo-SP, CeP 01259-020Phone numbers: (55) (11) [email protected]
SponshorshipCordaidSigrid Rausing Trust
december, 2012
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index
In someone else’s land
Introduction
Case studies
1. Jatayvary IndIgenouS land
2. guyraroká IndIgenouS land
3. PanambI - lagoa rICa IndIgenouS land
4. takuara IndIgenouS land
5. laranJeIra nhanderu IndIgenouS CommunIty
6. guaIvIry IndIgenouS CommunIty
Final remarks
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In SomeoneelSe’S landS
expansion of the soybeanand sugarcane frontierson indigenous territoriesin mato grosso do Sul, brazil
NGO Reporter Brasil’s Biofuel Watch Center (BWC) returns to the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul to further study the strong social and environmen-tal impacts created by producers of soybean and sugar-cane – two of the state’s major crops – on Guarani in-digenous territories. This is the continuation of work started three years ago with the research that resulted in the report ‘Brazil of Biofuels – Impacts of Crops on Land, Environment and Society – Sugar Cane – 2009’. The decision to return to Mato Grosso do Sul is explained for its position as one of Brazil’s major agricul-tural frontiers. There is growing demand in the region for raw materials to supply sugar, ethanol, and biodies-el production plants, encouraging expansion of soybean and sugarcane plantations, including those within indig-enous lands under recognition process by the Brazilian government. While the slowness of this process fuels vi-olent conflicts, it also helps to attract public attention to agricultural production on Indian lands. Besides the analysis of agricultural expansion in the state, this new report presents case studies of six indigenous areas where soybean and sugarcane produc-ers are present. Four of them – Guyraroka, Takuara, Jatayvary, and Panambi-Lagoa Rica – are under an advanced pro-cess of recognition and demarcation, and two – Laran-jeira Nhanderu and Guayviry – are emblematic for their history of conflict. The data presented are based on ex-amination and systematization of official documents and reports collected with the indigenous residents during visits to the six villages. Importantly, production of commodities in in-digenous areas (or in lands claimed by indigenous peo-ple) has been considered irregular and as having strong environmental impact by a growing number of institu-tions such as the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, FUNAI (Brazil’s National Indian Foundation), and the Nation-al Monetary Council, as well as international advocates of indigenous people and other organizations related to the productive sector’s sustainability.
The BWC is grateful for the logistical support provided by the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) to fieldwork in Guarani villages, and to federal prosecu-tors for sharing information. To Cordaid and the Sigrid Rausing Trust for the financial support which allowed the execution of this work. And, in particular, to all who welcomed us to Guarani lands and shared their stories with us.
BRASIL
BOLIVIA
ARGENTINA
URUGUAY
PARAGUAY
COuNtrIES wIth prESENCEOf GuArANI COMMuNItIES
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Introduction
With 53 indigenous areas in distinct stages of study and demarcation, Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) has emerged historically as the Brazilian state with most cases of violence and conflict involving land dispute be-tween indigenous peoples and rural producers. According to the report ‘Violence against indig-enous peoples in Brazil – 2011’, by the Indigenous Mis-sionary Council (CIMI), the state recorded the highest number of homicide victims in the country last year – 32 or 62.7% of total cases – being 27 Guarani-Kaiowá, two Terena, two Guarani-Nhandeva, and one Ofaye-Xa-vante. The state also had the highest number of conflicts related to land rights, according to the same CIMI study. The conflicts have intensified in the last de-cade with the expansion of soybean and sugarcane in the southwest and south of the state, mostly involving the indigenous Guarani-Kaiowá and Guarani-nhadeva, who occupy or demand demarcation of 40 of the 53 indige-nous lands listed by FUNAI.
Sugarcane and indigenous lands in mato grosso do Sul
In recent years, strongly encouraged by the state government, sugarcane was one of the fastest growing industries in Mato Grosso do Sul. According to the National Supply Company (CONAB), the 2012/13 sugarcane harvest has expanded 12.5% over the previ-ous season and now occupies more than 550 hectares in the state (according to CONAB, while the sugarcane-planted area increased 49.2% from 2009/10 to 2010/11, from 2010/11 to 2011/12, that increase was 21.38%). According to the Mato Grosso do Sul Associ-ation of Bioenergy Producers (BIOSUL), 540 thousand hectares are intended for the production of sugar and ethanol; 64 thousand are areas intended for expansion of sugarcane plantations; 29 thousand are under reno-vation; and 15 thousand hectares are reserved for seed-ling production. Regarding processing units, in turn, the Union of Bioenergy Producers (UDOP) lists 30 plants installed and 10 under installation in the state. The growing number of mills has demanded an increasing area of sugarcane plantations. Because much of the activity is being established in the southeast and south of the state, which concentrate the Guarani terri-tories, it ended up boosting sugarcane production of raw materials on farms located within indigenous lands. Besides being a vector for social and land con-flicts – covered in this report in the case studies – sug-arcane plantations in indigenous areas (such as the Pan-tanal, the Amazon Basin and the Upper Paraguay area)
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became irregular and were considered unfit to receive public funding after the publication of Sugarcane’s Agro-Ecological Zoning (AEZ). Under pressure from federal prosecutors, some mills in the so-called Dourados macro-region have al-ready pledged to sever trade relations with producers in indigenous areas. In 2009, the São Fernando mill signed a Commitment by which it pledged not to purchase or plant sugarcane in areas identified, declared, or officially confirmed as land traditionally occupied by indigenous people. A similar agreement was concluded between FUNAI/federal prosecutors and Raízen (a mill belong-ing to the Shell and Cosan groups) in June 2012. The multinational company Bunge, owner of Monteverde Energética in Ponta Porã, in turn, has re-fused to discuss the issue. In a document evaluating its operations in 2010, to which Repórter Brasil had access, the company confirmed that it gets its supplies from five farms located inside the Jatayvary indigenous area, and, in the same document, it says it is aware of the problems related to sugarcane in indigenous lands. While consid-ering that, ‘given the fact that there is a possibility that some areas in which we have partnership and agricultur-al lease contracts are proclaimed as “indigenous lands” and thus expropriated’, Bunge has ruled out to terminate contracts (read more on the case study on the Jatayvary indigenous land).
Soybean and indigenous landsin mato grosso do Sul
Soybean is another crop that has expanded in recent years in Mato Grosso do Sul, particularly in the south-western region of the state. According to CONAB, there was an 8.9% increase in soybean area between the 2010/2011 and the 2011/2012 harvests, which has cov-ered 1.8 million ha this year. Although it is not the primary focus of the soy-bean agribusiness, production of soybean biodiesel is also increasing in the state. According to UDOP, Mato Gros-so do Sul had four operational plants and four others un-der installation in mid-2012.
Being consolidated for longer in south-west-ern Mato Grosso do Sul, soybean also has a larger pres-ence in indigenous areas than sugarcane. Therefore, its impacts on indigenous populations are higher, especially those related to contamination of water bodies from pes-ticides, health damage, death of animals, and damage to plantations caused by fumigation of herbicides by aircraft, heavy truck traffic around villages, among other factors. The number of conflicts involving soybean producers is also higher, as demonstrated in the case studies presented in this report. Still in 2010, federal prosecutors opened an ad-ministrative procedure to ‘establish the liability of the soybean supply chain and financial entities for impacts on the environment, indigenous peoples, quilombolas (ma-roon descendants), and traditional populations, in order to legally collect elements that might lead to Public Civ-il Lawsuits’. According to the Dourados prosecutor, the goal is to make traders and cereal dealers refrain from funding, purchasing, and marketing grain produced in in-digenous lands. According to federal prosecutors, the production of any commodity by non-indigenous people on indige-nous lands or in areas claimed by them violates Conven-tion 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), in its Article 14. According to it, ‘The rights of ownership and possession of the peoples concerned over the lands which they traditionally occupy shall be recognised’. Lia-bility for any violation of those rights extends to the en-tire chain of crops produced within indigenous lands, ac-cording to federal prosecutors. In the case of soybean, another body on which the MPF bases its position is the Roundtable on Re-sponsible Soy (RTRS). According to the institution, ‘the RTRS ensures that producers of certified soy fully recog-nize the rights of indigenous peoples and smallholders’. Currently, companies like Bunge, Cargill, ADM, André Maggi Group, and others are RTRS members. According to the prosecutors’ interpretation, those companies have a duty not to purchase, fund, or otherwise relate with soy-bean producers in indigenous areas.
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Bunge insists in mantainig agreements with sugarcane farms
inside indigenous lands
Soy fields occupying indigenous land are increasing in MS
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CaSe StudIeS1. Jatayvary Indigenous land Location: Town of Ponta Porã, Mato Grosso do SulArea: 8,800 hectares Perimeter: 40 km Indian society: Guarani-kaiowáLegal status: declared
The Indigenous Land Jatayvary was recognised by FUNAI in 2004 and ‘declared’ (the second step of recog-nition of indigenous lands by FUNAI) through Ordinance MJ/GM 499, in April 2011. The first movement in reclaim-ing traditional territory, however, began in an unorganised way still in the mid-1960s, but the effective re-occupation of area occurred after 1998. According to older Jatayvary residents, relations in the early days between farmers and indigenous people were highly strained. ‘The farmer who owned the occu-
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At the entrance of the indigenous land Jatayvary, farmers indicate the
occupation of the territory
pied area sent a lot of gunmen to frighten us. Then he sent machines and tractors to cut down the forest and to plant. Before that, when we first got here, there was nothing, no agriculture or livestock’, says owner Genilda, one of the village’s oldest residents. In 2004, when Jatayvary’s recognition as an indig-enous land was published, about 96 families used to oc-cupy 181.4 hectares with houses, small crops, and animals. After being delimitated, the Indigenous Land now awaits demarcation and official confirmation by FUNAI and Bra-zil’s Presidency.
► Presence of farms in the Jatayvary Indian Land
According to FUNAI’S Identification Report, there are 45 farms that fall within Jatayvary. In those areas, pro-duction activities, crops, and leases change every year, mak-ing it difficult to track them in time since their initial regis-tration. In the case of soybean, however, according to the State Agency for Animal and Plant Health Defence (IAGRO) of Mato Grosso do Sul, for the 2011/2012 harvest there are 14 records of grain producers who planted on farms locat-ed partly or wholly within the Jatayvary IL, as shown in the map below. According to the Guarani, conflicts with farmers occupying the Jatayvary territory are under control and there have been no major incidents recently. The main problem has been the heavy traffic of trucks carrying pro-duce by the road that crosses the area – the danger of peo-ple being run over, which has already occurred, is great, be-sides the nuisance of dust and noise. ‘Another problem is the constant spraying of poison from aircraft. When this
happens, the kids here have lots of d i a r r h o e a and vomit-ing’, said lo-cal leader Ar-lindo Cabaña.
▼ SOy fArMS INSIDE thE JAtAyvAry LAND
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► Sugarcane – the case of the Monteverde/Bunge mill
According to the Jatayvary indigenous people, sugarcane started to be planted in farms within the area about five years, with the arrival to the region of mills such as São Fernando, belonging to the Bumlai and Bertin groups, and Monteverde, currently owned by multination-al company Bunge. In April 2010, after a tense negotiation process and under pressure from State, Federal and Labour pros-ecutors, the São Fernando mill signed a cooperation and compromise agreement in which it pledges not to ‘acquire or promote the planting of sugarcane, even through leas-es in rural properties that are located in areas identified, declared, or officially approved as land traditionally oc-cupied by indigenous people. Contracts with owners of farms located on these lands will be terminated and not renewed, guarantying the right to conclude crops allowed by the sugarcane cycle’. Bunge’s Monteverde mill, in turn, has refused to terminate sugarcane supply contracts with farms occu-pying areas in Jatayvary, despite being aware of the prob-lem. The company is supplied with five properties located within that indigenous land. Also in 2010, the Monteverde/Bunge mill pre-pared a ‘Proposal for maintaining agricultural partnership contracts on areas demarcated as indigenous land’, where it recognizes that, ‘given the possibility that some areas on which we have partnership contracts and rural leases are proclaimed as “indigenous lands” and thus expropri-ated, the need has emerged to analyze the physical, in-vestment-related, financial, fiscal, and socio/environmen-tal status of contracts in those areas’. Asked about the management of those contracts, Bunge said in August 2012 that ‘the company has decid-ed to discontinue those contracts by their respective ex-piration dates, from 2013 on’. In the same statement, the company said that the contract with the Guarida farm had not been cancelled, despite having expired in May 2012, as stated in its 2010 documents. That means that, in accor-dance with its latest position, despite its awareness of the problems related to sugarcane on indigenous land, it re-newed a contract in May and might renew another one in December 2012. About the argument that the Sugarcane Agro-Ecological Zoning and the National Monetary Council see production of culture in indigenous areas as irreg-ular, Bunge only stated that ‘contracts [with the farms within Jatayvary] predate that zoning and cultivation of sugarcane in the current cycle has not been the object of public funding’.
2. guyraroká Indigenous landLocation: Town of Caarapó,Mato Grosso do SulArea: 11,401 hectares Perimeter: 49,603 km Indian society: Guarani-kaiowáLegal status: declared
The Guarani-Kaiowá of Guyraroká have claimed the area now declared as Indigenous Land by FUNAI since 1990, when they first re-occupied part of their tradition-al territory. In 1999, the group suffered violent police evic-tion and started camping on the roadside for about four years. In September 2004, FUNAI finished the first recog-nition process for the area, and the Guarani-Kaiowá re-oc-cupied part of the Ipuitã farm. In July 2005, Justice allowed them to stay on 58 hectares of the farm, and in October 2009, Guyraroká was declared a permanent possession of the indigenous people. The Guyraroká Indigenous Land, which, according to its leaders, currently houses 24 fami-lies – about 120 people – now awaits demarcation and fi-nal homologation by FUNAI and the Presidency.
► Impacts of agricultural activities on indigenous lands
According to FUNAI’s Identification Report, there are about 26 farms within the Guyraroká area, but not all owners and estates have been identified. According to vil-lage chief Ambrósio Vilhalva, there are still individual cas-es of harassment and attacks on indigenous residents. Environmental problems, in turn, are still serious. The long occupation of indigenous territory by farmers
Chief Ambrosio Vilhalva explains that the village riveris contaminated by pesticides form the sugarcane farms
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had a devastating effect on native vegetation – essential for the development of the Guarani-Kaiowá’s subsistence practices such as gathering, using medicinal plants, fishing, and hunting – especially in the last decade, according to the reports by indigenous leaders in Guyraroká. In 2010, the sugar-alcohol company Nova America settled in the region, purchased by the industry’s largest company in Bra-zil, Cosan, now called Raízen after a merger in a joint ven-ture between Dutch and Shell Oil. According to Ambrósio Vilhalva, soybean planta-tions also impact the village, mainly due to pesticide fu-migation on crops. ‘Poison contaminates water and causes health problems for our people, especially children, who feel a lot of heartache and suffer from diarrhoea’, said the chief.
► Sugarcane and soybean producers within the Guyr-aroká IL
According to Mato Grosso do Sul’s IAGRO, there are 10 recorded cases of soybean farmers who planted the grain on farms that fall partly or wholly within the Guyraroká IL in the 2011/2012 harvest, as shown by the map below. Regarding sugarcane, since that activity does not require registration or even environmental licensing in Mato Grosso do Sul, difficulty is greater to obtain offi-cial data on the location and size of areas planted. Federal prosecutors in Dourados and indigenous people have re-corded at least three farms on the site.
The production of agricultural commodities within indigenous lands by non-indigenous occupants has been a major vector of problems for the Guarani-Kaiowá of Mato Grosso do Sul, regarding both land and environ-mental/social aspects. In the case of sugarcane, Decree 6961 of September 17th, 2009, which approved the sug-arcane agro-ecological zoning, excluded indigenous lands from areas suitable for cultivation and open to public funding – an act that was regulated by the National Mon-etary Council (CMN) in October of the same year. Based on this regulation, prosecutors have tried since then to negotiate with the companies Shell and Co-san, owners of the Raízen mill, to stop the purchase of sug-arcane grown on farms that fall within Guyraroká. On April 20th, 2012, the Raízen Caarapó S. A. Sug-ar and Alcohol plant – located between the Guyraroká and Takuara ILs, by the MS 156 state road, kilometre 12, in the town of Caarapó – signed with FUNAI a Commitment Agreement on Cooperation in which it pledges to ‘perma-nently cease, by November 25th, 2012 at most, the acquisi-tion of sugarcane from areas already declared [as ILs], for its production unit (mill) located in the town of Caarapó, state of Mato Grosso do Sul’. Given the damage already suffered by the indige-nous community, however, in June prosecutors filed a fed-eral lawsuit against FUNAI, seeking 170 million in compen-sation, to be reverted to residents of Guyraroká, for moral and material damages. ‘The Federal Public Attorney’s of-fice considered the dispersion of the community, their forced removal to other areas, the violence they endured, the delay by the Union to demarcate their traditional lands and also frustration of the original rights to the exclusive
usufruct of their land’, explains the prosecutors’ document.
▼ SOy fArMS INSIDE thE GuIrArOkA LAND
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3. Panambi-lagoa ricaIndigenous landLocation: Towns of Douradina and Itaporã,Mato Grosso do SulArea: 12,196 hectares Approximate perimeter: 63 km Indian society: Guarani-kaiowáLegal status: delimited
Women perform a traditional welcome dance
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fire. Already in September, some 50 of their employees came, armed. We were almost a thousand people, includ-ing adults, children, and the elderly, so this time we de-fended ourselves with bows and slings; we called the fed-eral police and they ran’, said local leader Ifigênia Hilton.In December 2011, FUNAI published the Identification Re-port for the Panambi-Lagoa Rica Indigenous Land. Accord-ing to the document, ‘the Report concluded that the area traditionally occupied by the Kaiowá indigenous people in
the towns Douradina and Itaporã, MS, has a 12-hectare surface and a 63-km perim-eter, approximately, and composes the vast area called ‘Brilhante Pegua”’, home to about 830 Guarani-Kaiowá.
► Impacts of farms on the Panambi-La-goa Rica IL
The Panambi-Lagoa Rica Indig-enous Land is possibly that with the high-est incidence of farms, ranches, and lots of indigenous areas declared in Mato Grosso do Sul: at least 72 properties. According to the indigenous residents, areas occupied by non-indig-enous people include cattle farms and a small area leased for sugarcane planta-tion to the LDC Bioenergia mill (a com-pany belonging to the French group Louis Dreyfus Commodities). They would to-tal 5 hectares on a farm named São Pau-lo, but the information could not be con-firmed. Most producers, however, work with grain crops such as rice, corn, and soybean. According to Mato Grosso do
Sul’s state agency IAGRO, in the 2011/2012 harvest there were 27 recorded cases of soybean farmers who grew the grain on properties that fall partly or wholly on the Pan-ambi-Lagoa Rica IL as shown by the map on next page. According to the indigenous residents, the con-flict with farmers is still not fully addressed. ‘We still suffer many threats, that’s why we always try to walk in groups’, said a leader. Security firm Gaspem is accused of commit-ting a series of acts of violence against them, including the murder of Guayviri IL chief Nizio Gomes in late 2011. Besides the strained relations, farmers’ produc-tion activity has also caused problems for the Indians, says local leader Cirso Jorge. ‘When they apply poison to the crops, usually [herbicide] Nortox, people get very ill, espe-cially children’, says Cirso. According to him, some farmers use tractors to apply the poison, but there is also fumiga-tion by aircraft.
The Panambi-Lagoa Rica indigenous land has been claimed by the Guarani-Kaiowá since August 2005, when they first re-occupied part of the area then occu-pied by the farms Irmãos Spessato, of Cleto Spessato, and Kechevi, of Valdir Piesanti. Clashes with ranchers and their bodyguards, who left some Guarani wounded, led to inter-vention by federal prosecutors and FUNAI, who promised them that the administrative demarcation process for the area, shelved since 1970, would be resumed. Just over a month later, in mid-October, the FUN-AI’s Working Group began studying the area. A first report was filed in May 2009, but demarcation has not been com-pleted due to disagreement on the content, as justified by FUNAI’s president in September 2010. Due to the delay in the recognition process, in August 2010, the Guarani re-occupied part of the territory claimed. Between re-occupation and late September, they reported four attacks to the camp by ranchers and their guards. ‘In the first attack, the ranchers set everything on
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▼SOy fArMS INSIDE thE pANAMbI-LAGOA rICA LAND
4. takuara Indigenous landLocation: Town of Juti, Mato Grosso do SulArea: 9,700 hectares Perimeter: 50 km Indian society: Guarani-kaiowáLegal status: declared
The Takuara Indigenous Land – scene of one of the most brutal murders of an indigenous leader in Mato Grosso do Sul, has been claimed by the Guarani-Kaiowá since 1999. That year saw the first re-occupation of the area, and FUNAI began studies for identification and de-marcation of territory under Ordinance 1176/PRES of De-cember 23rd. In June 2010, the IL was declared permanent possession of the indigenous people through Ordinance 954, suspended after a preliminary decision by the Feder-al Supreme Court (STF) in July of the same year. The case is still awaiting closure. From 1999 to 2001, the Guarani remained in the area, occupying part of the Brasília do Sul farm, owned by Jacinto Honório da Silva Filho. In October 2001, they clashed with the farm’s employees in an attempt to ex-pand the re-occupied area. Evicted by Justice, they were helped by other indigenous group and started living at their Tey Cuê village, in Caarapó. In October 2002, the Takuara group eventually left Tey Cuê and started camp-ing by the MS-156 state road in Dourados.
► The murder of chief Marcos Veron
On January 11th, 2003, the Guarani promoted the second re-occupation action of Takuara in the Brasília do Sul farm, causing a violent reaction by farmer Jacinto Hon-ório. On the 12th, a vehicle belonging to them and carry-ing grocery to the camp was attacked and chased by 10 of those employees, and in the middle of the night of the 13th, the camp was violently attacked by 18 gunmen, who even-tually beat chief Marcos Veron to death.
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Ladio Veron, son of the murdered chief Marcos Veron, with the picture
of his father
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According to federal prosecutors who reported the case to Justice, in the small hours of the 13th, ‘individu-als who carried out the chasing [of the car], had joined an-other group the day before, also heavily armed, (...) at the behest of Jacinto Honório da Silva Filho, and promoted a real massacre against the indigenous people camped inside the Brasília do Sul Farm. The aforementioned group, using three vehicles belonging to the farm and a Mercedes-Benz truck, armed with guns and rockets, and relying on a clear task division, put down the tents where those people were sleeping, beating and humiliating them’. Now a Takuara leader and teacher at the village school, Ladio Veron, son of the murdered chief, says that he, his wife, brothers, sister, and son were tied while the gunmen beat his father with rifle butts. ‘I heard them say-ing on the radio of a pick-up truck that my father was al-most dead, and I heard [farmer] Jacinto’s voice saying they shouldn’t have killed him, that this way he wouldn’t pay for the service. When they asked him what they should to do with us, he said they should get rid of the bodies, throw them in a hole that is behind a nearby eucalyptus grove’, Ladio reports. After the discussion, he, his father and his family were thrown in the back of a pick-up truck. ‘By miracle, at that moment a truck came with its headlights on and they fled without killing me’, says Ladio. Chief Marcos Veron, 72 at the time, succumbed to inju-ries and died in hospital with head trauma. The case was denounced by federal pros-ecutors and FUNAI and will go to the courts as collusion, kidnapping, damages, first-degree mur-der, and torture, including 28 defendants. Due to pressures by agribusiness and the ineffectiveness of Mato Grosso do Sul’s Justice, a 2009 decision of the 3rd Regional Federal Court transferred the Jury Court to São Paulo. In 2011, three defendants were sentenced to 12 years in prison. Another 24 defendants still await trial.
► Impacts by farms within the Takuara IL
Currently, the 69 families living in the Takuara IL occupy only 90 hectares of the territo-ry, according to Ladio Veron. After the assassina-tion of Chief Marcos Veron, conflicts in the area decreased, but they live in constant fear. Ladio, which never receives strangers in the village, says he has suffered two kidnapping attempts in recent years, probably ordered by local ranchers. From an environmental standpoint, Takuara’s vegetal cover and fauna have suffered strong impacts as a result of the agricultural oc-cupation of the territory, which dates back to the 1950s. According to the indigenous people, rem-nants of native forest have been almost com-
pletely destroyed since 2003, with the repeated leases of the Brasília do Sul farm to soybean and sugarcane produc-ers. In 2004, they report, the then Nova América mill – now Raízen – was one of the chief responsible for the fell-ing of forest on the indigenous land, but they could not say whether or not the company continues leasing areas within the Takuara. In recent years, according to the Indians, most lease in the Brasília do Sul farm are intended to cultivation of soybean (and late crop corn). Besides problems with pesticide fumigation from aircraft on crops, which consis-tently reaches the village – causing severe damage to their subsistence plantations and diseases in children and the elderly –the heavy traffic of trucks passing through their area is also a nuisance. ‘In 2011, we designated someone to count it: 870 big soybean trucks came out of our land, crossing in the middle of the village’, said Ladio Veron. Ac-cording to Mato Grosso do Sul’s IAGRO, in the 2011/2012 harvest there are 14 records of soybean farmers who plant-ed the grain on farms that fall partly or totally within the Takuara IL, as shown by the map below.
▼ SOy fArMS INSIDE thE tAkuArA LAND
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5. laranjeira nhanderuIndigenous landLocation: Town of Rio Brilhante,Mato Grosso do SulArea claimed: 11,000 hectares Indian society: Guarani-kaiowáLegal status: under legal expert examination
The first reclaiming of the Laranjeira Nhanderu land occurred in February 2008, when some 120 Guarani occupied part of the Santo Antônio da Nova Esperança farm. In retaliation, farmers blocked access to the camp through Raul José das Neves’s Fazenda (farm) do Inho. The property is located near the Santo Antônio farm and, ac-cording to federal prosecutors, armed guards were sta-tioned at the gate to prevent both transit of indigenous people and access to officials from FUNAI, FUNASA, and other government agencies. The blockade led to the death of a 5-month-old, which could not be taken to the hos-pital in time because Raul das Neves’s private security guards prevented the passage of the mother, according to reports by indigenous people to federal prosecutors.
Given FUNAI’s inaction in securing the studies on the land, the Court ordered the eviction of the indig-enous people by the Federal Police in September of the same year. Upon leaving the camp, gunmen torched the group’s huts and belongings, and they started camping on the roadside of interstate BR 163. In May 2011, the group left the makeshift camp along the road and re-occupied part of the legal reserve of the Santo Antônio farm, where it remains to date despite repeated attempts at repossession by farmers, denied by Justice at the end of process. From 2008 – when it first pledged to conduct an-thropological studies on the area – until today, FUNAI has not finished it. Given ‘judicialization’ of land disputes be-tween farmers and the indigenous group, the Federal Jus-tice decided to carry out a legal expert examination on the area, in which it will evaluate farmers’ arguments, against the permanence of the group, as well as prosecutors’, fa-vourable to it. Despite being scheduled for mid-August, the expert examination should not take place before Oc-tober, according to prosecutors’ estimates.
► Conflicting situation
Thirty-six families – about 200 people – of Laran-jeira Nhanderu are currently living in a camp in the for-ested stretch between the Inho and Santo Antônio farms. According to the survey conducted by the indigenous group themselves, corroborated by FUNAI’s study (now stopped), at least 10 farms fall within traditional Guarani-Kaiowá territory.
▼ LArANJEIrA NhANDEru IL MAp DrAftEDby thE GuArANI
Picture: V
erena Glass
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Right in front of most of Laranjeira Nhande-ru’s huts and house of prayer, separated by a narrow dirt road, is the soybean area (and late crop corn) of Inho farm, owned by José Raul das Neves and José Raul das Neves Ju-nior (president of the Workers’ Party in Rio Brilhante). The area was leased from soybean producer Sadi Masiero. According to the indigenous people, the main problem of the proximity of the farms to their homes and small plantations is the application of pesticides from aircraft. In addition to contamination of water bod-ies and the health problems caused mainly to youth and the elderly, they have been losing ‘a lot of animals’. ‘In May, [farmer] Sadi threw poison on the area here and killed four geese, eight ducks, and 35 chicks, mine alone’, explains Mrs. Roselina. In the map of Laranjeira Nhanderu drafted by the indigenous people, properties within the perime-ter of the claimed territory include the Cadeado farm, which, according to them, produces sugarcane for the LDC Bioenergia mill, belonging to the French multina-tional company Louis Dreyfus. The farm is also listed as a soybean producer by Mato Grosso do Sul’s IAGRO, for the 2011/2012 harvest. The grain has been allegedly pro-duced by Roberto Lago.
6. Indigenous Community guaiviryLocation: Towns of Aral Moreira and Ponta Pora,Mato Grosso do SulArea claimed: 110,000 hectares Indian society: Guarani-kaiowáLegal status: under study
The Guaiviry indigenous area has been claimed by the Guarani-Kaiowá since 2004, when it was first re-occu-pied by a group of about 65 families. Removed from the area by FUNAI in 2005, the group made a second attempt to re-occupying a piece of the Ouro Verde farm, but faced new eviction. The third re-occupation took place on November 1st, 2011. The camp was set up in an area of the Nova Aurora soybean farm, a few metres from interstate BR 386, which connects Ponta Porã to the city of Amambaí, and remains in place today. According to FUNAI, studies to identify and demarcate the area have already begun and are under way. Guaiviry was the scene of the latest murder of an indigenous leader, committed by a consortium of farm-ers with the help of private security company Gaspem, ac-cording to a Federal Police investigation. The Guarani say that on the morning of November 18th, 2011, around 6:30 am, 17 cars arrived to the camp and hooded men murdered chief Nizio Gomes, the group’s leader. ‘They came look-ing for my father, who ran to the forest. (...) My 13-year-old nephew Jonatan saw his grandfather fallen, dead’, explains Genito Gomes, Nizio’s son and one of the camp’s current leaders. According to Federal Police investigations, the assault and murder of Nizio Gomes were organized by a group of farmers and the security company Gaspem on the night before the event. With the closure of the inves-tigation in June 2012, the Police indicted 23 people and or-dered the provisional arrest of 18, including farmers, Gas-pem members, and a lawyer. The last arrests were made in early July 2012. At the end of the month, three defendants were released (in-
cluding Aparecido Altonio Fernandes de Freitas, owner of the Maranatha farm, acquitted by testimony from oth-er people involved) after a habeas cor-pus granted by the 3rd Federal Regional Court (TRF-3).
► Soybean production
Several landowners mentioned in the investigation of Nizio Gomes’s murder are major soybean producers. According to IAGRO, in the 2011/2012 harvest, the grain was planted by seven farmers.
► Farms in the Guaiviry area Mrs. Marilia Teresa, one of the oldest members of the Guaiviry camp, reports that she was born in the area and was evicted with other relatives af-ter the lands were taken by farmers and
Genito Gomes, son of the murdered chief Nizio Gomes
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: Ver
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production of yerba mate began in the region, in the 1940s. Marilia Tereza mentions the Ouro Verde farm, but others speak of relatives born or buried on farms such as Tagi, Ponto Alto, and Jaguarete. An initial survey conducted by the indigenous people to support FUNAI’s study and delimitation process detected an area of about 110 thousand hectares as being traditionally Guarani.
▼GuAIvIry IL MAp DrAftED by thE GuArANI
The preliminary survey also pointed out eight farms that were in the area and include anthropological landmarks such as tombs, cemeteries, Guarani trade cen-tres and even villages. According to IAGRO, five of the farms mentioned planted soybean in the 2011/2012 har-vest. Information about the productive activity of the oth-ers could not be obtained.
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Final remarks
Brazil’s agribusiness is one of the fastest grow-ing industries in recent years, with sound support from the federal government. Despite fluctuations in the prices of agricultural commodities in the international market, there remained considerable gains in 2012, which boost-ed investment. According to CONAB’s harvest estimates, this year the country will produce 165.9 million tons of grain – 1.9% more than in the previous harvest (in Mato Grosso do Sul, the increase was 22.9%). The area planted also increased by 2% in Brazil, occupying 982,200 hect-ares more than in the previous harvest (in Mato Grosso do Sul, the increase was 12.8%). The increase in agribusiness gains and in land prices in recent decades has had a disturbing effect on the process of recognition of indigenous territories, especial-ly in regions of expanding agricultural frontier. In to-tal numbers, for example, President Fernando Collor de Melo approved 112 Indigenous Lands between 1991 and 1992 and between 1992 and 1994; President Itamar Fran-co approved 18. In his eight years in office, President Fer-nando Henrique Cardoso approved 145 ILs. During Luis Inácio Lula da Silva’s term in office, there were 79 ap-provals, and in Dilma Rousseff’s, only three. Rural producers – with support, in recent years, from the state government – have exerted overt oppo-sition to the process of recognition of indigenous lands in Mato Grosso do Sul. On the other hand, however, the plight of the Guarani has also led to a wider movement and broader recognition of their socio-cultural character-istics and their ancient rights, introducing a new refer-ence into the scenario of conceptual disputes, which is op-posed to the economic/financial one.
For the Guarani, the Tekoha is the place ‘where we live according to our customs’. Its surface can vary, but structure and function remain the same: it has its own religious and political leadership, and strong social cohe-sion. The Tekoha features the major religious festivals and political and formal decisions in general meetings (the great Guarani council Aty Guasu). The Tekoha has a well-defined area, usually delimited by woods, streams or rivers, and it is an exclusive communal property, i. e., incorporation or the presence of strangers is not allowed. Above all, the Tekoha is a divine institution, created by Nhanderu (God).Such notion of belonging, of the ancestral and the divine inherent in territories partly explains the presence – and often, the leadership – of prayers (nhanderus) in actions for re-occupying land, as well as the resigned resistance to the most adverse conditions of homelessness, hunger, violence, and slow demarcation procedures to which the Guarani are subjected in camps. The recognition of the Guarani’s right to their lands is thus a prerequisite for their survival as a people. In the balance of values, it ex-ceeds (or is not comparable to) the Democratic Rule of Law, farming’s economic accounting, or even the process of land appropriation by private or state forces. This recognition is expected to be included into supply chains and public policies related to commodity production in Mato Grosso do Sul. Therefore, this report aims to assist the various links in that chain in detecting practices that do not correspond to a production process that can be considered responsible, both in its compliance with the law and in what extrapolates it, for the benefit of indigenous peoples.
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