The Amazon and its indigenous residents have had a devastating 12 months. The infernos of summer 2019 brought devastation to the rainforest, threatening the 300 tribes and the 9.5% of the world’s biodiversity that populate its 350 million hectares. Some allege that ranchers’ farm expansions exacerbated the fires and that president Jair Bolsonaro emboldened such expansion through his aggressive stance on developing the rainforest. The arrival of COVID-19 has only intensified the situation. The pandemic has taken non-governmental organisation (NGO) protection and media attention away from the rainforest and the indigenous people living there, allowing illegal logging to carry on relatively unchecked. 

CAPITALISING ON CATASTROPHE

Land grabs from indigenous people in the Brazilian Amazon are commonplace but have risen significantly under Bolsonaro, reaching an 11-year-high in 2019. Last summer, fires supported the insidious expansion of cattle farming, and now COVID-19 is providing the same cover. Cases of the novel coronavirus are spreading rapidly among indigenous tribes, which have limited local medical infrastructure and are often hours from the nearest hospital. The mortality rate among Brazil’s indigenous people is 12.6%—double the rate of the rest of Brazil. The threat of COVID-19 has thus seen indigenous communities sealing themselves off from the outside world, retreating into their villages, and consequently leaving their lands exposed to illegal mining and logging. 

The pandemic has also emboldened the government to take a more aggressive stance on the rainforest. Brazil’s Environment Minister, Ricardo Salles, was recorded saying that the cover of COVID-19 has given the government the opportunity to “run the cattle herd” through the Amazon, by weakening environmental rules and standards. The planned new laws will give land titles to farmers currently occupying indigenous land illegally. Last year, 99% of all deforestation in the country was illegal, and 12,000 square kilometres of forest were destroyed.

LEGALISING LAND-GRABS

Indigenous land illegally grabbed under the cover of COVID-19 and the fires could soon be formally legalised. The Brazilian National Congress is set to hold a vote, using an emergency process introduced to allow more rapid decision making during the COVID-19 crisis, on new land ownership legislation. Vice President Hamilton Mourao stated that this legislation is needed to prevent rather than facilitate land grabs: “[If] we don’t know who owns the land, we cannot bring [anyone] to justice when they are doing illegal activities.” 

Analysts have warned that the new legislation will allow land illegally occupied to be legally and permanently seized, with the occupiers circularly using their continued illegal activities on that land as proof of their occupation. Alongside this threat to indigenous lands, the government’s indigenous agency,  FUNAI, passed a new rule titled IN 09. This rule strips yet-to-be-demarcated but indigenous lands of their recognition as “indigenous” in the land registry. Roughly one-third of Brazilian indigenous land has not yet been demarcated—amounting to 12% of the country’s land. These changes will allow cattle herders, miners, and loggers—currently illegally occupying indigenous islands—to apply for and eventually obtain legal ownership.

INDIGENOUS RIGHTS UNDER THREAT

The Amazon is the world’s largest rainforest and one of the most important carbon sinks, making its survival crucial in the fight against climate change. The recent destruction of the ancient ecosystem has been classed as a public security emergency by Human Rights Watch. The intense environmental destruction under Bolsonaro’s far-right rule is putting indigenous residents at risk, threatening their way of life, and eliminating their access to food and water. In a report published in 2019, Human Rights Watch documented how indigenous people have been threatened, attacked, and in some cases murdered by people carrying out illegal land-grabs. 

By rushing through these new land ownership laws under the cover of COVID-19, Bolsonaro is legitimising criminal activity, perhaps to assist in delivering on his election promise of developing the Amazon. Brazil is a signatory of the UN Declaration on Indigenous Rights of Indigenous People, which requires states to recognise the urgent need to respect and promote the rights of indigenous people over their lands, territories, and resources. Brazil is, however, attempting to distance itself from the UN Declaration, having published a Congressional report in 2017 that accuses the UN of being a “confederation of non-governmental organisations influencing Brazilian policy”. The new land ownership laws in line to be passed under the cover of COVID-19 support Bolsonaro’s efforts to dismantle indigenous rights in pursuit of his commitment to develop the Amazon. 

Holly is currently attending SOAS University London, studying MSc Environment, Politics and Development. She focuses on the intersection between environmental and social injustices, ranging from the growing number of climate change refugees, to the impacts of inner-city pollution on human health. 

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