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Volume 9 - 2015 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2015.00023 We examined the role of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in reward processing and the control of consummatory behavior Rats were trained in an operant licking procedure in which they received alternating access to solutions with relatively high and low levels of sucrose (20 and 4% Each level of sucrose was available for fixed intervals of 30 s over 30 min test sessions rats came to lick persistently when the high level of sucrose was available and suppressed licking when the low level of sucrose was available specifically the rostral part of the prelimbic area greatly reduced intake of the higher value fluid and only slightly increased intake of the lower value fluid the inactivations altered within-session patterns and microstructural measures of licking Rats licked equally for the high and low levels of sucrose at the beginning of the test sessions and “relearned” to reduce intake of the low value fluid over the test sessions Durations of licking bouts (clusters of licks with inter-lick intervals <0.5 s) were reduced for the high value fluid and there were many more brief licking bouts (<1 s) when the low value fluid was available These effects were verified using an alternative approach (optogenetic silencing using archaerhodopsin) and were distinct from inactivation of the ventral striatum Our findings suggest that the mPFC is crucial for the maintenance of persistent licking and the expression of learned feeding strategies our studies suggest that the mPFC is necessary for the maintenance of persistent licking and the expression of learned feeding strategies All experimental procedures were approved by the Animal Care and Use Committee at The John B where the experimental studies were carried out and conform to guidelines for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (National Institutes of Health) Male Sprague-Dawley and Long Evans rats weighing between 350 and 375 g were purchased from Harlan Animals and were allowed 1 week to acclimate to their new environment with daily handling prior to training Food access was regulated for maintenance of 90% of their free access body weight by giving 18 g of rat chow a day in the evenings following experiments Rats weighed between 325 and 500 g at the time of testing A total of 20 rats were tested for effects of positive contrast and 24 rats were tested for effects of negative contrast Pharmacological inactivations were performed during the operant task in 27 rats and six of these rats were removed from the study due to improper cannula targeting Seven rats (not included in the operant study) were tested with pharmacological inactivation of the mPFC during sucrose consumption in home cage A total of 12 rats were used for optogenetic inactivation experiments and seven of these rats were removed from the study due to lack of viral expression and/or misalignment of the optic ferrule with the viral expression field All animals were trained in operant chambers containing a house lamp and enclosed within a sound-attenuating external chamber (ENV-008; Med Associates) Control of pumps and data acquisition was carried out using Med-PC version IV (Med Associates) Pierce Laboratory Instruments Shop) was used that permitted multiple solution lines to merge and be consumed at a single point The spout was located on one wall of the chamber at a height of 6.5 cm from the chamber floor and positioned horizontally The spout was positioned between two barriers that restricted the movement of animals while licking on the spout Two solution lines connected to 60ml syringes were used in these experiments Syringe plungers were driven by single speed syringe pumps (PHM-100; Med Associates) triggered by licks and delivered ~0.025 ml of fluid per activation Licks were detected and recorded optically via interruptions of an infrared beam between an emitter and detector placed directly in front of the licking spout Animals were placed within an operant box for 30 min sessions with continual access to the drinking spout Standard sessions consisted of shifts in the availability of the high value sucrose solution (20% sucrose wt/v) and low value sucrose solution (4% sucrose wt/v) over alternating thirty second epochs Licking on the spout triggered delivery of the solutions the current epoch would end and the alternate solution epoch would commence following the next lick Alternation between epochs continued until the 30 min session terminated Rats were tested for effects of positive and negative contrast in special sessions in which only the high or low value sucrose solution was provided Positive contrast was detected as an increase in the consumption of the high value sucrose in sessions with access to both the high and low values of sucrose compared to sessions with access only to the high value sucrose Negative contrast was detected as a reduction in the consumption of the low value sucrose in sessions with access to both the high and low values of sucrose compared to sessions with access to only the low value We compared lick counts and measures of licking microstructure (number of bouts inter-bout interval) during the 30 s epochs when rats would normally receive the high or low value sucrose and by averaging these measures across all task epochs we checked for potential changes in satiation using cumulative record plots of licking in each testing session Animals were provided 2–3 days of full food access prior to implantation of either guide cannulas or infusion of virus into mPFC followed by implantation of optic ferrules Animals were initially anesthetized with isoflurane (3.5% ~2 min) and injected intraperitoneally with ketamine (100 mg/kg) and xylazine (10 mg/kg) for deep anesthesia throughout the surgery supplemental doses of ketamine and xylazine were administered over the span of the surgeries The scalp was shaved and carprofen (10 mg/kg; Pfizer) was injected subcutaneously into the skin of the neck Animals were placed into a stereotaxic apparatus using ear bars and the scalp was covered in iodine for 1 min Iodine solution was wiped off the scalp and 0.3 ml of 2% lidocaine solution was injected subcutaneously along the midline A midsagittal incision through the skin covering the scalp was made to expose the surface of the skull and the positioning of the head within the stereotaxic apparatus was adjusted to ensure lambda and bregma were leveled into the same plane Four skull screws were placed caudally into the parietal skull bone plates for anchoring of implants to the head Single 26 gage guide cannulas with dummy cannulas (Plastics One) were implanted bilaterally into the prelimbic region of the mPFC [anteroposterior (AP) -4.0 from the surface of the brain at an angle of 12° from the midline] Four rats had bilaterial dual cannula targeting both rostral and caudal levels of the mPFC (AP -4.0 from the surface of the brain at an angle of 12° from the midline; this is the midpoint between the dual cannulas having a distance of 0.5 mm between the centers of each cannula) Cannulas targeted to ventral striatum were also implanted bilaterally (AP -5.5 from the surface of the brain at an angle of 22° from the midline) Guide cannulas were positioned 1 mm dorsal from the target brain structure due to using injection cannulas that extended 1 mm beyond the tip of the guide cannula Adeno-associated virus (AAV; serotype 9) plasmids containing archaerhodopsin (ArchT) and GFP driven under the ubiquitous CAG promoter (AAV-CAG-ArchT-GFP) were purchased from the University of North Carolina Vector Core (Chapel Hill Implanted optic ferrules (Prizmatix) had an optic fiber with a diameter of 400 μm and a numerical aperture (NA) of ~0.66 with a flat cut tip to focus light delivery to regions directly below the end of the ferrule 33 gage injection cannulas targeted only the rostral prelimbic cortex and 1 μl of virus was deposited at 0.1 μl/min using the same method described for infusion of drugs into the brain injection cannulas were left in place for an additional 5 min to allow for diffusion of the virus into the brain prior to being retracted Optic fibers were positioned 0.3 mm dorsal to the point of viral infusion After implantation of cannulas or ferrules the craniotomy was covered and cannulas initially secured using cyanoacrylate (Slo-Zap) and cyanoacrylate accelerator (Zip Kicker) The entire implant was then permanently affixed to the skull by methyl methacrylate dental cement (AM Systems) via the four implanted skull screws The skin surrounding the implants was cleaned animals were given the α2-adrenoceptor antagonist yohimbine (2 mg/ml at equal volumes of the xylazine used during the surgery) to counteract the xylazine used for chronic anesthesia To reduce any chances of infection the antibiotic enrofloxacin (23 mg/kg; Bayer) was given intraperitoneally when the animal began to move enrofloxacin was administered via the drinking water (70 mg/500 ml) throughout recovery Carprofen was also administered via the drinking water (25 mg/500 ml) for 2 days following surgery for pain management To prevent animals from pulling out dummy cannulas over the span of recovery and re-initiation of behavioral experiments Kwick-Cast silicon sealant (WPI) was spread over the dummy cannula caps to secure them to their guide cannulas Animals were allowed to recover from surgery for 1 week while having free access to food and water Animals were monitored and weighed daily throughout recovery Regulated access to food was reinstated several days prior to behavioral testing All animals recovered within one or two test sessions after inactivation and showed equivalent intake and licking behavior to the PBS control sessions Drug delivery was carried out via a 33 gage injection cannula (Plastics One) connected to fine bore (0.38 ID) polythene tubing filled with mineral oil that was lightly colored pink with 0.5% Oil RedO (Sigma; O0625) The tubing was connected to a 10-μl Hamilton syringe (Hamilton) and the injection needle was then back filled with drug Drug was injected at 0.25 μl/min using a microsyringe pump (KD Scientific) and confirmed visually by marking the interface between the pink mineral oil and the infused solution before and after activation of the pumps animals were initially sedated with isoflurane (3.5% for 3 mins) and injected intraperitoneally with 1ml of Euthasol The animals were transcardially perfused first with 200 ml cold saline solution followed by 200 ml of cold 4% paraformaldehyde Brains were extracted and placed into 4% paraformaldehyde containing 20% sucrose and 20% glycerol Brains were cut to 100 μm thick slices in the frontal plane For experiments using fluorescent material half of the acquired slices were mounted to slides using Vectashield fluorescent mounting medium containing DAPI (Vector Labs) and the other half were Nissl stained via treatment with thionin only Nissl stained slices were mounted to slides from brain not using some form of fluorescent material Imaging of slices was done on a Motic BA400 microscope Visualization of fluorescence material in brains was provided for by a Photofluor fluorescent light source using DAPI Images were acquired using Bioquant V8.40.20 software All data were analyzed using custom-built scripts in Matlab version R2012b (Mathworks) and statistics were performed in R x64 ver. 2.15.1 using R-Studio ver. 0.97.2372. Bouts of licks were detected using custom Matlab code provided by Dr. Ranier Gutierrez, as used previously in Gutierrez et al. (2006) and Horst and Laubach (2013) bouts were defined as having at least three licks within 300 ms and with an inter-bout interval of 0.5 s or longer Lick counts and bout durations were significantly correlated (r = 0.835) over all rats tested used in other drug infusion studies that are not reported in the present manuscript were presented with calibrated drinking tubes containing 20 and 4% sucrose (w/v) for a period of 5 min in their home cages Volumes consumed were noted over a series of 9 days rats were tested 1 h after a control infusion procedure (light anesthesia via isoflurane over a period of ~12 min) they were tested 1 h after an infusion of muscimol (as in the operant studies above) One rat showed a lack of evidence for drug infusion and another rat did not consume any fluid during the control or muscimol test sessions These animals were removed from the data summaries for home-cage testing reported below having a stable (6–7 Hz) intra-bout lick rate that is independent of the relative sucrose concentration Modulation of intake was implemented through adjustments in bout duration (A) Rats licked on a single spout and received access to solutions containing relatively high (20% The two fluids were presented in alternating 30-s epochs at the same spout (B) Animals consumed sucrose by emitting bouts of licks Key measures of licking “microstructure” are indicated Rats learned to actively suppress licking for the low value (4%) sucrose solution while gradually increasing intake for the high value (20%) sucrose solution across the first five sessions of the task Rats achieved asymptotic levels of licking over four to seven daily training sessions. They came to lick persistently when 20% sucrose was available and emitted many fewer licks when 4% sucrose was available (Figure 1C) A two-factor repeated measures ANOVA with factors for training session and sucrose concentration found that there was a significant change in mean lick count per epoch [F(3,238) = 27.87 total number of licks per session [F(3,238) = 34.13 The significant interaction between training session and sucrose concentration led us to perform single-factor ANOVAs on the measures of licking for each of the sucrose levels Intake of the low value solution was relatively stable and did not decrease significantly over days [mean licks per epoch: F(3,136) = 1.33 p > 0.3; total number of licks per session: F(3,136) = 0.45 p > 0.2; duration of licking bouts: F(3,136) = 1.71 There was a significant increase in mean licks per epoch [F(3,136) = 23.36 total number of licks per session [F(3,136) = 26.35 and duration of licking bouts [F(3,135) = 6.609 p < 0.001] when the higher value solution was available Reward contrast effects were revealed by testing rats with only one level of sucrose in a given behavioral session Contrast effects were apparent both in terms of lick counts and the average duration of licking bouts (A) Negative contrast was evident as rats (N = 24) consumed more of the low value solution when it was presented alone compared to the standard sessions with alternating access to the two levels of sucrose (B) Positive contrast was evident as rats (N = 20) consumed less of the high value solution when it was presented alone compared to the sessions with alternating access to the two levels of sucrose To study the role of mPFC in the regulation of intake, pharmacological methods for reversible inactivation were used to inactivate the mPFC during the operant licking task. Twenty-one infusions of 1 μl muscimol (1 μg/μl) or fluorescent conjugated muscimol (5 μg/μl) were made in 17 rats. Figure 3A depicts the estimated placement of all mPFC cannulas Fourteen of the rats had bilateral cannulas located in the rostral mPFC (+4.2 mm AP) Nine of these rats had both cannulas clearly centered in the prelimbic cortex (area 32) Four of these rats also received a second pair of cannulas in the more caudal mPFC (+2.7 mm AP) Three rats had single bilateral cannulas at an intermediate location (+3.7 mm AP) Effects of reversibly inactivating the mPFC in the operant licking task (A) Coronal depiction of infusion sites for muscimol within the mPFC Sites at 3.7 mm A/P were considered to be in the rostral mPFC area Nine of these sites were clearly within the prelimbic area Sites at 2.7 mm were considered to be in the caudal mPFC area Dual cannula located in both rostral (red) and caudal (blue) mPFC are included as well (B) Temporal patterns of licking were dramatically altered by inactivation of mPFC Top: Licking for 20% sucrose following infusion of PBS vehicle occurred in sustained bouts Bottom: Licking following inactivation of mPFC with muscimol (Musc) was associated with reduced bout durations and reduced overall licking (C) Inactivation of mPFC decreased licking and the duration of licking bouts for the higher value fluid and reduced the ratios of licking for the higher-to-lower value fluids (a measure of incentive contrast) Inactivation of mPFC also reduced the incentive contrast properties (aka subjective or relative value) of the liquid sucrose. To measure these effects, we calculated the ratios of lick counts and bout durations for when the high and low value sucrose was available. Inactivation of mPFC decreased these ratios for lick counts [t(20) = 3.87, p < 0.001] and bout durations [t(20) = 2.53, p < 0.05; Figure 3C These effects cannot be explained by an impairment in sucrose intake due to mPFC inactivation as a separate cohort of five rats were tested with mPFC inactivation during sucrose intake in the home cage There was no effect of the inactivation on the volume of sucrose that was consumed The rats drank 9.5 ± 3.3 ml of liquid sucrose in control sessions and 9.5 ± 1.9 ml in inactivation sessions These results suggest that inactivation of the rostral mPFC reduced persistent licking for sucrose value sucrose was also reduced following inactivation (E) There was no change in the number of licking bouts for the high value sucrose more bouts were emitted when the low value fluid was available and the rostral mPFC was inactivated the rats remained engaged in the task for a significantly longer duration before cessation of intake in the inactivation sessions [PBS: 1094 s; Muscimol: 1559 s; paired t-test: t(8) = 5.72 A simple interpretation of these findings is that inactivation of the mPFC altered sensorimotor aspects of licking which may underlie the effects of inactivation on measures of incentive contrast FIGURE 5. Effects of inactivation on measures of licking variability. (A) Inactivation of the rostral mPFC increased the median inter-lick interval [ILI; paired t-test: t(7) = -2.66, p < 0.04), defined as the time between pairs of licks, in 8 rats with muscimol infused into the rostral mPFC (see Figure 3A) (B) Inactivation also increased the inter-quartile range [t(7) = -4.09 (C) There was no consistent effect of inactivation on another measure of variability defined as the variance divided by the mean near 1 is typical for a random (Poisson) time series; (D) The fraction of non-bout licks (isolated licks and lick pairs) increased with inactivation [t(7) = -3.00 This finding is further support for the idea that the rats were less able to persistently lick with the rostral mPFC inactivated as found in the experimental group (N = 5) and when either misaligned (or non-expressing) in the control group (N = 7) The tips of the optic ferrules delivered green light (520 nm) from a 100 mW LED source The LED system was calibrated to deliver ~10 mW from the tips of the bilaterally implanted optic fibers Optogenetic perturbation of the rostral mPFC prevents persistent licking (A) Fluorescent GFP expression driven by the non-specific CAG promoter showed evidence for transduction of archaerhodopsin (ArchT) in the rostral mPFC of experimental rats Control rats either did not show proper alignment of viral field with implanted ferrules or showed no viral expression (B) Transient perturbation of the rostral mPFC in experimental rats via LED activation consistently decreased licking and bout duration There was no consistent change in licking by LED in control rats (C) Transient perturbation of the rostral mPFC in experimental rats via LED activation consistently decreased licking in epochs with LED on relative to epochs with LED off The optogenetic perturbation of rostral mPFC in experimental rats also reduced the duration of licking bouts There was no significant change in the number of bouts initiated with the LED activated (D) The ability to lick within bouts was not affected as there was no significant change in the ILI histogram of licking during epochs between epochs with the LED on and the LED off These results were obtained in five rats in which there was anatomical evidence (GFP fluorescence) for transduction of ArchT and alignment of the GFP marker for ArchT and the tips of the optic fibers Seven rats had either a lack of GFP labeling or a mismatch between the GFP marker and the optic fibers None of these rats showed any effects of LED activation on licking counts [t(6) = 1.658; p > 0.1] or bout duration [t(6) = 1.723; p > 0.1] there were no differences in licking between the first training session and the muscimol inactivation sessions in the well trained rats [20% sucrose (naïve vs These findings suggest that inactivation of the rostral mPFC blocked the expression of the learned within-session licking patterns Within-session dynamics following inactivation of the rostral mPFC (A) Epoch-by-epoch summary of mean lick counts and bout durations Dark and gray lines represent access to the high- and low-value sucrose solutions Naive animals begin consumption of high and low sucrose at the same level and inhibit consumption of low-value sucrose within the first day of training sessions that followed PBS infusions showed high lick rates and long licking bouts during access to the high value solution and low lick rates with short bout durations during access to the low value solution (C) Sessions that followed inactivation by muscimol were associated with equal initial intake of both the low and high value solutions and an eventual suppression of licking for the low-value fluid This pattern of intake is comparable to consumption when animals are naïve in the first day of training (D) In recovery sessions (day after inactivation) (E) Comparison of licking in the inactivation sessions and the first day of training (naïve animals) showed no significant difference in either lick counts or bout durations we have characterized the affected area from these infusions as being in the ventral striatum and not the core of the nucleus accumbens.) Infusions of vehicle and muscimol were also performed in ventral striatum (A) Infusion sites were located in the nucleus accumbens core inactivations in ventral striatum led to an increase in lick count for the high value (20%) sucrose solution The number of licks for the low value (4%) sucrose solution also increased during muscimol inactivation of ventral striatum (C) There was no change in bout duration for the high or low value sucrose solution with muscimol inactivations of ventral striatum Inactivation of ventral striatum led to a significant increase in total licking over sessions for both the high and low levels of sucrose (Figure 8B). There was a 49% increase in the number of licks for the high-value sucrose [t(5) = 2.900, p < 0.04) and a 76% increase in the number of licks for the low-value sucrose [t(5) = 3.328, p< 0.03]. No significant effects were found for the microstructural measures of licking (Figure 8C) These findings suggest that the ventral striatum has an inhibitory role in the control of sucrose consumption Inactivating the ventral striatum led to increased overall consumption especially for the lower value fluid these findings suggest that there is a regional specialization for the control of orolingual behavior within the mPFC (rostral not caudal) and between the mPFC and ventral striatum but did not reduce total licking in the operant task and did not reduce fluid consumption in testing sessions done in the home cage These results suggest that the net effect of inactivating the mPFC on sucrose consumption in the incentive contrast task is not inhibitory rats fail to express previously learned freezing behaviors at the beginning of the testing sessions but are able to learn to freeze to a stimulus during sessions with mPFC inactivated An interpretation based on incentive contrast effects alone is therefore not sufficient to explain the behavioral effects of mPFC inactivation They simply failed to follow the learned rule for solving the task No published study has directly compared projections from the mPFC and ventral striatum to these feeding centers in the hypothalamus This seems to be a crucial missing piece of the puzzle for understanding how these brain areas contribute to the control of food consumption Study design: MP and ML; Pilot studies: BL and ML; Data collection: MP and DW; Development of code for data analysis: MP and ML; Data analysis: MP and LA; Data interpretation: MP and two grants from the Klarman Family Foundation to ML The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest Support for this research was from NSF grant 1121147 The experimental studies were carried out when ML The authors would like to thank Dr Marcelo Caetano (Universidade Federal do ABC) for developing the behavioral protocol and Ms Cassidy White (formerly employed by American University) and Ms Linda Harenberg (currently enrolled at the Heidelberg University School of Medicine) for technical support We would also like to thank Dr Bradley Wetzell and two reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript Organization of visceral and limbic connections in the insular cortex of the rat Imaging the spread of reversible brain inactivations using fluorescent muscimol Hyperphagia induced by GABAA receptor-mediated inhibition of the nucleus accumbens shell: dependence on intact neural output from the central amygdaloid region Inhibition and impulsivity: behavioral and neural basis of response control Feeding induced by GABA(A) receptor stimulation within the nucleus accumbens shell: regional mapping and characterization of macronutrient and taste preference Shifts in magnitude of reward and contrast effects in instrumental and selective learning: a 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Front. Integr. Neurosci. 9:23. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2015.00023 Copyright © 2015 Parent, Amarante, Liu, Weikum and Laubach. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Mark Laubach, Department of Biology and Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20016-8007, USAbWFyay5sYXViYWNoQGFtZXJpY2FuLmVkdQ== Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Nossos serviços estão apresentando instabilidade no momento Algumas informações podem não estar disponíveis 2024 10h00 AM | Last Updated: December 23 there were 8,568 Indigenous localities in Brazil in 2022 identified in all states and in the Federal District Most of them (71.55% or 6,130) were on Indigenous lands that had been reported regularized or designated as Indigenous reserves on the Census reference date while 2,438 (28.45%) localities were outside these areas The North Region (60.20%) of the country concentrated the largest share of Indigenous localities and on the latter two platforms they can also be viewed using interactive maps Indigenous localities consist of all places in the national territory where there is a permanent cluster of Indigenous inhabitants minimum criteria for inhabitants and concentration of housing units were established prior and informed consultation with the main Indigenous organizations in the country with the participation of interested national bodies as well as researchers and representatives of different segments of society “The mapping of Indigenous localities is carried out by the IBGE as a preparation for the Census it was supplemented with georeferenced information on the addresses of the Indigenous persons surveyed As a criterion used for the spatial analysis of address data all places that had at least 15 self-declared Indigenous persons and with contiguous housing units were considered according to criteria that varied between urban and rural areas and according to the geographic situation in which the localities were found” manager of Traditional Territories and Protected Areas at IBGE 72% of the localities were within Indigenous Lands reported regularized or designated as Indigenous reserves 6,130 (71.55%) were located on Indigenous lands that had been reported while 2,438 (28.45%) localities were located outside of these areas The highest percentage of localities outside of Indigenous lands that had been reported regularized or designated as Indigenous reserves was seen in the Southern Region of the country where 146 (47.40%) of the 308 existing localities were in this situation With 39.06% of the total localities outside Indigenous lands the Northeast also stood out in this regard With the exception of Maranhão and Paraíba all states in the Region had more than half of the localities outside Indigenous lands Rio Grande do Norte had all of its localities in this situation the percentages were as follows: Piauí with 97.56% 31.78% of the localities were outside Indigenous lands only 75 localities outside Indigenous lands were identified in the Region The North had 27.18% of the localities on Indigenous lands with Amazonas having the highest percentage (41.93%) showed the lowest proportion of localities outside Indigenous lands which is home to the third largest contingent of Indigenous persons living in the country (116,469) 46.63% of its localities were outside areas reported the largest number of Indigenous localities outside Indigenous lands were in Amazonas North Region had the largest number of Indigenous localities The 2022 Census showed that the North of Brazil had the largest number of Indigenous localities (5,158 localities) and Indigenous persons (753,780 persons) This is equivalent to 60.20% of the identified Indigenous localities and 44.47% of the country's Indigenous population The second place in the regional ranking went to the Northeast where there were 1,764 localities (20.59%) “It is worth noting that the concentration of Indigenous localities does not necessarily reflect the concentration of the population but it does very well reflect the forms of socio-spatial organization of Indigenous peoples Considering the context in which Indigenous persons adopt greater mobility between local groups or in areas characterized by the occupation of large territories it is possible that there is greater spatial diversification and Among the 20 Brazilian municipalities with the most Indigenous localities with 167 localities; Amarante do Maranhão (MA) with 146 localities; and Campinápolis (MT) were the first five municipalities on the list Almost a third of Indigenous localities were in Amazonas the largest continent of Indigenous localities in the country was in the state of Amazonas (2,571) Indigenous localities in rural areas predominated in Brazil Indigenous localities in rural areas were the vast majority in 2022 While 8,189 (96.00%) of them were located in rural areas only 378 (4.00%) were identified in urban areas The 2022 Population Census: Indigenous Localities presents the mapping of Indigenous localities and other localities where Indigenous persons are concentrated in the country initially produced as part of the update of the Census Territorial Base and improved based on the identification of spatial concentrations of persons self-declared as Indigenous © 2018 IBGE - Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística Nós utilizamos cookies para melhorar sua experiência de navegação no portal. Para saber mais sobre como tratamos os dados pessoais, consulte nossa Política de Privacidade. on Araribóia indigenous land in Brazil’s Maranhão state groups of Guajajara tribesmen patrol their remote tribal land seeking to protect it from illegal logging in places with little police presence They call themselves the “forest guardians,” and some recently took Ueslei Marcelino Marcelino was with a group of six men who went into the forest at midnight the forest guardians found and destroyed a logging camp they lay in wait for a caravan on a narrow road capturing a scout and scaring off a group of loggers We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com A collection of winning and honored images from this year’s nature-photo competition A collection of amazing recent images made with the Hubble Space Telescope Mourners of Pope Francis gathered at the Vatican scenes from the the second weekend of Coachella 2025 and landscapes of the Earth’s arctic and subarctic regions Copy Unleashes violence against indigenous peoples telegram Join our Telegram channel! telegram Violence against indigenous peoples has erupted again Jael Carlos Miranda Guajajara died after being run over Janildo Oliveira Guajajara was shot in the back and another indigenous man a young 14-year-old from the Pataxó people was shot after the invasion by gunmen in the Comexatibá indigenous land Another 16-year-old was also shot but is out of danger The suspicion is that the three crimes were caused in retaliation for resistance against invasions of indigenous territories The Pataxó people have been waiting for the demarcation of the Comexatibá Indigenous Land for 17 years The identification report was published by Funai in 2015 Janildo Guajajara was one of the guardians of the forest identify and report the theft of wood and other crimes in indigenous lands in the southwest of Maranhão.  According to a statement from the Association of Forest Guardians of the Araribóia Indigenous Land six guardians have already been killed without the killers being held accountable and punished According to data from the latest Report on Violence against Indigenous Peoples of Brazil published by the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi) in 2021 there were 176 murders of indigenous people in the country #Violence #Indigenous peoples #IndigenousBloodNenhumaDrotaAMais  Click here to receive Copiô Production: Esther CezarScreenplay: Ester Cezar and Oswaldo Braga Presentation: Cristian Wari'u and Carolina Fasolo Audio editing and arts for social networks: Cristian Wari'uIntern: Helder Rabelo  Guajajara indigenous people are killed in MA 14-year-old Pataxó is killed in an attack on the Comexatibá Indigenous Land, in Bahia Invasions of indigenous lands increased again in 2021, in a context of violence and offensive against rights The most relevant news for you to form your opinion on the socio-environmental agenda LAST ISSUE Brazilians who defend the Amazon are facing threats and attacks from criminal networks engaged in illegal logging The situation is only getting worse under President Bolsonaro whose assault on the country’s environmental agencies is putting the rainforest and the people who live there at much greater risk people in Brazil put themselves at risk to defend the Amazon rainforest from illegal logging They are public officials who work for the country’s environmental agencies and police officers who fight environmental crime; they are small farmers who dare to tell authorities the names of those sending in chainsaws and wood-hauling trucks; they are Indigenous people who patrol their territories on foot to protect the forests that they depend on to sustain their families and preserve their way of life The defenders take this risk with little expectation that the state will protect them as they confront loggers who brazenly violate Brazil’s environmental laws — and who threaten and even kill those who stand in their way.  Illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is driven largely by criminal networks that have the logistical capacity to coordinate large-scale extraction while deploying armed men to protect their interests Some environmental enforcement officials call these groups “ipê mafias,” referring to the ipê tree whose wood is among the most valuable and sought-after by loggers Yet these loggers’ quarry includes many other tree species — and their ultimate goal is often to clear the forest entirely to make room for cattle or crops.  The stakes of the showdown between the forest defenders and these criminal networks extend far beyond the Amazon As the world’s largest tropical rainforest the Amazon plays a vital role in mitigating climate change by absorbing and storing carbon dioxide the forest not only ceases to fulfill this function but also releases back into the atmosphere the carbon dioxide it had previously stored Sixty percent of the Amazon is located within Brazil and deforestation accounts for nearly half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions preserving the Amazon rainforest has been a central component of Brazil’s commitment to take measures to curb global warming Under the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change it committed to eliminating all illegal deforestation — which accounts for 90 percent of all deforestation — in the Amazon by 2030 A 2019 report of the Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment states that the right to a safe healthy and sustainable environment includes a safe climate and that “failure to fulfill international climate change commitments is a prima facie violation of the States’ obligations to protect the human rights of its citizens.” For Brazil to meet its Paris Agreement commitment it will need to rein in the criminal groups that are driving much of the deforestation will require protecting the people who are struggling to defend the forest from their onslaught President Jair Bolsonaro has shown little interest in doing either he has scaled back enforcement of environmental laws and harshly criticized organizations and individuals working to preserve the rainforest His words and actions have effectively given a green light to the criminal networks involved in illegal logging according to environmental officials and local residents he is putting both the Amazon and the people who live there at greater risk — and he is undercutting Brazil’s ability to fulfill its commitment to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and help mitigate global warming.  The problem of violence by loggers in the Amazon did not begin with Bolsonaro Human Rights Watch conducted more than 60 interviews with federal and state officials involved in environmental or criminal law enforcement in the Amazon region as well as another 60 with members of Indigenous communities and other local residents and found a broad consensus that this violence has been a widespread problem in the region for years More than 300 people have been killed during the last decade in the context of conflicts over the use of land and resources in the Amazon — many of them by people involved in illegal logging — according to the Pastoral Land Commission a non-profit organization affiliated with the Catholic Church that keeps a detailed registry of cases based on information gathered largely by its lawyers who monitor cases of rural violence throughout the country There are no comparable statistics compiled by government agencies and federal prosecutors cite the commission’s numbers as evidence of the scope of the violence by loggers most of them since 2015 — plus four attempted killings and more than 40 cases of death threats — in which Human Rights Watch obtained credible evidence that the perpetrators were engaged in illegal deforestation and the victims were targeted because they stood in the way of their criminal enterprise Some of these victims were environmental enforcement officials Most were members of Indigenous communities or other forest residents who denounced illegal logging to authorities or sought in other ways to contribute to Brazil’s efforts to enforce its environmental laws Examples documented in this report include the following: While most of the cases documented by Human Rights Watch occurred in the states of Pará or Maranhão during the past five years the report also includes examples from previous years and from other states that support the claim by federal and state law enforcement officials that violence by loggers is a widespread and longstanding problem in the Brazilian Amazon.  Perpetrators of violence in the Brazilian Amazon are rarely brought to justice Of the more than 300 killings that the Pastoral Land Commission has registered since 2009 Of the 28 killings documented in this report And of the more than 40 cases of attacks or threats none went to trial — and criminal charges have This lack of accountability is largely due to the failure by police to conduct proper investigations into the crimes according to federal and state prosecutors who themselves acknowledge shortcomings in the investigations told Human Rights Watch that the lack of effective investigations is due largely to the fact that the crimes tend to occur in remote communities or places that are far from the nearest police station To assess the dynamics of impunity described by officials Human Rights Watch examined how the police responded to killings in one region of Maranhão state — encompassing four Indigenous territories — where Indigenous peoples who have taken a stand against illegal logging report being victims of violent reprisals by loggers There have been 16 killings reported in this region since 2015 including at least eight which local Indigenous leaders believe were reprisals by loggers None have been successfully brought to trial.  Human Rights Watch interviewed police officers involved in the investigations of six of the 16 killings and identified serious flaws in their handling of the cases: in at least two police investigators did not visit the crime scene and in five A local police chief claimed that the remote locations of the crimes contributed to these failures Yet Human Rights Watch found that in at least four of the six cases the deaths occurred in urban centers with local police stations Federal police and prosecutors told Human Rights Watch that such omissions were commonplace in the investigations of killings by loggers conducted by state police who have jurisdiction over ordinary cases of homicide there are cases of violence by loggers in which the remoteness of the crime scene could complicate efforts to conduct prompt investigations Human Rights Watch documented 19 killings and three attempted killings in remote locations in the Amazon in which police did conduct investigations that led to criminal charges being filed may be explained by the fact that 17 of these killings attracted national media attention Investigations of death threats by loggers fare no better Officials and victims told Human Rights Watch of cases in which police in both Maranhão and Pará states refused to even register complaints of threats.  By failing to investigate the death threats authorities are abdicating their duty to try to prevent violence by the criminal groups involved in illegal deforestation and increasing the likelihood that the threats will be carried out In at least 19 of the 28 killings documented in this report the attacks were preceded by threats against the victims or their communities If authorities had conducted thorough investigations of these prior acts of intimidation Brazil has had a program to protect defenders of human rights should be able to provide protection to forest defenders who receive death threats More than 400 people are currently enrolled in the program countrywide most of them defenders of Indigenous rights The program aims to provide an array of protection measures to those enrolled such as visits from program staff to defenders and mobilizing other institutions to provide protection Its mandate also includes developing “institutional strategies” to address the root causes of risk or vulnerability for those under protection.  government officials and forest defenders interviewed by Human Rights Watch unanimously agreed that in practice the program provides little meaningful protection it involves nothing more than occasional phone check-ins the state with the highest reported number of killings in conflicts over land and resources prosecutors sued the state and federal governments in 2015 after finding that the federal program to protect human rights defenders was “completely ineffective.” In April 2019 ordering state and federal officials to provide more robust protection to five forest defenders threatened by loggers Brazil signed the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and committed to eliminating illegal deforestation by 2030 in the Amazon the country had reduced overall deforestation in the Amazon by more than 80 percent from almost 28,000 square kilometers of forest destroyed per year to less than 4,600 and by 2018 it had reached 7,500 square kilometers That total is expected to be significantly larger in 2019 Brazil’s success in curbing deforestation prior to 2012 was in part a result of the use of near real-time satellite imagery to locate and shut down illegal logging sites It was also due to the creation of protected areas — conservation reserves and Indigenous territories — encompassing hundreds of thousands of square kilometers throughout the Amazon region where special legal restrictions on land-use protect the forest But several developments combined to reverse this progress loggers turned increasingly to techniques for removing trees that make it more difficult for satellite surveillance to detect the scope of the damage that is underway the country’s federal environmental enforcement agencies suffered budget and personnel cuts that have reduced the number of field inspectors available to conduct deforestation-monitoring operations Indigenous communities and other local residents have long played an important role in Brazil’s efforts to curb deforestation by alerting authorities to illegal logging activities that might otherwise go undetected Several studies based on satellite data show that deforestation is much lower in land securely held by Indigenous peoples than in other comparable areas of the Brazilian Amazon indicating that Indigenous territories are particularly effective as barriers against illegal logging This contribution has become all the more vital in recent years given the diminished ability of Brazil’s environmental agencies to deploy inspectors to monitor what is happening on the ground as the capacity of federal government agencies to enforce environmental laws has diminished members of four Indigenous communities – whose territories include some of the state’s last patches of pristine forest – have organized as “forest guardians.” The “guardians” patrol their territories and report the illegal logging they encounter to authorities The patrols have been instrumental in bringing about enforcement operations on some occasions Yet they have also resulted in community members being threatened The experience of these four communities illustrates the dynamic at play wherever forest defenders are confronting illegal loggers in the Brazilian Amazon today The scaling back of the enforcement capacity of the country’s environmental agencies generates greater pressure on Indigenous peoples to take a more active role in defending their forests — and put themselves at risk of reprisals by loggers.  the failure to investigate these reprisals allows the violence and intimidation by loggers to continue unchecked fueling a climate of fear that reduces the likelihood that more people both Indigenous people and local residents will take that risk — thereby depriving Brazil’s environmental agencies of local support that is vital for their efforts to fight illegal deforestation.  To end illegal deforestation and meet its commitments under the Paris agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions Brazil needs a government that is committed to upholding the rule of law in the Amazon That means taking a clear stand to protect the country’s forest defenders — including both environmental enforcement officials and members of Indigenous and other local communities — as they seek to contain the criminal networks that engage in illegal logging.  Brazil has a leader who seems determined to do precisely the opposite President Jair Bolsonaro appointed a foreign minister who opposes international efforts to address climate change — claiming they are “a globalist tactic to instill fear and obtain power” — and an environment minister who dismisses global warming as an issue of “secondary” importance Both ministers have eliminated the climate change units within their respective ministries while the environment minister has also cut the budget for the implementation of the Climate Change National Policy by 95 percent The Bolsonaro administration has moved aggressively to curtail the country’s capacity to enforce its environmental laws It slashed the discretionary budget of the Ministry of the Environment by 23 percent — eliminating funds that were destined for enforcement efforts and for fighting fires in the Amazon it fired 21 of IBAMA’s 27 regional directors responsible for approving anti-logging operations nearly all of these senior enforcement positions remained unfilled The administration then enacted policies that effectively sabotage the work of the enforcement agents who remain One is dismantling the department that coordinated major anti-deforestation operations involving various federal agencies and the armed forces Another is a requirement — verbally communicated to agents but not written — that agents leave intact the vehicles and equipment they find at remote illegal logging sites rather than destroying them as they are authorized to do by Brazilian law Agents now have to remove that equipment through the rainforest making them vulnerable to ambushes by loggers trying to retrieve it The administration has moved to minimize the consequences faced by those caught engaging in illegal logging During Bolsonaro’s first eight months in office the number of fines for infractions related to deforestation issued by IBAMA fell by 38 percent compared to the same period the year before reaching the lowest number of fines in at least two decades the government established that all environmental fines must be reviewed at a “conciliation” hearing by a panel presided over by someone who is not affiliated with the country’s environmental agencies The panel can offer discounts or eliminate the fine altogether who was president of IBAMA until December 2018 the requirement of a conciliation hearing will cripple IBAMA’s ability to sanction environmental violations by delaying proceedings that already take years to complete The administration has also moved to limit the ability of Brazilian NGOs to promote enforcement efforts President Bolsonaro issued a decree abolishing committees made up of officials and members of NGOs which played an important role in the formulation and implementation of environmental policies Among those affected was the steering committee of the Amazon Fund a fund run by Brazil that has received 3.4 billion reais (more than US$820 million) in donations to preserve the Amazon rainforest Ninety-three percent of the money has come from Norway and the rest from Germany Both countries warned the Bolsonaro administration that they opposed changes to the representation of NGOs in the Fund’s steering committee Norway suspended its contributions to the Fund These policy moves have been accompanied by expressions of open hostility by the president and his ministers toward those who seek to defend the country’s forests calling them “industries of fines” and vowing to put an end to their “festival” of sanctions for environmental crimes he told journalists that he was “removing obstacles” to economic opportunity imposed by the “Shia environmental policies” of previous administrations using the word for a branch of Islam as a synonym for radicalism Bolsonaro has been especially hostile toward the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that defend the environment and the rights of Indigenous peoples claiming they “exploit and manipulate” Indigenous people and promising to fight their “Shia environmental activism.” Similarly Bolsonaro’s vice president has said that Brazil’s economic potential is tied down by the “Shia environmentalism” of NGOs And his environment minister has complained about the existence of “an industry of eco-Shia NGOs.” This hostility has also extended toward European governments that have supported conservation efforts in the Amazon While alleging that this support is motivated by a desire to exploit the forest’s riches for themselves President Bolsonaro said in July 2019: “Brazil is like a virgin that every pervert from the outside lusts for.” the administration has signaled support for those responsible for the deforestation of the Amazon After the mass firing of senior officials at IBAMA Bolsonaro boasted to a gathering for landowners that he had personally ordered his environment minister to “clean out” the country’s environmental agencies shortly after assailants torched a fuel truck delivering gas for IBAMA helicopters conducting anti-logging operations Rondônia state the environment minister met with loggers in the town where the assault had taken place and told them that the logging industry “needs to be respected.” The anti-environmental policies and rhetoric of Bolsonaro and his ministers have put enforcement agents and local forest defenders at greater personal risk according to senior federal prosecutors in the Attorney General’s Office who say that reports of threats by criminal groups involved in illegal logging have increased since Bolsonaro took office “It’s disturbing to see the state inciting threats against the state itself,” the head prosecutor in the environmental unit told Human Rights Watch “Bashing government agencies is like music for illegal economic actors,” the head of the Indigenous rights unit said “Loggers understand Bolsonaro’s statements as authorization to act.” the illegal logging by criminal networks in the Amazon has become more brazen according to enforcement officials and residents “They believe that they will be able to do whatever they want and we won’t be able to impose fines on them or destroy their equipment,” one senior IBAMA official explained Community leaders in two regions of Pará state told Human Rights Watch that they used to see trucks removing illegally-harvested timber from the forest only at night the trucks also pass in unprecedentedly large numbers and in broad daylight loggers invaded at least four Indigenous territories The impact on the rainforest has been dramatic deforestation almost doubled compared to the same period in 2018 forest fires linked to deforestation were raging throughout the Amazon on a scale that had not been seen since 2010 Such fires do not occur naturally in the wet ecosystem of the Amazon basin they are started by people completing the process of deforestation where the trees of value have already been removed and they spread through the small clearings and discrete roads that have been carved by loggers flammable vegetation that serve as kindling to ignite the rainforest.  According to federal and local law enforcement the fires in 2019 were the result of an “orchestrated action” prepared in advance by the criminal organizations involved in illegal deforestation But rather than confront these criminal networks the Bolsonaro administration responded to the fires with the same formula it has used to advance its anti-environmental agenda throughout the year claiming initially that dry weather was responsible for the fires It then attacked the country’s environmental NGOs with the president going so far as to accuse them of starting the fires in an effort to embarrass the government dismissing international concerns about the damage being wrought to the world’s largest rainforest and one of its most important carbon sinks Only after a growing number of Brazilian business leaders raised concerns that the government’s response to the fires was damaging the country’s international image did Bolsonaro announce the deployment of the armed forces to put them down What the Bolsonaro administration has not done is announce any plan to address the underlying problem that drives the deforestation: the ability of criminal networks to operate with near total impunity in the Amazon threatening and attacking the forest defenders who attempt to stop them As long as this violence continues unchecked so too will the destruction of the rainforest the preservation of which is crucial to Brazil’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to the world’s effort to mitigate climate change Brazil should take urgent steps to end impunity for acts of violence related to illegal deforestation in the Amazon Brazil should support and protect its forest defenders Brazil should strengthen environmental protection in the Amazon rainforest as part of its human rights obligations Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 170 people including more than 60 members of Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities who have suffered violence or threats from people involved with illegal logging; as well as civil and federal police officers; state and federal prosecutors; public defenders; representatives of the federal agencies IBAMA and FUNAI; other state officials; representatives of civil society organizations; and academics We conducted most interviews in person in Maranhão October 24-November 4 We also conducted interviews by telephone and messaging services between November 2017 and July 2019.  For data on killings in conflicts over land and resources we relied on the work of the Pastoral Land Commission a Catholic Church affiliated non-profit organization founded more than 40 years ago with attorneys around the country who track and collect information on those cases and provide legal and other assistance to victims and their families State and federal authorities do not gather data about cases involving conflicts over land and resources The federal Attorney General’s Office itself uses the Pastoral Land Commission’s data and Amazonas states to conduct on-the-ground research in consultation with local organizations working on rural violence and Indigenous rights Human Rights Watch staff traveled to the Indigenous territories of Alto Turiaçu Tenetehara (also known as Guajajara) and Pyhcop Catiji (also known as Gavião) people living there have established forest patrols to defend their land That environmental defense work has made them vulnerable to threats and attacks from loggers Pará is the state with the highest number of killings due to conflicts over land and resources Amazonas is the state with the largest section of the Amazon rainforest We also conducted phone interviews about cases in Mato Grosso and Rondônia states In Brasília we interviewed authorities and activists during several visits We also interviewed Indigenous people participating in an annual gathering known as “Free Land Camp” in April 2019 Human Rights Watch staff conducted most interviews in Portuguese We conducted two interviews in Indigenous languages translated into Portuguese by Indigenous people and a few interviews in English with English-speaking activists depending on the preferences and customs of the interviewees Human Rights Watch identified interviewees through NGOs who referred us to other people with whom we could speak Human Rights Watch has withheld publication of the identities of four witnesses for security reasons and of seven public officials who requested that their names be kept confidential because their superiors had not authorized them to speak publicly or because they feared reprisals if they spoke openly about the failings of state institutions Human Rights Watch informed all participants of the purpose of the interview and that the interviews might be used publicly No interviewee received compensation for providing information and meals to three interviewees who traveled to a central location to meet with us Human Rights Watch examined copies of statements witnesses made to authorities data provided by government agencies during meetings and upon request and publicly available official information We also reviewed academic publications and reports from research centers and NGOs Brazil’s “Amazon” refers to the area known as “Legal Amazon” under Law 1,806/1953 that includes the states of Acre A working group of federal prosecutors specialized in combatting environmental crimes in the Amazon region established by the attorney general in 2018 The group has a federal prosecutor working exclusively for the task force while others combine it with their regular duties the Task Force currently focuses mostly on fighting deforestation in the southern part of Amazonas state Nature areas with special restrictions on the use of land and waters Federal conservation reserves are managed by ICMBio while those created by states and municipalities are managed by local government entities divides conservation reserves into two types: (1) Integral Protection Conservation Reserves which bar human settlement inside the reserve but allow for research and visiting; and (2) Sustainable Use Conservation Reserves which allow people to live inside the reserve as long as they use resources in a sustainable manner The process whereby the federal government recognizes a claim by Indigenous peoples to a certain geographic area and establishes exclusive use of the territory for those peoples Brazil’s Constitution entrusts the federal government with the obligation to demarcate Indigenous territories The process includes conducting anthropological and other studies to assess the claim to the territory and define the territory’s limits and an administrative approval process that ends with a decree by the president and the registration of the Indigenous territory in Brazil’s land registry.  Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER) a system created by Brazil's National Space Research Agency (INPE) to provide near real-time alerts of deforestation for enforcement purposes based on satellite imagery The alerts are an indication of deforestation but they are not as accurate to estimate total deforestation as the data produced by the Deforestation of the Legal Amazon Satellite Monitoring Project (PRODES) we consider environmental crimes those crimes related to the damage or destruction of the environment by individuals or companies Under Brazil’s 1998 Environmental Crime Law those crimes include harvesting timber in government-owned forests and transporting Federal and state police enforce environmental criminal law we consider environmental defenders those people who fall under the definition of “environmental human rights defenders” laid out by the UN special rapporteur on human rights defenders in 2016: “Individuals and groups who in their personal or professional capacity and in a peaceful manner strive to protect and promote human rights relating to the environment we consider environmental infractions those established by Brazilian law The 1998 Environmental Crime Law establishes criminal and administrative punishment for individuals and companies for harming the environment Decree 6514 details what constitutes administrative environmental infractions such as deforesting inside conservation reserves or transporting and buying or selling illegally-obtained timber Those provisions are enforced by IBAMA and ICMBio at the federal level and by states and municipal environmental agencies at the local level we consider forest defenders anyone who takes steps to protect the forest from illegal deforestation such as local residents who seek to provide information about environmental crimes to police and prosecutors Indigenous leaders who set up and support those patrols and public officials who plan or conduct environmental law enforcement operations and activities the federal agency that protects and promotes Indigenous rights The Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) the country’s main federal environmental protection agency It is tasked with civil enforcement of federal environmental law throughout Brazil The Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity (ICMBio) the federal agency that manages and protects federal conservation reserves ICMBio agents have authority to conduct civil enforcement of environmental law within federal conservation reserves and the surrounding “buffer zone.” The Colonization and Land Reform National Institute (INCRA) the federal government agency that carries out land reform by creating rural settlements for poor farmers and establishing land titling and property rights in public lands.  Brazil's National Space Research Agency (INPE) a research agency of the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation that provides annual official estimates of deforestation in the Amazon near real-time deforestation alerts for enforcement purposes and near real-time forest fire information we consider Indigenous territories those defined by Brazil’s law Brazil’s Constitution defines the territories as those on which Indigenous people “live on a permanent basis those used for their productive activities those indispensable to the preservation of the environmental resources necessary for their well-being and for their physical and cultural reproduction customs and traditions.” The Constitution grants the federal government ownership of Indigenous territories (Article 20) and Indigenous people the exclusive use of those territories (Article 231) The Deforestation of the Legal Amazon Satellite Monitoring Project (PRODES) a system run by the National Space Research Agency (INPE) that produces annual official estimates of clear-cut deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon through analysis of satellite imagery we consider protected areas to be conservation reserves and Indigenous territories Legal restrictions on land-use protect the environment in these areas ______________________________________________________________________________ Some Indigenous people use their names in their Indigenous language which are different from their legal names in Portuguese When interviewees provided their Indigenous names the report uses those names and provides their Portuguese names in footnotes Some Indigenous persons have as their last name in Portuguese the name of their people and others use it by choice as an affirmation of their identity A 2012 joint resolution by the National Council of Justice and the National Council of Federal Prosecutors grants Indigenous people the legal right to use the name of their ethnic group as their last name many of the Indigenous people interviewed in this report have as their last name the Portuguese name of their ethnic group Brazil has identified the fight against illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest as a central component of its contribution to global efforts to mitigate climate change In recent years, this progress has been undermined by a variety of factors, including cuts to funding and personnel of the major enforcement agencies, an amnesty for illegal deforestation included in the 2012 Forestry Code, as well as by loggers adopting techniques for removing trees that are not as susceptible to detection by satellite surveillance.[12] Brazil has a comprehensive legal framework for environmental protection. The 1998 Environmental Crime Law establishes criminal and administrative punishment for individuals and companies for harming the environment, such as harvesting timber in government-owned forests and transporting, buying, or selling illegally-harvested timber.[13] Punishment includes prison sentences for individuals and for companies suspension of activities and a prohibition on signing contracts with the government There are multiple government agencies that play a role in enforcing this legal framework and curbing illegal logging in Brazil the government agencies involved in enforcing environmental laws include: While these federal and state agencies were able to make important progress in curbing illegal deforestation prior to 2012 personnel and budget cuts have weakened their capacity to enforce environmental laws The reduction in personnel has taken place in the context of reduced state funding for these agencies. From 2016 to 2018, IBAMA’s annual expenditures in real terms — corrected for inflation — fell by eight percent, and FUNAI’s by 11 percent.[38] Illegal deforestation in the Amazon is a multi-million dollar business that involves both illegal logging, illegal deforestation, and illegal occupation of public land.[39] A single trunk of ipê, the trees of the Handroanthus genus that are a preferred target of loggers for their hardwood, fetches between 2,000 and 6,000 reais (between US$500-$1,500).[40] The impact “is like termites,” discretely eating away the forest at a multitude of sites, Maranhão state federal prosecutor Alexandre Soares told Human Rights Watch.[45] Only once they have managed to remove all the valuable wood do they set fire to what remains Much of the illegal logging taking place in the Amazon today is carried out by criminal networks that have the logistical capacity to coordinate large-scale lumber extraction and deploy violence against those who would seek to stop them. IBAMA officials call these crime groups “ipê mafias,” a reference to the ipê wood that they harvest.[46] Attorney General Raquel Dodge concurred.[47] “Organized crime is responsible for deforestation in the Amazon,” she said explaining that the logistics of timber harvesting and sale abroad require “an organization.” Fazendeiros raising cattle in illegally deforested and occupied land in the Amazon escape controls by either selling it to clandestine slaughterhouses, passing it for cattle raised in legal ranches, or selling it to cattle ranchers who specialize in cattle fattening and who in turn sell it to legal slaughterhouses.[65] they need to rely on members of Indigenous and other local communities to report illegal logging activities to them Evaristo gave as an example a 2016 operation against loggers who had destroyed 290 square kilometers of rainforest in Altamira, mentioned above. It was only possible because the Kayapó Indigenous people reported the illegal activity; satellites had not detected the clearing of the forest, he said.[88]  Of the remaining Amazon forest in Maranhão, almost half lies within the boundaries of Indigenous territories. An additional quarter of the forest lies within the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve and other protected areas, and the rest in private land and in land reform settlements established by the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform (INCRA), a federal agency, to provide plots to poor small farmers.[99] Araribóia and Governador Indigenous territories and the Gurupi Biological Reserve maintain the largest blocks of Amazon forest cover in Maranhão state (marked in green) The map shows in red the advance in deforestation along the edges of those reserves from 2007 to 2017 But environmental officials and police officers interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Maranhão acknowledged that enforcement efforts are insufficient.[102] The chief problem is the lack of resources and staffing to carry out their job In 2018, the Maranhão state environmental agency, SEMA, had at most 30 inspectors to monitor environmental crime, a high-level SEMA official told Human Rights Watch.[105] While SEMA does not have authority to operate inside Indigenous territories the agency is responsible for monitoring the borderlands outside those territories These are the areas in which illegal sawmills are most often located The federal police chief in Imperatriz told Human Rights Watch that she lacked manpower to respond to all reports of environmental crimes. She said 30 federal police officers were stationed in Imperatriz, including those in charge of administrative tasks. That number is “clearly insufficient,” she said.[106] In 2016, FUNAI signed an agreement with the Maranhão state government to conduct joint state police and FUNAI operations against environmental crime within Indigenous territories.[107] But the agreement was never implemented because FUNAI could not fund the logistics or the daily allowance for police officers.[108] In 2018, FUNAI had 26 employees in Maranhão, where 37,000 Indigenous people live. The agency had 12 vehicles, but ten were out of commission due to lack of maintenance. Eliane Araújo, then coordinator of FUNAI in the state, told Human Rights Watch that the FUNAI office in Maranhão had no yearly budget to maintain its vehicles and to develop its work. [109] “I prepare the planning because she depended on the FUNAI headquarters in Brasília to release the funds “Indigenous people want the presence of FUNAI in their territories but we are not there” for lack of resources Federal prosecutors in Imperatriz denounced the “chaotic” situation in Governador and Araribóia Indigenous Territories and accused federal and state authorities of failing to both fight illegal logging and protect Indigenous people.[111] The prosecutors pointed out that FUNAI and IBAMA lack sufficient funding to execute their duties and Ka’apor people of Maranhão consider land crucial for their survival and materials for handicrafts; pigments for body paints; and raw material for musical instruments that they use in rituals the land is the essence of their very culture; songs and ceremonies are about nature and their place in it “The forest is our home; it heals our soul. Without it, we are nothing,” said Iracadju Ka’apor, a Ka’apor village chief.[112] told Human Rights Watch of the sadness he feels when he discovers areas deforested by illegal loggers within Governador Indigenous territory: “I feel pain in my heart (when I see it) because we, the Pyhcop Catiji people, believe there is life after death, that our spirits transform themselves into trees, into animals. So, it is not just a tree, not just a forest that is there. What is there is a life, my ancestors’ lives.”[113] The egregious shortcomings in enforcement by state and federal authorities within Indigenous lands in Maranhão has led the Tenetehara and Pyhcop Catiji Indigenous peoples to step up efforts to protect the forest together with Awá Indigenous Territory and the Gurupi Biological Reserve comprise most of the remaining Amazonian rainforest in Maranhão Patrolling the forest is often an arduous undertaking, according to members of the Forest Guardian patrols. On some patrolling trips, they sleep in the forest for weeks at a time. Some patrols lack money for gasoline and equipment, and for sustaining the guardians’ families when they are away.[119] In Caru Indigenous Territory, a group of twenty-five “Women Warriors” are learning to pilot and deploy drones to detect deforestation.[122] Some of them also go on patrol with the men Forest guardians have collaborated successfully with police on numerous occasions, according to community leaders and federal and state officials.[123] The collaboration has included leading state police to logging sites in their lands.[124] However, even when the forest guardians do the work of locating sites of illegal deforestation or identifying those responsible, the authorities often fail to respond in a timely manner, if at all, forest guardians and Indigenous leaders told us.[127] as they face illegal loggers who are often armed the guardians opt for letting loggers go after asking them about the logging activities because of difficult access from the forest to police stations and lack of transportation In the past, some guardians seized the loggers’ vehicles and sought to turn them over to law enforcement, a practice that would also be legal under Brazilian law, a federal prosecutor told Human Rights Watch.[133] But, as described in the next section, that led loggers to threaten and attack villages to recover the vehicles parked there.[134] Many state and federal officials interviewed approved of the work done by forest guardians, though several expressed concern that forest patrols could devolve into vigilantism.[136] The forest guardians Human Rights Watch interviewed said they wanted more state presence on their land to help curb logging, not less, and more opportunities for coordination and cooperation. “We don’t want to do the work outside of the law. We want public support, training, and guidelines,” said in 2018 Franciel Souza Guajajara, then coordinator of the Araribóia forest guardians.[137] Members of the patrols in several communities told Human Rights Watch that they are well aware that protecting the forest is the states’ responsibility, not theirs, and that patrolling puts them at risk, but they see no other choice. “We shouldn’t be doing it. It’s the duty of the federal and state governments, but since they are not protecting it now, we are the ones doing it,” Iracadju Ka’apor, a Ka’apor village chief, said.[138] Loggers and land grabbers use violence and intimidation against communities and individuals who pose a threat to their illegal activities This is a widespread problem in the Brazilian Amazon multiple federal and state officials told Human Rights Watch The victims include those who seek to protect the forest either by reporting illegal deforestation to authorities or by patrolling the forest themselves “Loggers are extremely dangerous,” Luciano Evaristo told Human Rights Watch in 2018, when he was director of enforcement at IBAMA.[144] “Every person who is involved directly or indirectly in combatting logging faces danger,” said Ruhan Saldanha, chief of monitoring at the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve in Maranhão state.[145] Many Indigenous people are vulnerable to violence by loggers because their lands contain some of the best-preserved forests in Brazil, state and federal authorities told Human Rights Watch. “All the Indigenous territories are targeted by loggers,” Evaristo said.[146] The Pastoral Land Commission has documented 31 killings of Indigenous people since 2009.[147] In some cases, criminal groups involved with illegal deforestation have also used violence and intimidation to deter government officials from enforcing environmental laws. “We face situations of extremely high risk, mostly in the Amazon,” Paulo Russo, ICMBio’s general coordinator of socioenvironmental management, told us, “because we interfere with local illegal economic interests.”[148] This section documents acts of violence and intimidation — including the killing of 28 people, the attempted killing of four, and more than 40 cases of death threats — in which there is credible evidence the perpetrators were loggers and land grabbers.[149] In one of the cases involving nine victims evidence indicates that a logger ordered the murder of farmers to remove them from land he wished to deforest the victims appear to have been targeted because they had attempted or were attempting to prevent illegal logging Twenty-six of the killings or attempted killings documented in the section occurred between 2015 and 2019 The section includes six killings from before 2015 that support the claim of officials and community members that the violence by those engaged in illegal logging is not a new phenomenon Indigenous peoples in Maranhão told Human Rights Watch of an additional eight killings since 2016 that they believe were reprisals for the communities’ defense of the environment. Due in part to the lack of proper investigations by authorities, Human Rights Watch was unable to confirm this conclusion.[150] authorities have recorded numerous cases of loggers responding with violence against government agencies’ enforcement efforts in five Amazonian states including the following recent instances:  Loggers sometimes kill or attempt to kill state agents trying to protect the forest People involved in illegal logging also threaten and seek to intimidate officials On the evening of March 21, 2019, Marlete da Silva Oliveira, Raimundo de Jesus Ferreira, and Venilson da Silva Santos were killed, execution-style, with single gunshots to the head, in a shack on the estate of fazendeiro Fernando Ferreira Rosa Filho, for whom they worked.[175] The killers set fire to the bodies and the shack Police believe Rosa hired four brothers to carry out the execution because he feared that the employees — who had complained about their working conditions — would tell authorities that he was engaging in illegal logging, as well drug trafficking.[176] The hitman entered Silva’s home and killed her, along with her husband, Claudinor Amaro Costa da Silva, and a friend and neighbor, Milton Lopes. Silva’s hands and feet were tied. Her husband was gagged. All three were stabbed to death.[178] According to state prosecutors, Rosa ordered Silva’s killing because she had threatened to report his illegal logging to police and IBAMA.[179] The hitmen killed her husband and Lopes, the neighbor, only because they happened to be in the house at the time.[180] On December 12, 2018, two men knocked on the door of Temponi’s house in the town of Rurópolis. When he opened it, they shot and killed him, then fled on a motorcycle, according to his wife who was present.[184] An internal INCRA obtained by Human Rights Watch confirmed her allegations. INCRA inspectors who visited the area in 2017 found that the fazendeiros were indeed logging on federal reserve within Terra Nossa, which they had occupied illegally, and were also engaging in illegal mining.[187] Yet authorities never conducted an operation to stop these illegal activities and dismantle the criminal network Nor did they investigate the threats against her life one of them later approached her and said: “You better shut your mouth otherwise your ship is going to sink like Alenquer,” referring to the union president who had been shot to death the previous month According to local residents, these unsolved killings and threats — and the ongoing presence of criminal networks involved in illegal deforestation — have generated a climate of intense fear among Terra Nossa residents, who now avoid previously common activities such as entering the forest reserve within the settlement to collect Brazil nuts and other fruits.[205]  to keep them from going to the authorities In 2012, while Osvalinda Pereira was receiving medical treatment at a hospital in the city of Santarém, a woman she did not know casually told her that loggers had agreed to contribute 3,000 reais (about US$770) each to pay for the killing of four activists.[216] The woman said the targets were two of Pereira’s neighbors Around the same time, a person affiliated with the loggers visited her husband at their home in Areia and offered him a job collecting a 100 reais (US$25) fee from every logging truck that passed in front of the house. [217] Daniel Pereira refused the offer The day Daniel brought Osvalinda Pereira home from the hospital, the couple found a group of about 12 loggers waiting at their house accompanied by a contingent of armed men.[218] The loggers offered the Pereiras money to sign a letter on behalf of the Areia II Women’s Association asking IBAMA and ICMBio not to conduct operations in Areia “You are going to die like Dorothy,” apparently referring to Dorothy Stang “everyone will know it was you.” Five hours after initially accosting Daniel Pereira and Silva had in the past peacefully confronted loggers they accused him of mobilizing the Indigenous people against them and threatened him “This is not going to stay like this,” one said At sunset on April 19, 2017, four members of a group of killers-for-hire known as “the hooded ones,” including a former military police officer, indiscriminately murdered nine people in a settlement in Taquaruçu do Norte, according to state prosecutors. [229] Taquaruçu do Norte is in the Colniza municipality of Mato Grosso state The killers tied up and cut the throats of Francisco Chaves da Silva, Edson Alves Antunes, Izaul Brito dos Santos, and Valmir Rangel do Nascimento; stabbed to death Ezequias Santos de Oliveira, and Sebastião Ferreira de Souza, and shot dead Aldo Aparecido Carlini, Fabio Rodrigues dos Santos, and Samuel da Cunha.[230] a Tenetehara village chief told Iwyramu that a nephew of his who was working for a local fazendeiro had received 8,000 Brazilian reais (US$2,180) “to kill” Iwyramu In June 2017, a man the community recognized as engaged in illegal logging told a Tenetehara village chief that he would make the guardians pay, “by any means necessary.”[236] Shortly after his death, six of the seven members of the Ka’apor Governing Council, which coordinates the patrols, received death threats that they believed came from people engaged in illegal logging and were intended to frighten them into ceasing efforts to protect the forest.[245] About an hour later, some 20 armed loggers arrived, shouting insults and racial slurs, according to Mutuhiran Ka’apor and others who spoke to Human Rights Watch. The Ka’apor guardians, who were unarmed, fled on foot. The loggers shot after them, injuring one Ka’apor in the back and one in the buttocks with shotgun pellets.[249] The guardians helped the injured stagger through the forest for more than four hours until they reached the Ka’apor village of Turizinho The next day, a group of some 60 armed outsiders arrived at Turizinho, and the Ka’apor fled into the forest, Mutuhiran Ka’apor said.[250] The armed men beat a non-Indigenous man who remained in the village, Ka’apor people said, forcing the man to reveal the names of members of the forest guardians.[251] Two days later, federal police arrived at the village with a medical team, a police officer who participated in the operation told Human Rights Watch.[252] He confirmed that loggers had injured some Indigenous people although he did not provide further details In August 2017, Mawarisha, a member of the Ka’apor governing council, received an anonymous call. [255] “Are you the one who won't let other Indians sell timber anymore?” the caller threatened “We’re going to get you one way or another.” The following month “I want to make a deal with you to sell timber,” the caller said Raimundo Santos, a leader of the Rio das Onças village in Maranhão, cooperated closely with ICMBio officials, providing information to support the federal agency’s efforts against illegal logging in the Gurupi Biological Reserve, Evane Lisboa, the chief of the reserve, told us.[256] In August 2015, Santos and his wife, Maria da Conceição Chaves, were riding their motorcycle home in the Rio das Onças village when three men stepped out from the roadside and fired at them.[257] Seven bullets hit Santos; the attackers also stabbed him. He died at the scene. Chaves, gravely injured by gunshots, survived the attack.[258] In March 2013, a group of Pyhcop Catiji forest guardians found four wood-hauling trucks, a tractor, and 20 armed loggers in the Governador Indigenous Territory, Eýy Cy, chief of the village of Governador, told Human Rights Watch.[262] The guardians mobilized the villagers the villagers took the loggers by surprise They then drove the logging trucks and tractor to Governador village After sunset the next day, two FUNAI employees and four state police officers arrived in Governador village. On the way, the state police had seen loggers setting up a blockade on the dirt road from Governador to the nearby town of Amarante do Maranhão, Governador villagers told Human Rights Watch.[263] In the early morning hours the state police officers left without warning the locals or taking the confiscated vehicles with no protection from state or federal authorities the confiscated logging vehicles still parked in Governador village Anonymous callers also threatened Marcelo Gavião, the coordinator of the forest guardians, five times by phone, he told Human Rights Watch.[272] If he did not release the trucks assailants would attack the village by night and kill him in his house Meanwhile, someone threw a motorcycle chain onto the power lines. Governador village was without power for about two days.[273] During the 11 days of the standoff, owners of shops and the gas station in Amarante do Maranhão refused service to the Pyhcop Catiji people.[274] “We were hungry,” Pyn Hýc told Human Rights Watch.[275] Eýy Cy, the Governador village chief, said he believes the loggers threatened the shop owners.[276] took away the wood-hauling trucks that the villagers had seized from the loggers In a TED talk in November 2010, Da Silva said that, while native forest covered 85 percent of the Project’s area when it was created in 1997, only 20 percent remained covered 13 years later. He attributed the loss to illegal logging.[279] “As long as I have the strength to keep on going I’ll report all those who harm the forest,” he promised Human Rights Watch’s review of available documentation interviews with justice officials and affected communities and close examination of authorities’ handling of specific cases support the conclusion that Brazil is systematically failing to investigate and prosecute acts of violence by loggers and land grabbers in the Amazon region.  Of the more than 230 cases of fatal attacks — involving more than 300 victims — which the Pastoral Land Commission has registered in the Amazon region during the past decade, only nine — fewer than four percent — have gone to trial.[294] the state with the highest number of killings only four out of 89 cases have gone to trial since 2009; in Rondônia only three out of 66; in Maranhão only two out of 46; in Mato Grosso Of the 28 killings and four attempted killings documented in Section II the killing of José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo (A jury convicted three people in that case.)  Police attribute the failures to resource shortages and the difficulty of conducting investigations in remote areas of the Amazon region. For example, Elpídio Souza, civil police chief of the town of Amarante do Maranhão‚ told Human Rights Watch that a lack of proper vehicles and staffing was to blame for shortcomings in the investigations of killings in the area.[298] Human Rights Watch examined how authorities responded to killings in one region of Maranhão state — encompassing the Alto Turiaçu and Araribóia Indigenous Territories — where local communities have taken a stand against illegal logging and report being victims of violent reprisals by loggers.  according to the two NGOs and community leaders The 16 cases occurred in remote towns dispersed throughout the region. Human Rights Watch was able to interview police officers involved in the investigations of six of the cases.[305] In three of these, we also obtained direct testimony from relatives of three victims and interviewed a prosecutor familiar with one of the cases.[306] We found serious flaws in the investigations of all six killings. In at least two cases, police investigators failed to visit the crime scene.[307] In at least five, police failed to arrange for autopsies of the victims.[308] For example: When asked about the flaws in these investigations a local police chief offered the same explanation that Human Rights Watch heard elsewhere to justify the omissions by authorities: the remote locations of the crimes and the lack of resources — including all-terrain vehicles — to make the trips.  However, Human Rights Watch found that in at least four of the six cases we examined, the deaths had not occurred in remote locations but rather in urban centers that had police stations.[310] Examples include: Four of these six cases — which are among the 12 documented in Section II — share a trait that distinguishes them from most other cases of violence in the region: they all attracted national media attention.[316] Community leaders told Human Rights Watch that they believed it was this attention that prompted police to take these investigations more seriously than they typically do in other such cases.  Not only do police fail to investigate threats by loggers, but in Maranhão and Pará, officials and victims told Human Rights Watch of cases in which police refused even to register them.[335] Several officials told Human Rights Watch that efforts to hold other officials accountable for refusing to register complaints had led nowhere: Human Rights Watch was not able to determine what motivated police and other officials in the region to refuse to register threats or take basic steps to investigate killings that appeared to be related to illegal logging.  One explanation, offered by Pará state prosecutor Mariana Macido, was that police are overworked and consider the threats unimportant.[343]  In Maranhão, several officials told Human Rights Watch that they believed some police discriminated against Indigenous people, and they would not register or investigate crimes committed by loggers against them.[344]  In Maranhão, the secretary of human rights of the state government said that the members of the police force in that state have “long-standing relations” with local political groups. [347] He also said “criminal organizations of loggers” hold local political power In Amazonas, a federal prosecutor said that “it is not rare” that police and other public servants become involved in crimes along with loggers.[348] She cited as an example the arrest in May 2019 of four state police officers who had allegedly been hired by fazendeiros to attack and expel farmers from public lands.[349] In at least eight of the 13 cases – resulting in 28 killings and four attempted killings – in which we found credible evidence that people involved in illegal deforestation were responsible for those crimes, the victims or their communities had suffered threats and attacks before.[350] (In two of the 13 cases the victims were police officers killed during enforcement operations and in another case an IBAMA agent suffered a homicide attempt during an operation) “The state was completely negligent,” Costa, the public defender, said. “The (2017) killings are the state’s fault. It wasn’t for lack of warning.”[360] The Colniza massacre made national news because of the large number of victims, which mobilized local authorities. Prosecutors charged four alleged hitmen, who are in custody, and De Souza, who is in hiding, with aggravated homicide.[361] But if they had acted sooner to investigate threats and intimidation that had continued for years “Threats foreshadow a more serious crime,” a Pará civil police chief told Human Rights Watch.[362] Yet failure by police to investigate threats and homicides properly and citizens' fears that police are complicit with illegal loggers have made some — particularly Indigenous — communities stop reporting threats “I never go to the police,” Mawarisha, a Ka’apor Indigenous leader involved in the community’s efforts to protect the forest who has received multiple death threats, told Human Rights Watch. “The police do nothing, they are not doing anything to investigate Eusebio’s death,” he said, referring to the 2014 killing of Eusebio Ka’apor, another leader who defended the forest, mentioned above.[363] Daniel Alves Pereira used to sell his produce to restaurants in the nearby town of Trairão on his motorcycle.[367] “I felt that at any moment I could be shot” by loggers But lately restaurants no longer buy his fruits and vegetables That deprived him and his family of a key source of income “We are prisoners in our own homes,” said Pereira’s wife, Osvalinda Pereira.[368] More than 1,000 kilometers away, Elizângela Dell-Armelina Suruí, who was shot in 2017 by a man that her husband recognized as a logger, shares the same feeling.[369] “We live in fear,” she said In July 2019, 410 people were receiving protection under Brazil’s Program to Protect Defenders of Human Rights, Journalists, and Environmentalists.[370] Another 118 cases were under analysis. Almost 70 percent of the 410 people are defenders of Indigenous rights, rights to land, or the environment.[371] the federal program staff assist the defenders directly from Brasília The program operates on the basis of two presidential decrees and a regulation issued by the Ministry of Human Rights.[375] That means that President Bolsonaro, who has disparaged human rights defenders in the past, could easily abolish the program by revoking the decrees. A bill to cement it into law has been pending in Congress since 2009.[376] The Michel Temer government more than trebled the program’s budget to 14.7 million reais (US$3.8 million) in 2018, from 4.5 million (US$1.2 million) in 2017.[377] In 2019, it fell to 11.8 million reais (US$3.1 million) — a 20 percent cut.[378] The federal program currently employs 16 staff.[379] Federal prosecutor Felipe Fritz Braga, who represented the federal prosecutors’ office in the federal program’s deliberative council for several years until 2018, told Human Rights Watch that in practice the program “means little” to the person protected, because in his view it takes insufficient protection measures.[380] In Pará, the federal and state prosecutors’ offices filed a joint lawsuit against the federal and state governments in November 2015 after finding the federal program to protect human rights defenders was “completely ineffective” there.[381] The only protection measure provided to defenders was periodic telephone contact with the program the federal program interviewed him and two other residents of Montanha Mangabal the program has arranged for a police escort for one of the residents twice and provided Silva with 300 reais (US$80) to travel to the town of Itaituba to maintain phone contact since there is no phone coverage in Montanha Mangabal particularly since he cannot take the main road Program staff have complained that he does not maintain regular phone contact Federal authorities have never conducted anti-logging operations in the settlement, Silva said; thus, the root problem of the conflict remains unaddressed.[391] including the specific risks facing environmental and Indigenous defenders and better consultation with defenders would help While the program focuses on establishing direct contact with the person under threat it would gain by also consulting and collaborating with local NGOs which are most often the entities that ask the program to admit the defender in the first place and which routinely help them report illegal logging and threats to the authorities The federal program should also build better collaboration with state law enforcement authorities the entities that run the state programs are physically closer to the defender and know the situation on the ground and local institutions better Fears about the possible misuse of information to harm rather than protect the defenders have grown among federal prosecutors and non-governmental organizations under the administration of Jair Bolsonaro because of his hostility toward human rights defenders.[402] “It’s reckless to have the data there,” said federal prosecutor Braga.[403] In his long career in Congress and as a presidential candidate, former army captain Jair Bolsonaro spoke of environmental protection and Indigenous rights as a hindrance to economic development and advocated for expanding agro-business and mining in the Amazon, even within protected areas.[404] As president, Bolsonaro has taken steps to “remove obstacles” placed by “Shia environmental policies,” using the word for a branch of Islam as a synonym for radicalism.[405] Those steps include weakening environmental protection and enforcement which leaves anyone who defends the forest from illegal deforestation even more vulnerable to violence During the presidential campaign, Bolsonaro also vowed not to designate “one centimeter of land more” as Indigenous territories, even though Brazil’s Constitution obligates the federal government to demarcate Indigenous lands, which are protected areas.[435] There are 118 Indigenous territories — covering almost 100,000 square kilometers, about the size of Portugal — in various stages of the demarcation process, while another 116 are under study and their limits have not yet been defined, FUNAI data show.[440] Most of those areas are in the Amazon region In June 2019, the Bolsonaro government fired the president of FUNAI, who was under pressure from landowners’ interests led by the secretary of land affairs, Brazilian media reported.[441] As a replacement, he named a police officer who several media reports link to the secretary of land affairs and to landowners.[442] From January to April 2019, IBAMA conducted only 17 anti-logging operations in the Amazon, a 70 percent drop compared to the same period of 2018, according to official data obtained by a local NGO.[456] At ICMBio, the number of operations against deforestation in the Amazon dropped by 30 percent in the period from January through August 2019, compared with a year earlier, the agency told Human Rights Watch.[457] And even when operations do occur, some agents are reluctant to impose fines, in order to avoid reprisals from their superiors, an IBAMA inspector told Human Rights Watch.[458] “There have to be institutional orders to combat deforestation and illegal mining but the messages [from the government] are the opposite,” said the inspector In May 2019, IBAMA announced on its website where it would be conducting its next enforcement actions against illegal logging, contravening the agency’s previous practice of withholding information about raids to ensure their success and to protect its own agents from attack.[459] In April 2019, the government established that all environmental fines must be reviewed at a “conciliation” hearing by a panel made up of at least two public servants and presided over by someone from outside IBAMA or ICMBio.[460] The panel can offer discounts or eliminate the fine altogether Salles has asked for an internal review of all fines by IBAMA in the last five years to identify which ones were later revoked. Public servants fear that the ministry would take revocation as an indication that the fines were inappropriate, and open disciplinary proceedings against inspectors, and that the inspectors may also be penalized if the conciliation panel eliminates the fine imposed. [464] As described above, IBAMA and ICMBio have the legal authority to burn equipment used to destroy protected forest when its transport is inviable or would put its agents or the environment at risk.[467] Yet, IBAMA and ICMBio officers in Brasilia and a high-level federal police officer in the Amazon region told Human Rights Watch in July 2019 that the leadership at IBAMA and ICMBio had instructed agents to no longer destroy loggers’ equipment.[473] It is a policy communicated verbally, without a paper trail, officials said.[474] Two weeks after assailants burned a fuel truck delivering gas for IBAMA helicopters conducting anti-logging operations in Espigão do Oeste, Rondônia state, in July 2019, Salles met with loggers in that town, called them “good people” and told them that the timber industry “needs to be respected.”[475] “What happens today in Brazil is the result of years and years and years of a public policy of producing laws regulations that are not always related to the real world,” he added “Bolsonaro is supporting those who are stealing timber. That encourages illegal actions,” Elizabeth Eriko Uema, executive director of ASCEMA, the IBAMA and ICMBio employees’ association, told Human Rights Watch.[476] In June, President Jair Bolsonaro issued a presidential order removing a deadline for landowners to register their properties on an environmental registry set up by the 2012 forestry code.[477] Landowners who register their properties must reforest areas illegally deforested after July 2008 The removal of the deadline makes it less likely that they will comply with a requirement that would involve investment in reforestation.  Civil society organizations play a vital role in the Amazon region by supporting people who report illegal logging many of whom are small farmers and Indigenous people who live in remote locations without easy access to authorities These groups help these people file complaints of threats and attacks They also provide the most reliable information about the nature and scope of violence in the region the Pastoral Land Commission publishes yearly reports on conflicts over land and resources based on the work of attorneys working around the country the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) is the only entity that compiles cases of violence against Indigenous people nationwide Since neither federal nor state authorities compile such information the reports by the Pastoral Land Commission and CIMI fill an important void and are relied upon by authorities as indicators of the scope of violence related to illegal logging Bolsonaro’s vice president, Hamilton Mourão, has called environmentalism “an instrument of indirect domination by large economies,” and complained that Brazil’s potential is tied down by “Shia environmentalism” and NGOs.[481] Salles, the environment minister, has complained about the existence of “an industry of eco-Shia NGOs.”[482] In January 2019, Salles froze all new contracts and partnerships of the Ministry of the Environment with civil society organizations. Among those suspended were 34 projects awarded to NGOs that would use 1 billion reais (US$300 million) from fines collected by IBAMA to restore degraded ecosystems in the São Francisco and Parnaíba rivers.[489] Committees played an important role in the formulation and implementation of environmental policies and in enforcing environmental law The Bolsonaro government could not eliminate the National Environmental Council (CONAMA) – an advisory and deliberative council whose powers include setting rules for the licensing of polluting industries – as it is established by law.[496] Instead in May it increased the representation of the federal government on the council and reduced civil society participation by decree “The official mechanisms of accountability are being dismantled,” Nicolão Dino, the head of the environmental unit at the Attorney General’s office, told Human Rights Watch.[497] In May 2019, Salles said he had found “irregularities” and problems “in 100 percent of the contracts with NGOs,” but provided no evidence.[500] But in June 2019, the federal government announced it was dissolving the steering committee and the committee of experts that assesses whether Brazil has reduced deforestation and should be rewarded with the disbursement of donations. Norway saw that as a breach of contract and suspended a planned donation of 300 million Norwegian crowns (about US$33 million) to the Amazon Fund.[510] In August, Germany suspended a 35 million euro (US$40 million) donation for environmental protection projects in Brazil after questioning the government’s commitment to reducing deforestation.[514] President Bolsonaro responded that Brazil did not need Germany’s money.[515] Crime groups involved in illegal deforestation have taken President Bolsonaro´s statements and policies weakening environmental law enforcement as a green light to destroy the forest and attack forest defenders, several officials told Human Rights Watch.[516] The anti-environmental policies and rhetoric of the president and his ministers have put enforcement agents and local forest defenders at greater personal risk, according to senior law enforcement officials in the Attorney General’s Office. “It’s disturbing to see the state inciting threats against the state itself,” the head of the environmental unit told Human Rights Watch.[520] Since Bolsonaro won the presidential election in October 2018, the illegal logging by criminal groups in the Amazon has become more brazen, according to enforcement officials and local residents.[521] Federal authorities and local residents have also reported a surge in land invasions in the Amazon since Bolsonaro took office, including in at least eight Indigenous territories.[524] Loggers and land grabbers have also invaded Arara Indigenous Territory in Pará state, Karipuna Indigenous Territory in Rondônia state, and Araribóia Indigenous Territory in Maranhão state.[535] Acts of intimidation by criminal groups in the Amazon have increased significantly since Bolsonaro took office in January officials and local residents told Human Rights Watch Local residents are also targets. Federal and state prosecutors told Human Rights Watch that reports of threats against forest defenders in the Amazon region have increased since Bolsonaro took office.[539] The climate of intimidation has intensified for both enforcement agents and local residents who oppose illegal logging in the Amazon. Enforcement agents believe that the public statements of the president and environment minister are effectively a “license to attack public servants,” according to the head of ASCEMA, the IBAMA and ICMBio employees’ association.[541] “We are more at risk now,” an IBAMA inspector told Human Rights Watch, explaining that enforcement teams in the field feel more vulnerable to attacks by criminal groups who believe the federal government is less interested in their safety.[542] “The message from the president now is that our teams are alone that they are not supported by the government,” he said From January 2019, when Bolsonaro took office, through August 2019, deforestation increased by 92 percent in Brazil’s Amazon, compared with the same seven-month period in 2018, according to preliminary official data.[545] In 2018, deforestation was already almost double the amount Brazil had committed, in 2009, to reaching by 2020.[546]  The attorney general said there is evidence the fires were the result of an “orchestrated action” prepared in advance.[566] The Pará state government said criminal groups had planned to deforest, burn, and raise cattle in a 200 square kilometer area in a conservation reserve.[567] Brazil’s duty to protect forest defenders and others from acts of violence and intimidation by criminal groups involved in illegal logging — and bring perpetrators of these acts to justice — is part of its obligations under international human rights law While states’ obligations apply to all within its jurisdiction, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights has recognised that the significance of protecting human rights defenders gives rise to increased duties, particularly taking into account the heightened vulnerability of human rights defenders as a result of their work. [577]   As a party to the American Convention on Human Rights Brazil's efforts against impunity should be guided by the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights a case concerning violence against environmental human rights defenders States have the duty to provide the necessary means for human rights defenders to conduct their activities freely; to protect them when they are subject to threats in order to ward off any attempt on their life or safety; to refrain from placing restrictions that would hinder the performance of their work, and to conduct serious and effective investigations of any violations against them, thus preventing impunity.[578] (Emphasis added.) It should also take proactive steps to create an enabling environment for defenders to fulfil their roles and pursue their activities This international treaty sets out specific standards of protection for environmental human rights defenders An enabling environment for their work; Measures to recognize and promote their work including by upholding freedom of expression and assembly; and 3. Measures to prevent, investigate and sanction attacks or threats against environmental human rights defenders.[586] Brazil’s Constitution recognizes that: “All have the right to an ecologically sound environment, which is an asset of common use and essential to a healthy life, and both the Government and the community shall have the duty to defend and preserve it for present and future generations.”[589] Decree 6514 details what constitutes administrative environmental infractions and the corresponding fine. Under the Brazilian Forestry Code, private landowners in the Amazon region must maintain 80 percent of the forest on their property as a nature reserve.[591] Damaging or deforesting that private nature reserve without authorization is an administrative infraction In 2018, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment elaborated a set of Framework Principles on Human Rights and the Environment, which in his words “set out the basic obligations of states under human rights law as they relate to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”[592] Principle 11 provides: To protect against environmental harm and to take necessary measures for the full realization of human rights that depend on the environment, States must establish, maintain and enforce effective legal and institutional frameworks for the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.[593] The Inter-American Court stated that the right to a healthy environment is autonomous and that it protects the elements of the environment as much as the right to a healthy environment is connected to other rights its autonomous content means that state failure to enforce its laws which results in the illegal destruction of the forest can lead to violations of the right to a healthy and sustainable environment International law also recognizes the special importance of land for Indigenous peoples. For instance, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that “the close ties of Indigenous people with the land must be recognized and understood as the fundamental basis of their cultures, their spiritual life, their integrity, and their economic survival.”[600] As party to the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention of the International Labour Organization, also known as ILO Convention 169, Brazil is obliged to prevent “unauthorised intrusion upon, or use of, the lands” of Indigenous peoples.[601] In undertaking measures to address climate change, Brazil joined the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, adopted in 2015 under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change establishing concrete obligations and mechanisms for climate mitigation, adaptation and cooperation.[611] The agreement aims to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change “including by holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.” [612] In its NDCs from 2016, Brazil committed to eradicating illegal deforestation in the Amazon by 2030.[615] Brazil committed to reaching this goal “with full respect for human rights, in particular rights of vulnerable communities [and] Indigenous populations.”[616] This report was researched and written by César Muñoz Acebes acting director of the Environment and Human Rights division researcher in the Environment and Human Rights division and Fernanda Canessa provided research assistance The report was reviewed and edited by Margaret Knox environment researcher; Maria Laura Canineu former director of the Environment and Human Rights division; Joseph Saunders The report was prepared for publication by Remy Arthur photo and publications associate; Fitzroy Hepkins Consultant Andrea Carvalho provided editing support and Environment and Human Rights division associate Cara Schulte provided logistical and editing support We would like to thank the environmental defenders who spoke to us and Pyhcop Catiji people who received us in their homes as well as the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) and other civil society partners who provided information for this report We are especially grateful to Tiir Cwuj (Maria Helena Gavião)   The Ministry of the Environment established the system to help it achieve its commitments under the Paris Agreement [5] Federative Republic of Brazil “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution Towards Achieving the Objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change” https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/submissions/INDC/Published%20Documents/Brazil/1/BRAZIL%20iNDC%20english%20FINAL.pdf (accessed July 9 [6] Official deforestation data come from Brazil's National Space Research Agency (INPE) which produces annual estimates of how many square kilometers the “Legal Amazon” area loses to clear-cut deforestation through the Program to Calculate Amazon Deforestation (PRODES) The system only counts deforested areas that are bigger than 6.25 hectares The yearly data reported by PRODES cover the 12-month period from August 1 of the previous year through July 31 INPE - Coordenadoria Geral de Observação da Terra programa Amazonia (Projeto PRODES) “Metodologia para o Cálculo da Taxa Anual de Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal,” October 30 http://www.obt.inpe.br/prodes/metodologia_TaxaProdes.pdf (Accessed August 22 “Legal Amazon,” a legally defined area that includes all Brazilian states in the Amazon basin: Acre and the west part of Maranhão (Law 1,806/1953) For more information about “Legal Amazon” see: “O que é a Amazônia Legal,” ((o))eco https://www.oeco.org.br/dicionario-ambiental/28783-o-que-e-a-amazonia-legal/ (accessed October 14 [7] “Monitoramento do Desmatamento da Floresta Amazônica Brasileira por Satélite,” INPE - Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra http://www.obt.inpe.br/OBT/assuntos/programas/amazonia/prodes (accessed July 1 2019); “Taxa de desmatamento na Amazônia Legal,” Ministry of the Environment news release http://www.mma.gov.br/informma/item/15259-governo-federal-divulga-taxa-de-desmatamento-na-amazônia.html (accessed July 1 2019); “INPE consolida 7.536 km² de desmatamento na Amazônia em 2018,” INPE news release http://www.inpe.br/noticias/noticia.php?Cod_Noticia=5138 (accessed July 19 [8] Monthly data is from the Real-Time Deforestation Detection System (DETER) a satellite system used by INPE to provide near real-time information for enforcement purposes “Alertas do DETER na Amazônia em junho somam 2.072,03 km²,” INPE - Coordenação-Geral de Observação da Terra http://www.obt.inpe.br/OBT/noticias/alertas-do-deter-na-amazonia-em-junho-somam-2-072-03-km2 (accessed July 29 A 2010 study by Britaldo Soares-Filho from Minas Gerais Federal University and other authors calculated that Brazil designated 709,000 square kilometers as protected areas in the Amazon region The study found there was less deforestation in areas inside protected areas and concluded that their creation contributed to the steep decline in deforestation during that period “Role of Brazilian Amazon protected areas in climate change mitigation,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://www.pnas.org/content/107/24/10821 (accessed June 17 [12] The 2012 Forestry Code gave an amnesty for illegal deforestation before 2008 Experts believe the amnesty discouraged investments in recovering deforested areas Human Rights Watch phone interview with Carlos Rittl executive secretary of the Climate Observatory [13] Environmental Crime Law, Law 9,605, February 12, 1998, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9605.htm (accessed August 21 [15] Forestry Code [16] Forestry Code “O que é uma Área de Preservação Permanente,” ((o))eco https://www.oeco.org.br/dicionario-ambiental/27468-o-que-e-uma-area-de-preservacao-permanente/ (accessed June 19 [18] Law 9985, July 18, 2000, arts. 16, 22, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l9985.htm (accessed September 2 [20] Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, art. 231, http://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf (accessed June 22 [21] The process is regulated by Decree 1775, January 8, 1996, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto/d1775.htm (accessed September 2 [22] For a description of the demarcation process, see: http://www.funai.gov.br/index.php/2014-02-07-13-24-53 (accessed September 2 [23] IBAMA, “Sobre o IBAMA,” January 12, 2018, https://www.IBAMA.gov.br/institucional/sobre-o-IBAMA (accessed June 19 [24] Article 301 of Brazil’s Criminal Procedure Code says: “Any person can, and police authorities and officers should, detain whomever is in the act of committing a crime.” Decree 3,689, October 3, 1941, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/decreto-lei/del3689.htm (accessed July 8 [25] ICMBio, “O Instituto,” n.d., http://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/o-instituto-destaque (accessed June 19 2019); Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa chief of the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve [26] Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa [27] “Força-tarefa do MPF vai atuar no combate à macrocriminalidade na Amazônia,” August, 22, 2018, http://www.mpf.mp.br/pgr/noticias-pgr/forca-tarefa-do-mpf-vai-atuar-no-combate-a-macrocriminalidade-na-amazonia (accessed July 31 [28] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Amazonas federal prosecutor Michelle Diz y Gil Corbi [29] Law number 75, May 20, 1993, art 5, para. III, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/lcp/lcp75.htm (accessed June 24 [30] Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988, art. 109, http://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf (accessed June 22 [31] ICMBio has jurisdiction to fight environmental crime within those federal reserves and “buffer” areas around the reserves Some of those buffer areas are within Indigenous territories The states’ environmental agencies — including Maranhão’s SEMA — do not have jurisdiction inside Indigenous territories but their work also impacts these territories those state agencies need to ensure that the permits they issue for sawmills and forest management projects are not used to pass timber illegally obtained in Indigenous lands for legally harvested wood See for instance a description of Maranhão State’s Environmental Secretariat: “A Secretaria”, SEMA, January 10, 2017, http://www.sema.ma.gov.br/conteudo?/404/A_SECRETARIA (accessed June 17 [32] Decree 6,514, July 22, 2008, art. 111, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2007-2010/2008/decreto/d6514.htm (accessed August 21 The decree regulates the 1988 Environmental Crimes Law IBAMA started using the power to destroy loggers’ equipment around 2011 after drafting internal procedures for implementation Human Rights Watch interview with Roberto Cabral then chief of enforcement operations at IBAMA [33] Police can detain loggers for a variety of crimes besides illegal logging such as belonging to a criminal organization “Operação desarticula quadrilha de desmatadores que movimentou R$1,9 bi no Pará,” IBAMA news release http://www.IBAMA.gov.br/noticias/58-2016/147-operacao-desarticula-quadrilha-de-desmatadores-que-movimentou-r-1-9-bi-no-para (accessed July 1 [34] The 1,600 inspectors in 2009 and the 780 in 2019 included field agents and others who work borders and airports Human Rights Watch interviews with Suely Araújo then director of director of environmental protection at IBAMA [35] Open letter by IBAMA agents to IBAMA president [36] Human Rights Watch interview with a high-level IBAMA official He asked that his identity be kept confidential because he did not have authorization from his superiors to speak publicly [37] FUNAI provided Human Rights Watch the staff numbers upon request Staff numbers include employees originally assigned to other government agencies but temporarily working at FUNAI [39] For instance in 2017 Ibama dismantled a criminal organization that generated 1.9 billion reais (US$600 million) from 2012 to 2015 “Operação desarticula quadrilha de desmatadores que movimentou R$1,9 bi no Pará,” IBAMA news release loggers extracted timber worth 208 million reais (US$63 million at the time) from the Riozinho do Anfrísio Reserve just in 2017 [40] A square meter of ipê sells for about 2,000 reais (US$500) once sawn and each ipê has between one and three square meters of usable timber Human Rights Watch interview with federal police officers Julio Sombra Oliveira and Romiron Souza Lima [41] Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo then director of environmental protection at IBAMA [43] Human Rights Watch interview with Yuri Costa [44] Human Rights Watch interview with Elizângela Ambé chief of enforcement at IBAMA in Maranhão State [45] Human Rights Watch interview with Alexander Soares [46] Human Rights Watch interview with a high-level IBAMA official [48] Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo Article 149 of Brazil’s Penal Code states that degrading working conditions and exhaustive working conditions reach the level of slave-like conditions Even though the penal code does not define those terms labor inspectors often associate those conditions with risks to the health and life of the workers As an example of slave-like conditions in deforestation operations by criminal groups see: “Operação desarticula quadrilha de desmatadores que movimentou R$1,9 bi no Pará,” IBAMA news release [49] Human Rights Watch interviews with Yuri Costa Chief of Monitoring at the Gurupi Biological Reserve community leader in the Montanha Mangabal INCRA settlement in Pará then coordinator of the Araribóia forest guardians [50] Human Rights Watch interviews with Ruhan Saldanha chief of monitoring at the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve The officials asked that their name be withheld for fear of reprisals [52] Human Rights Watch interview with an ICMBio official The official asked that their name be withheld for fear of reprisals [53] Human Rights Watch interviews with Ruhan Saldanha Occupying and selling public land is called grilagem because of the practice of putting the false titles in a box with crickets (grilos who gnaw at and yellow the documents with their excrement [54] See Terra Nossa case below as an example [56] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mato Grosso public defender Diego Rodrigues Costa [57] Human Rights Watch interview with Marco Paulo Froes Schettinto executive secretary of the Indigenous rights unit at the Attorney General’s Office Luciano Evaristo also told Human Rights Watch in 2018 when he was director of environmental protection at IBAMA that militias involved in illegal logging and land grabbing operate in some areas of the Amazon Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo [58] Human Rights Watch interviews with Alexander Soares ICMBio’s general coordinator of socioenvironmental management federal prosecutor in the state of Pará Santarém Maranhão’s state secretary of human rights and social participation a community leader in the Areia INCRA settlement 2019 (place withheld); and Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo president of the Nova Vitória Rural Producers Association one of the community associations in the Terra Nossa INCRA settlement [59] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector The official asked that his name be withheld for fear of reprisals [60] Human Rights Watch interviews with Alexander Soares [62] Human Rights Watch interview with Eder Carvalho coordinator of the technical department at IBAMA in Maranhão state São Luis October 2017; with Danielle Celentano professor at the Agroecology Program at Maranhão State University 2017; and telephone interview with a public official at the Maranhão environmental agency [63] Pedro Brancalion et alia, “Fake legal logging in the Brazilian Amazon,” Science Advances, Vol. 4, no. 8, August 15, 2018, https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/4/8/eaat1192 (accessed September 2 [64] Human Rights Watch interview with Eder Carvalho [66] Senildo Melo “PF e MPF apresentam balanço de Operação Ojuara,” agazeta.net [68] Ibid.; Human Rights Watch interview with an Amazonas federal prosecutor, Manaus, June 27, 2019, name withheld upon request; charging document in case number 5253-29.2017.4.01.3200, May 27, 2019, http://www.mpf.mp.br/am/sala-de-imprensa/docs/denuncia-ojuara-crime-de-milicia (accessed July 7 [69] “Operação Ojuara: MPF denuncia 22 envolvidos em crimes ambientais no AC e no AM,” Federal prosecutors’ news release, June 19, 2019, http://www.mpf.mp.br/am/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-am/operacao-ojuara-mpf-denuncia-22-envolvidos-em-crimes-ambientais-no-ac-e-no-am (accessed July 8 [71] Ibid [72]“Rios Voadores: maior desmatador da Amazônia pode pegar até 238 anos de prisão,” Pará Federal prosecutors’ news release, December 9, 2016, http://www.mpf.mp.br/pa/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-pa/rios-voadores-maior-desmatador-da-amazonia-pode-pegar-ate-238-anos-de-prisao (accessed July 8 Residents told Human Rights Watch that besides buying local illegal loggers simply occupied some of the plots Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira and Daniel Alves Pereira [74] Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira [75] “Madeireiros avançam sobre o Riozinho do Anfrísio,” Instituto Socioambiental, December 22, 2017, https://www.socioambiental.org/pt-br/noticias-socioambientais/madeireiros-avancam-sobre-o-riozinho-do-anfrisio (accessed June 21 [76] Human Rights Watch interviews with three Areia residents place and exact date withheld for security reasons [77] Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Alves Pereira [78] Human Rights Watch interviews with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo vicepresident of the Nova Vitória Rural Producers Association [79] INCRA “Relatório de atividade minerária da empresa Chapleau Exploração Mineral Ltda no Projeto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável – PDS Terra Nossa,” Santarém [80] Human Rights Watch interviews with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [81] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [82] Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa [83] Human Rights Watch interview with Julio Sombra Oliveira federal police officer in charge of the investigation [84] “MPMT pede a pronúncia de dois participantes da chacina de Colniza,” Mato Grosso prosecutors’ news release, April 9, 2019, https://www.mpmt.mp.br/conteudo/58/76904/mpmt-pede-a-pronuncia-de-dois-participantes-da-chacina-de-colniza (accessed July 8 2019); “Edital de Citação,” a court order signed by judge Ricardo Frazon Menegucci [85] Human Rights Watch interviews with Luciano Evaristo who asked that his identity be kept confidential because he did not have authorization from his superiors to speak publicly; with Elizângela Ambé [86] For the size of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil see Juliano Assunção and Clarissa Gandour Strengthening Command and Control is Fundamental,” Climate Policy Initiative White Paper https://climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/combating-illegal-deforestation/ (accessed June 22 [87] Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo [88] Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo 2018; “Operação desarticula quadrilha de desmatadores que movimentou R$1,9 bi no Pará,” IBAMA news release [89] After discovering the two sawmills the researcher went straight to the civil police station in Amarante to report the activity said there were no legal sawmills in Amarante Human Rights Watch showed him the photographs of the first sawmill but Porto Filho neither noted its location nor asked for copies of the photographs “Show them to the military police,” he said and the GPS location of the sawmills to a federal prosecutor and a federal police officer in Imperatriz we told a federal police officer in São Luis and sent the information to him and [90] Human Rights Watch interviews with Luciano Evaristo [94] “Secure Land Rights in Amazon Brings Billions in Economic and Climate Benefits Says New WRI Report,” World Resources Institute http://www.wri.org/news/2016/10/release-secure-land-rights-amazon-brings-billions-economic-and-climate-benefits-says (accessed May 5 [95] Instituto Socioambiental, “Demarcation,” Povos Indígenas no Brasil, n.d., https://pib.socioambiental.org/en/Demarcation (accessed July 9 [96] Email to Human Rights Watch from Fany Ricardo [97] Danielle Celentano et al. "Towards zero deforestation and forest restoration in the Amazon region of Maranhão state http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.041 (accessed July 9 [98] Ibid. [99] Satellite data show that Maranhão retains about 24,700 square kilometers of Amazon forest The Indigenous territories contain 11,200 square kilometers of Amazon forest cover; the Gurupi Biological Reserve has 1,900 square kilometers of forest cover; other protected areas contain 4,200 square kilometers; and 7,400 square kilometers are within private lands and in INCRA settlements based on satellite data from INPE’s PRODES project Email message sent by Danielle Celentano to Human Rights Watch http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.07.041 [100] Danielle Celentano et al., “Desmatamento, degradação e violência no “Mosaico Gurupi” – A região mais ameaçada de Amazônia,” Estudos Avançados, 32(92), Jan/Apr 2018, p. 324, http://www.scielo.br/pdf/ea/v32n92/0103-4014-ea-32-92-0315.pdf (accessed August 24 2019); document describing ICMBio operations in and around Gurupi Biological Reserve provided by Ruhan Saldanha chief of monitoring for the Gurupi Biological Reserve 2019); Human Rights Watch interview with Eder Carvalho São Luis October 2017; and telephone interview with a SEMA public official who requested anonymity [102] Officials from environmental agencies IBAMA and civil police working off four different cities in Maranhão told us enforcement efforts are insufficient and more resources are needed to fight environmental crime in the state [103] IBAMA had 14 inspectors in Maranhão at the end of 2017 of whom five were in leadership positions and nine operated in the field Human Rights Watch interview with Elisângela Ambé [104] Ibid [105] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with a SEMA official for Maranhão who requested anonymity [106] Human Rights Watch interview with Juliana Ferraz Barros Alves [107] Acordo de Cooperação Técnica Número 001/2016 [108] Human Rights Watch interview with Thayane Tavares Indigenous affairs counselor at the Maranhão State Human Rights Secretariat [109] Human Rights Watch interview with Eliane Araújo [110] Ibid [111] Federal prosecutors made those claims in a lawsuit they filed in August 2018 against FUNAI in which they asked a judge to order the federal and state governments to develop and implement a plan to protect Governador and Araribóia Indigenous territories The lawsuit was pending before an appeals court as of June 2019 Lawsuit signed by Maranhão federal prosecutors Jorge Mauricio Porto Klanovicz copy on file at Human Rights Watch; Human Rights Watch communication via messaging service with Maranhão federal prosecutor Jorge Mauricio Porto Klanovicz [112] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Iracadju Ka’apor village chief of Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory [113] Human Rights Watch interview with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) 2019); Caru Indigenous Territory is 1,748 square kilometers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_of_Z%C3%BCrich (accessed September 24 [115] “Terra Indígena Alto Turiaçu”, Terra Indígenas, n.d., https://terrasindigenas.org.br/es/terras-indigenas/3575 (accessed July 9 2018) and Human Rights Watch phone interview with Iracadju Ka’apor http://www.dpi.inpe.br/prodesdigital/prodesuc.php (accessed September 24 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bras%C3%ADlia (accessed September 24 [117] Tenetehara leaders of Araribóia Indigenous Territory told Human Rights Watch that one of their village chiefs came up with the idea to establish an Indigenous group to protect the land meaning “keeper of the culture.” There are currently 120 forest guardians 15 for each of the eight regions that comprise the Araribóia Indigenous Territory The Tenetehara of Caru Indigenous Territory established their forest guardians — now 34 men — in 2013 The Pyhcop Catiji of Governador Indigenous Territory also established the forest guardians in 2013 the Ka’apor of Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory established the Ka’a usak ha which means forest guardians in the Ka’apor language A group of Ka’apor is organized around a “Governing Council” (Tuxa ta pame) whose members are elected by some villages The other group is organized around traditional village chiefs Human Rights Watch interviews with José Inácio Alves Silva president of the Commission of Village Chief and Leaders of Araribóia (COCALITE) coordinator of the Pyhcop Catiji guardians 2017; and phone interview with Iracadju Ka’apor [118] Human Rights Watch has copies of letters sent to federal prosecutors and reports made to federal police with names of alleged illegal loggers from the Tenetehara All those communities have also confronted a minority of Indigenous people in those territories who cooperated with the loggers.  [119] The Tenetehara of Araribóia and Pyhcop Catiji had no funding for the forest guardians FUNAI provided the Tenetehara with GPS training plus gas and modest financial support for the guardians the patrol was unable to use the quadricycles because it did not have the funds to maintain them and pay for gas The Pyhcop Catiji invested compensation money for the environmental impact of a dam built in Estreito to buy equipment The Wyty Catë Association of Timbira Peoples of Maranhão and Tocantins and FUNAI also for several years provided modest funding to compensate the guardians for their work FUNAI had discontinued the support for lack of funding Both the Tenetehara of Araribóia and the Pychop Catiji continue to patrol the forest as much as they can without external support The Ka’apor and Tenetehara of Caru Indigenous Territory fund the guardians with compensation money from mining company Vale for the environmental impact of a freight line The company provides 6 million reais (about US$1.5 million) a year to the people of Caru president of the Commission of Village Chief and Leaders of Arariboia (COCALITE) 2018; and telephone interview with Iracadju Ka’apor [120] Between 2013 and 2015 the Ka’apor founded villages in seven Ka’a usak pita ha or “protection areas,” formerly occupied by loggers Human Rights Watch interview with Itahú Ka’apor [121] Human Rights Watch interview with Franciel Souza Guajajara [122] The “Women Warriors” give talks about environmental protection in the towns surrounding their land where loggers live two “women warriors” were giving one of those talks in the town of Novo Caru when according to one of the Indigenous speakers a man in attendance threatened: “Next time a guardian takes away our equipment there will not be an Indian left to tell the story.” Besides giving the talks the “Women Warriors” are planning a project to collect forest seeds for a greenhouse Human Rights Watch interview with Rosilene Guajajara de Souza [123] Human Rights Watch interviews with Franciel Souza Guajajara director of environmental protection at IBAMA [124] Human Rights Watch interviews with Iwyramu (Olimpio Guajajara) [125] Military police is the force that patrols urban and rural areas in Brazil whereas civil police is the force that investigates crimes [126] Human Rights Watch interview with Claudio José da Silva [127] Human Rights Watch interviews with Cláudio José da Silva coordinator of the Tenetehara guardians of Caru Indigenous Territory 2018; and with Iwyramu (Olimpio Guajajara) coordinator of the Tenetehara guardians of Araribóia Indigenous Territory [128] Human Rights Watch interview with Cláudio José da Silva [129] Under a compensation agreement for environmental impact of a railway mining company Vale makes available 140 helicopter hours per year to the Indigenous people in Caru Indigenous Territory Human Rights Watch interview with Cláudio José da Silva coordinator of the Tenetehara forest guardians of Caru Indigenous Territory [130] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Romiron Souza Lima Lima said that the operation would have required two helicopters and 40 police officers Such a large team is necessary to hit all the marijuana fields on the same day; otherwise Lima said he would have needed to bring about 38 federal police officers from other states and the Maranhão federal police did not have enough funds for that [131] Human Rights Watch interview with Cláudio José da Silva “Polícia Civil apreende 35 toneladas de maconha e desarticula rota do tráfico," State of Maranhão news release [132] Iwyramu (Olimpio Guajajara) told Human Rights Watch that he detained an Indigenous man who worked as an illegal logger and took him to police in 2016 Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) told Human Rights Watch a Governador forest patrol detained an illegal logger in 2018 and handed him over to military police from Amarante do Maranhão Human Rights Watch interviews with Iwyramu (Olimpio Guajajara) 2017; and with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) Article 301 of Brazil’s Criminal Procedure Code says: “Any person can and police authorities and officers should detain whomever is in the act of committing a crime.” For a description of the procedures in those cases see: “Voz de prisão por cidadão comum: como funciona?” Direitos Brasil https://direitosbrasil.com/voz-de-prisao-por-cidadao-comum-como-funciona/ (accessed July 24 [133] Human Rights Watch communication via messaging service with Maranhão federal prosecutor Jorge Mauricio Porto Klanovicz [134] Human Rights Watch has documented three instances of loggers threatening or attacking whole villages in attempts to recover vehicles in Araribóia (2007) and in Governador (2009 and 2013) and one instance in which they attacked a village in retaliation after Indigenous people burned one of their trucks in Alto Turiaçu (2015) [135] Human Rights Watch communication via messaging service with Maranhão federal prosecutor Jorge Mauricio Porto Klanovicz [136] For instance the federal police officer in São Luis who specializes in environmental crime told Human Rights Watch that forest guardians have a “good knowledge of the area” and that they can “identify where illegal logging is taking place as well as the name of the loggers.” The officer also said the guardians “do not encourage confrontation.” Similarly said in 2018 that he valued the information provided by forest guardians and said they should be trained and paid for their work expressed concern that forest guardians might attempt force against loggers and Elpídio Souza then civil police chief in Amarante do Maranhão a town near Governador and Araribóia Indigenous territories said in 2018 that some residents had told him that guardians were armed and violent opened any investigation because they did not have any information about a specific crime that the guardians may have committed Human Rights Watch interviews with Julio Sombra then Amarante de Maranhão civil police chief [137] Human Rights Watch interview with Franciel Souza Guajajara the governor of Maranhão established a commission–made up of state authorities and representatives of each of the Indigenous peoples in the state–to draft a public policy plan for Indigenous people The 10-year plan the commission agreed upon at the end of 2017 proposes to formally recognize the Indigenous forest guardians and seek funding for Indigenous environmental defense activities A follow-up commission is to seek implementation of the plan Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Gonçalves da Conceição Maranhão’s State Secretary of Human Rights and Social Participation advisor about Indigenous affairs at the Human Rights Secretariat of the state government of Maranhão A copy of the “Ten-Year State Public Policy Plan for Indigenous People in Maranhão” is on file at Human Rights Watch [138] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Iracadju Ka’apor [139] Human Rights Watch interview with Awapu [140] Human Rights Watch interview with Bonifacio Saw Munduruku one of the leaders of the Munduruku of Sawré Muybu Indigenous Territory [141] Data provided to Human Rights Watch by the Pastoral Land Commission It reported 407 killings in 320 cases from 2009 to 2018 [142] The Attorney’s Office uses the Pastoral Land Commission’s data “’Nesse momento devemos dizer que somos todos protetores e protetoras de direitos humanos,’ afirma PFDC em audiência pública,” Attorney General’s Office news release http://www.mpf.mp.br/pgr/noticias-pgr/201cnesse-momento-devemos-dizer-que-somos-todos-protetores-e-protetoras-de-direitos-humanos201d-afirmou-pfdc-em-audiencia-publica (accessed August 21 [143] Information provided to Human Rights Watch by the Pastoral Land Commission in Pará state via messaging service [144] Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo [145] Human Rights Watch interview with Ruhan Saldanha [146] Human Rights Watch interview with Luciano Evaristo [147] Data from 2009 to 2018 provided to Human Rights Watch by the Pastoral Land Commission Only two of these cases have gone to trial [148] Human Rights Watch interview with Paulo Russo [149] The cases after 2015 are: Baião case (six killings) Terra Nossa case (three killings and one person disappeared) Sete de Setembro case (two attempted killings) Rio das Onças case (one killing and one attempted killing) plus the killing of military police officer João Luiz de Maria Pereira and the attempted killing of IBAMA agent Roberto Cabral The cases before 2015 are: Areia case (two killings) as well as the killing of police officer Luiz Pedro da Silva Gomes https://amazoniareal.com.br/parentes-de-davi-gaviao-assassinado-no-maranhao-clamam-por-justica/ (acessed August 21 [153] “Criminosos são detidos após ataque a equipe do IBAMA em Burutis (RO),” IBAMA news release https://www.IBAMA.gov.br/noticias/436-2018/1756-criminosos-sao-detidos-apos-ataque-a-equipe-do-IBAMA-em-buritis-ro (accessed June 15 [154] “União FUNAI e estado de Rondônia tem 30 dias para apresentar plano de proteção da terra indígena Karipuna,” Rondônia federal prosecutors’ office news release [155] “Sedihpop e FUNAI discutem proteção ao Território Indígena Awá-Guajá,” SEDIHPOP news release, January 17, 2019, http://www.sedihpop.ma.gov.br/2019/01/17/sedihpop-e-FUNAI-discutem-protecao-ao-territorio-indigena-awa-guaja/ (accessed June 21 [157] “Nota sobre ataque criminoso contra o IBAMA em Colniza MT,” IBAMA news release, November 9, 2017, http://www.IBAMA.gov.br/notas/1246-nota-sobre-ataque-criminoso-contra-o-IBAMA-em-colniza-mt/ (accessed June 21 [159] “Relatório do Inquérito Policial IPL Número 104/2016.000201-2,” Pará civil police report copy on file at Human Rights Watch; and Human Rights Watch interview with Elinelson Oliveira chief of the civil police internal affairs unit in Santarém [160] “Relatório do Inquérito Policial IPL Número 104/2016.000201-2,” Pará civil police report [161] Ibid [162] Ibid [163] Human Rights Watch interviews with IBAMA officer Eder Carvalho dos Santos [164] Human Rights Watch interview with Roberto Cabral [165] The federal police officer in charge of investigating the October 2015 attack told Human Rights Watch that the investigation was ongoing and he had made no arrests Human Rights Watch interview with federal police officer Julio Sombra 2019); “Militar da força nacional morto em conflito em floresta de Rondônia era do MS,” G1 http://g1.globo.com/ro/rondonia/noticia/2013/11/militar-da-forca-nacional-morto-em-conflito-em-floresta-de-ro-era-do-ms.html (accessed June 29 [169] Federal prosecutors filed charges on December 12 a federal judge accepted the homicide charges against Avelino Justiniano de Souza Neto Case numbers: 011727-53.2013.4.01.4100 and 0000115-84.2014.4.01.4100 [170] Human Rights Watch interview with Roberto Cabral [171] “ICMBio sofre atentado durante ação de fiscalização na BR163,” ICMBio news release, October 22, 2018, http://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/ultimas-noticias/20-geral/10027-icmbio-sofre-atentado-durante-acao-de-fiscalizacao-na-br163 (accessed June 21 [172] Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa [173] PowerPoint “Operação Maravalha,” by federal police officer Julio Sombra [174] Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa [175] Decision by judge Weber Lacerda Gonçalves to extend pretrial detention for Cosme Francisco Alves and Fernando Ferreira Rosa Filho [176] Marlete da Silva Oliveira and her partner and Venilson da Silva Santos was a tractor driver The killers burned the bodies and a shack to send a message to intimidate any others who might think of “rising up” against Rosa Rosa allegedly maintained employees in exploitative working conditions on his estate The four men police accused of the crime are Glaucimar Francisco Alves a member of the national landless movement (MST) told police that in January 2019 armed men who worked for Rosa shot him twice while he was passing along a dirt road that goes through Rosa’s estate Witnesses told police he had prohibited transit through the road and placed armed guards there because the road crossed his runway — built in the only flat terrain in the area — which investigators suspect he would use for drug trafficking [178] Decision by judge Weber Lacerda Gonçalves to extend pretrial detention for Cosme Francisco Alves and Fernando Ferreira Rosa Filho [179] “MPPA oferece denúncia contra acusados da ´Chacina de Baião,´” Pará prosecutor´s office news release, July 1, 2019, https://www2.mppa.mp.br/noticias/mppa-oferece-denuncia-contra-acusados-da-chacina-de-baiao.htm (accessed August 22 [181] Human Rights Watch interview with Ione Missae da Silva Nakamura 2019; and interview through a messaging service with Pará federal prosecutor Patrícia Daros Xavier The civil police investigator in charge of the homicide case told Human Rights Watch that civil police collected proof of the threats and sent it to the court but did not know whether prosecutors filed charges Human Rights Watch interview with Edinaldo Sousa chief of the rural conflicts and environment police station in Santarém [182] Human Rights Watch interview with Gecivaldo Vasconcelos [183] Human Rights Watch interview through a messaging service with Patrícia Daros Xavier chief of the civil police internal affairs department in Santarém who had access to the homicide investigation told Human Rights Watch that Temponi “had no enemies in Rurópolis.” Edinaldo Sousa the civil police investigator in charge of the homicide case said that Temponi’s killing was “probably related to the conflict over land” at the INCRA settlements but declined to give more details Human Rights Watch interviews with Elinelson Oliveira [185] Human Rights Watch interviews Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo De Melo sent a letter to federal prosecutors on April 26 2017 reporting illegal logging and land grabbing; she reported land grabbing by landowners in a signed statement before the civil police of Novo Progresso on November 6 and reported illegal logging in a statement before a state prosecutor on November 7 reported irregularities at the settlement to federal prosecutors on April 27 Copies of all documents on file at Human Rights Watch [186] Human Rights Watch interviews Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [187] INCRA [188] Human Rights Watch interviews with Antonio Marcos Lacerda vice president of the Nova Vitória Rural Producers Association “Novo Progresso - Corpo é encontrado no asentamento Terra Nossa,” Jornal O Jamanxim http://ojamanxim.blogspot.com/2018/01/novo-progresso-corpo-e-encontrado-no.html (accessed July 30 [189] Human Rights Watch interviews with Antonio Marcos Lacerda [190] Letter from the Rural Workers’ Union (STTR in Portuguese) of Novo Progresso to federal prosecutor Paulo de Tarso Moreira Oliveira [191] Ibid [192] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [193] On May 15 Bigode stopped to chat at the home of Antonio Marcos Lacerda on his way back to his plot from Novo Progresso Bigode went to a neighbor’s house to ask her whether she had seen anyone at his home as some of his belongings had been damaged The neighbor said she had not and urged him to spend the night at her home There is only one road in and out of the Terra Nossa settlement Civil police allegedly only agreed to go to Terra Nossa after Bigode’s wife offered to pay for gas for the patrol car She also paid for a bus for fellow church members from Novo Progresso to look for him Human Rights Watch interviews with Antonio Marcos Lacerda 2019; and “O desaparecimento do agricultor Antonio Rodrigues dos Santos assentado do PDS Terra Nossa,” Pastoral Land Commission unpublished report based on interviews with Bigode’s wife and children in 2018 Bigode´s wife reported his disappearance to Novo Progresso civil police on May 21 2018; and their son reported it to state prosecutors on June 8 Copies of the reports on file at Human Rights Watch [194] Maria Márcia Elpídia de Melo Statement by Maria Márcia Elpídia de Melo before INCRA in Santarém copy on file at Human Rights Watch; and Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpídia de Melo The Pastoral Land Commission reported the killings in letters to state and federal prosecutors in December 2018 Civil police told Human Rights Watch that they were investigating the killings of Romar and Ricardo Roglin and the disappearing of Antonio “Bigode” Rodrigues dos Santos but had not yet identified those responsible for the crimes Message through messaging service from Edinaldo Sousa chief of the rural conficts and environment unit at the civil police in Santarém [195] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [196] Ibid [197] Human Rights Watch interview with Ione Missae da Silva Nakamura 2019; and telephone interview with Rodolfo Avila [198] Lawyer Rodolfo Avila said he was present in the meetings in which Sampaio had reported illegal logging and threats in Terra Nossa Human Rights Watch phone interview with Rodolfo Avila [199] Ibid [201] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [202] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpídia de Melo [203] Antonio Marcos Lacerda told Human Rights Watch that the incident occurred on December 24 2018 and he reported it to the Novo Progresso civil police on December 27 A copy of the complaint is on file at Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch interview with Antonio Marlos Lacerda [204] Police went to Terra Nossa to investigate about a month later but nobody wanted to talk about the loggers for fear [205] Human Rights Watch interviews with Maria Márcia Elpídia de Melo and Antonio Marlos Lacerda Letters from the Pastoral Land Commission to Pará federal prosecutor Paulo Oliveira and state prosecutor Ione Missae da Silva Nakamura [206] “Relatório Circunstanciado de Vistorias para Supervisão da Situação Ocupacional do PA Areia,” INCRA Report copy on file at Human Rights Watch; and Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira and Daniel Alves Pereira [208] “Relatório Circunstanciado de Vistorias para Supervisão da Situação Ocupacional do PA Areia,” INCRA Report [209] Human Rights Watch interviews with three Areia residents Human Rights Watch interviews with three Areia residents "Dono é quem desmata”: conexões entre grilagem e desmatamento no sudoeste paraense São Paulo: Urutu-branco; Altamira: Instituto Agronômico da Amazônia [213] Eliane Brum, “A Amazônia, segundo um morto e um fugitivo,” Revista Época, January 28, 2012, http://elianebrum.com/opiniao/colunas-na-epoca/a-amazonia-segundo-um-morto-e-um-fugitivo/ (accessed August 21 [214] Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira and Daniel Alves Pereira [215] Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Alves Pereira [216] Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira [217] Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Alves Pereira [218] Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira and Daniel Alves Pereira [219] Human Rights Watch has copies of five reports of threats and illegal logging Osvalinda and Daniel Pereira made to civil and federal police Federal prosecutor Paulo Oliveira confirmed he had received the reports from the couple Human Rights Watch interview with Pará federal prosecutor Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [220] Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Pereira and Antonio de Paula e Silva [221] Human Rights Watch interview with Antonio de Paula e Silva [222] Human Rights Watch interview with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira [223] Human Rights Watch has copies of five reports of threats and illegal logging Osvalinda and Daniel Pereira made to civil and federal police and state prosecutors; and federal prosecutor Paulo Oliveira told Human Rights Watch he also knew about the situation and travelled to Trairão [224] Human Rights Watch interview with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira [225] Human Rights Watch interview through a messaging services with Elisângela Dell-Armelina Suruí [227] Human Rights Watch interview through a messaging services with Elisângela Dell-Armelina Suruí [228] Ibid [229] Local landowners involved in land grabbing and illegal logging allegedly hired “the hooded ones” to threaten and kill small farmers to take over their land The allegations are contained in “Edital de Citação,” a court order signed by judge Ricardo Frazon Menegucci [230] Ibid [231] Testimony by logger Alex Gimenes Garcia on November 14 contained in “Decisão sobre pedidos deduzidos pela defesa,” December 18 [233] Human Rights Watch interview with Franciel Souza Guajajara [234] Human Rights Watch interview with Iwyramu (Olimpio Guajajara) [235] See Lagoa Comprida case below [236] Human Rights Watch interview with Franciel Souza Guajajara coordinator of the Araribóia forest guardians from 2016 through 2018 [237] Human Rights Watch interview with João Guajajara (pseudonym) Human Rights Watch used a pseudonym and withheld the name of the village where he is chief for security reasons [238] Human Rights Watch interview with Franciel Souza Guajajara [239] Ibid [240] Human Rights Watch interview with Mutuhiran Ka’apor [241] Ibid [242] Statement of João Gualberto dos Santos Barreto [243] Ibid [244] Statement of Samue Miraran Ka’apor [245] In one such instance a logger known to the community allegedly approached Itahu Ka'apor and said to him: “Tell Sarapa that tomorrow I am coming to his house and I am going to kill him.” Human Rights Watch interview with Itahú Ka’apor [246] Human Rights Watch interview with Mutuhiran Ka’apor to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Maranhão reporting it Letter from Associação Ka’apor ta hurry do Rio Gurupi to Federal Prosecutor’s Office [247] Human Rights Watch interview with Mutuhiran Ka’apor [248] Ibid [249] Ibid; letter from Associação Ka’apor ta hurry do Rio Gurupi to Federal Prosecutor’s Office [250] Ibid [251] The non-Indigenous man lived in the village because his daughter married a Ka’apor man The men drove him on a motorcycle to an area close to the Xapu settlement and threatened to kill him unless he identified the members of the forest patrol The men allegedly showed him pictures of Indigenous people asking him to reveal whether they were in the patrol He revealed the names and the loggers released him Human Rights Watch interview with Mutuhiran Ka’apor 2017; and letter from Associação Ka’apor ta hurry do Rio Gurupi to Federal Prosecutor’s Office [252] Human Rights Watch interview with federal police investigator Romiron Souza Lima [253] Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Iracadju Ka’apor [254] Ibid [255] Human Rights Watch interview with Mawarisha (Osmar Ka’apor) [256] Raimundo Santos was a member of the Advisory Council of the Gurupi Biological Reserve and his wife Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa [257] Ibid [258] Human Rights Watch interviews with Evane Alves Lisboa 2017; and with federal police officer Julio Sombra Oliveira [259] Human Rights Watch interview with Julio Sombra Oliveira Civil e Militar resulta na prisão de policial reformado por crime de homicídio,” State government of Maranhão news release [261] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Danilo Chammas [262] Human Rights Watch interview with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) [263] Human Rights Watch interviews with Marcelo Gavião and phone interview with Tiir Cwuj (Maria Helena Gavião) coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Women of Maranhão (AMIMA) [264] Human Rights Watch interview with Frederico Pereira Guajajara [265] Ibid [266] Frederico Guajajara said he reported the incident to the civil police in Amarante do Maranhão and identified one of the attackers; to his knowledge police and prosecutors have not taken any action against them Human Rights Watch interview with Frederico Pereira Guajajara Human Rights Watch asked state authorities if they had opened an investigation into this case but had received no response as of September 2019 [267] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) [268] Final federal police report Human Rights Watch interviews with Juliana Ferraz Barros Alves deputy coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Maranhão (COAPIMA) [269] Human Rights Watch interview with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) [270] Human Rights Watch interview with Pyn Hýc (Raquel Bandeira) Her husband died in 2013 of a heart attack [271] Ibid [272] Human Rights Watch interview with Marcelo Gavião [273] Human Rights Watch interviews with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) [274] Human Rights Watch interview with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) and Pyn Hýc (Raquel Bandeira) [275] Human Rights Watch interview with Pyn Hýc (Raquel Bandeira) [276] Human Rights Watch interview with Eýy Cy (Evandro Luis Bandeira) [277] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Anton Fon Filho an attorney who assisted with the prosecution on behalf of the families of the victims [278] “Killing trees is murder: Zé Cláudio Ribeiro at TEDxAmazonia,” video clip, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO2pwnrji8I (accessed June 21 [279] Ibid [280] “Acusado de mandar matar casal de extrativistas vai a segundo júri no Pará,” G1, December 6, 2016, http://g1.globo.com/pa/para/noticia/2016/12/acusado-de-mandar-matar-casal-de-extrativistas-vai-segundo-juri-no-para.html (accessed July 21 2019); “Acusado de envolvimento na morte de casal de extrativistas é condenado,” G1 http://g1.globo.com/pa/para/noticia/2016/12/acusado-de-envolvimento-na-morte-de-casal-de-extrativistas-e-condenado.html (accessed June 24 [282] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Anton Fon Filho [283] Charging document by federal prosecutor Ellen Cristina Chaves Silva in relation to police investigation no [284] Human Rights Watch interview with Eurico Guajajara [285] Charging document by federal prosecutor Ellen Cristina Chaves Silva in relation to police investigation no copy on file at Human Rights Watch; Genildo Guajajara statement to the federal police [286] Ibid [287] Statement made by Witness 1 to federal police in Imperatriz on February 15 copy on file at Human Rights Watch; Human Rights Watch interviews with villagers at Lagoa Comprida [288] Human Rights Watch interviews with Maria Joana Alves Guajajara 2018; statement made by Witness 1 to federal police in Imperatriz on February 15 [289] Charging document by federal prosecutor Ellen Cristina Chaves Silva in relation to police investigation no copy on file at Human Rights Watch; Federal police forensic report no federal police gathered eyewitness accounts that provided substantial evidence against the illegal loggers including the names or nicknames of four of the alleged shooters police did not take a detailed statement from Maria Madalena Guajajara who was near him when he was shot and who has since died Federal prosecutors filed charges against three men more than four years after the killing the case has stalled because authorities have not made necessary arrangements to ensure the appearance in court of two Indigenous people whose testimony is key for the prosecution Judges have ordered FUNAI to bring to court the witnesses who live in a remote area of Araribóia Indigenous Territory and have no means of transportation but FUNAI has failed to bring them to hearings on at least five occasions since 2013 Human Rights Watch interviews with federal prosecutor Jorge Mauricio Porto Klanovicz 2018; and phone interview with federal prosecutor José Mário do Carmo Pinto Case documents on file at Human Rights Watch [290] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [291] Human Rights Watch interview with an Amazonas federal prosecutor [292] Human Rights Watch interview with Deborah Duprat [293] Human Rights Watch interview with an Amazonas federal prosecutor [294] Data provided to Human Rights Watch by the Pastoral Land Commission [295] Human Rights Watch interview with Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [296] Human Rights Watch interview with a high-ranking federal police officer in the Amazon region Name and place withheld upon the officer’s request [297] Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Gonçalves da Conceição [298] Human Rights Watch interview with Elpídio Sousa civil police chief of Amarante de Maranhão  “Violência contra os povos indígenas no Brasil – Dados de 2017,” Conselho Indigenista Missionário, https://cimi.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Relatorio-violencia-contra-povos-indigenas_2017-Cimi.pdf (accessed June 24 [301] Human Rights Watch interviews with Itahú Ka’apor [302] Human Rights Watch inquired about the killings during meetings with the human rights secretariat in October 2017 and June 2018 Human Rights Watch sent letters requesting information about the 16 killings again to the secretary of human rights on July 14 and to the secretary of public security and the state attorney general on July 15 [304] A federal prosecutor was in charge of the case of Eusebio Ka’apor Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Alexandre Soares [305] Cases of Eusebio Ka’apor (Alto Turiaçu and Davi Mulato Gavião (Amarante do Maranhão [306] Lawyers providing legal advice to the Ka’apor people gave Human Rights Watch copies of some statements made by witnesses in Eusebio Ka’apor’s case We did not have access to the case files in the other cases because the investigations were ongoing The families of the other victims contacted by Human Rights Watch did not have lawyers who could help them obtain documentation about the cases [307] Cases of Isaias Guajajara and Assis Guajajara [308] Cases of Eusebio Ka’apor [309] Human Rights Watch interviews with Elpídio Sousa [310] Cases of Eusebio Ka’apor [311] Davi Mulato Gavião was a Pyhcop Catiji Indigenous man told Human Rights Watch he had a mental illness An unknown man traveling with another man on a motorcycle approached him while he was sleeping in a plaza in Amarante do Maranhão and shot him to death at 00.27 a.m according to a CCTV camera recording that police showed Joaquim Gavião Joaquim Gavião told us he arrived at the crime scene at around 7.30 a.m He said he took the body to a funeral home at around 9 a.m Civil police officer João Batista said military police did not inform civil police about the killing and he only learned about it after a local resident alerted him through a messaging service in the afternoon of October 14 He did not immediately go to the crime scene because it was a Sunday he visited the crime scene during the day on Monday He said he collected some projectiles and wrote a report with his analysis of the crime scene Batista said the main line of investigation is that a landowning family ordered the killing because Davi Mulato Gavião had “attacked” a member of the family but he said he could not rule out that the killing was a reprisal for the environmental defense work the Pyhcop Catiji conduct Human Rights Watch phone interviews with Joaquim Gavião 2019; and civil police officer João Batista [312] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Joaquim Gavião Article 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code states that “police authorities” must go the crime scene as soon as they learn of a crime and preserve the site until forensic experts arrive [313] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Amarante do Maranhão civil police officer João Batista [314] Human Rights Watch interview with Luis Antonio Pedrosa a lawyer at the Sociedade Maranhaense de Direitos Humanos (SMDH) told federal prosecutors he took his father to the hospital in Zé Doca and he took the body back to the Indigenous territory the next day in the morning Statement by Samue Miriran Ka’apor to federal prosecutors [315] Baião case [316] Baião case [317] Rio das Onças case and Lagoa Comprida case [318] Raimundo Santos was a member of ICMBio´s Gurupi Biological Reserve’s community council [319] Just like federal prosecutors federal police have jurisdiction to investigate crimes against Indigenous people when they affect their collective rights An attack by loggers would clearly fall into that category Human Rights Watch interview with Juliana Ferraz Barros Alves [321] The fazendeiro was tried in absentia One of the hitmen escaped from prison in 2015 Yet the convictions represented progress in a bleak criminal-justice landscape [322] Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens (MAB), “Dilma Ferreira Silva: uma vida inteira de luta,” April 22, 2019, https://www.mabnacional.org.br/noticia/dilma-ferreira-silva-uma-vida-inteira-luta (accessed July 7 [323] Fabiano Maisonnave, “Líder de movimento social é assassinada em assentamento no Pará,” Folha de São Paulo, March 22, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/03/lider-de-movimento-social-e-assassinada-em-assentamento-no-para.shtml (accessed june 24 [328] Two Brazilian foundations give the Teacher of the Year Awards. Maggi Krause, “Os 10 Vencedores de 2017,” Fundação Victor Civita, August 7, 2017, https://fvc.org.br/especiais/educador-nota-10-vencedores/ (accessed June 24 2019); Human Rights Watch interview through a messaging services with Elisângela Dell-Armelina Suruí [329] Human Rights Watch interview through a messaging services with Elisângela Dell-Armelina Suruí [330] Human Rights Watch interviews with Julio Sombra Oliveira [331] Human Rights Watch interview with Julio Sombra Oliveira [332] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Danilo Chammas [333] Cases of threats and intimidation in which the victim was later killed: Eusebio Ka’apor Ka’apor leader in Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory (2010); Assis Guajajara member of the Tenetehara forest guardians (2016); Raimundo Santos leader of the Rio das Onças village in Maranhão (2014); Gilson Temponi president of a farmers’ association in Placas former logger who reported other loggers (2011); Aluisio “Alenquer” Sampaio president of the Union of Small Family Farmers (2018); Valmir Rangel do Nascimento and other local residents who were later killed in the Colniza massacre (2014); and José Cláudio Ribeiro da Silva and Maria do Espírito Santo community leaders in the Praia Alta Piranheira Agro-Extractivist Settlement Project (2010-2011) Other cases of threats and intimidation: Itahú Ka’apor Ka’apor leader in Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory (2013-2017); Mawarisha (Osmar) Ka’apor Ka’apor leader in Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory (2017); Iracadju Ka’apor village chief of Alto Turiaçu Indigenous Territory (2017-2018); José Andrade anthropologist (2013-2017); Marcelo Bandeira (2013) Governador village chief (2017); Pyn Hýc (Raquel Bandeira) (2013); Joaquim Gavião (2019); Boaventura Gavião (2009); Mario Bandeira Gavião (2009); Frederico Pereira Guajajara Tenetehara leader in Araribóia Indigenous Territory (2013 and 2014); Franciel Souza Guajajara then coordinator of the Araribóia forest guardians (2017); Iwyramu (Olimpio Guajajara) coordinator of the Araribóia forest guardians (2015-2016); Claudio José da Silva coordinator of the Caru forest guardians (2016 and 2018); José Inácio Alves Silva Lagoa Comprida village chief and president of the Commission of Village Chiefs and Leaders of Araribóia (2017); João Guajajara (pseudonym) village chief in Araribóia Indigenous Territory (2017); Raimundo “Mundico” Marciano Guajajara Tenetehara forest guardian (2017); Laercio Souza Guajajara deputy coordinator of the Tenetehara forest guardians in Araribóia Indigenous Territory (2017 and 2018); Rosilene Guajajara de Souza a leader of the “Women Warriors” of Caru Indigenous Territory (2017); Braz Antonio Tuminanbá village chief (2018); Awapu Uru-eu-wau-wau Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous leader (2015 and 2018); Naraymi Suruí a leader of the Suruí Paiter Indigenous people (2017); Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo president of the Nova Vitória Rural Producers Association in the Terra Nossa INCRA settlement (2017-2019); Antonio Carlos Lacerda vicepresident of the Nova Vitória Rural Producers Asssociation (2018); Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira (2012-2019); Daniel Alves Pereira resident of Areia INCRA settlement (2012-2019); Antonio de Paula e Silva (2012); Francisco Fermino Silva community leader in the Montanha Mangabal INCRA settlement (2018); Eliane Araújo chief of monitoring at the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve in Maranhão State (2017); and Evane Alves Lisboa chief of the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve (2008-2017) [334] The councilman allegedly said at a meeting with the deputy mayor of Trairão and landowners that he was going to shoot at Daniel Alves Pereira and his wife Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Alves Pereira [335] Human Rights Watch interviews with Francisco Gonçalves da Conceição Maranhão’s Secretary of Human Rights and Social Participation [336] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [337] Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira and Antônio de Paula e Silva [338] Human Rights Watch interview with Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [339] Human Rights Watch interviews with Osvalinda Maria Marcelino Alves Pereira and Daniel Pereira [340] Human Rights Watch interview with Mariana Macido [341] Human Rights Watch interview with Elinelson Oliveira [342] The head of internal affairs said he sent the final report of his investigation to the mayor but did not know what measures Human Rights Watch interview with Elinelson Oliveira [343] Human Rights Watch interview with Mariana Macido [344] Jean Carlos Nunes Pereira the public defender in charge of the human rights unit at the Maranhão public defender’s office said police sometimes refused to register complaints of violence against Indigenous people Human Rights Watch interview with Jean Carlos Nunes Pereira director of the human rights unit at the public defender’s office told Human Rights Watch that local police are aligned with the interests and opinions of the local towns where they work and there is a lot of hostility toward Indigenous people in those towns Eliane Araújo told Human Rights Watch in 2018 when she was coordinator of FUNAI in Maranhão that the police “don’t look at Indigenous people favorably” and they treat them “as if they were criminals.” Human Rights Watch interview with Eliane Araújo [345] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [346] Human Rights Watch interview with Ione Missae da Silva Nakamura [347] Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Gonçalves da Conceição [348] Human Rights Watch interview with a federal prosecutor [349] Ministério Público Federal “Operação Ojuara: MPF denuncia 22 envolvidos em cirmes ambientais no AC e no AM,” June 19, 2019 http://www.mpf.mp.br/am/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-am/operacao-ojuara-mpf-denuncia-22-envolvidos-em-crimes-ambientais-no-ac-e-no-am (accessed July 7 [350] Cases in which Human Rights Watch documented threats and attacks before the killings or attempted killings: Placas case (one killing) and Sete de Setembro case (two attempted killings) [351] Human Rights Watch interviews with Evane Alves Lisboa [353] Human Rights Watch interview with Evane Alves Lisboa [355] Ibid [357] Fabiano Maissonave, “Chacina em Mato Grosso foi precedida por episódios violentos registrados,” Folha de São Paulo, April 30, 2017, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2017/04/1879884-chacina-em-mato-grosso-foi-precedida-por-episodios-violentos-registrados.shtml (accessed June 24 [358] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mato Grosso public defender Diego Rodrigues Costa [359] Testimony by logger Alex Gimenes Garcia on November 14 [360] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Mato Grosso public defender Diego Rodrigues Costa [361] “MPMT pede a pronúncia de dois participantes da chacina de Colniza,” Mato Grosso state prosecutor´s office news release, April 9, 2019, https://www.mpmt.mp.br/conteudo/58/76904/mpmt-pede-a-pronuncia-de-dois-participantes-da-chacina-de-colniza (accessed June 24 Prosecutors said an employee of De Souza who had incriminated him received threats after talking to authorities In November 2017 six men fired nine times at another witness who had identified another of De Souza’s employees as one of the killers a logger who was a key witness was murdered Authorities have not publicly identified any suspects in that killing See “Suspeito nega ter encomendado chacina e diz que não se entrega por medo de morrer; confira entrevista,” Gazeta Digital [362] Human Rights Watch interview with Elinelson Oliveira [363] Human Rights Watch interview with Mawarisha (Osmar Ka’apor) [364] Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Alves Pereira [365] Human Rights Watch interviews with Mawarisha (Osmar Ka’apor) 2019; and interview through a messaging service with Elisângela Dell-Armelina Suruí [366] Human Rights Watch interview with Mawarisha (Osmar Ka’apor) [367] Human Rights Watch interview with Daniel Alves Pereira [368] Human Rights Watch interview with Osvalinda Pereira [369] Human Rights Watch interview through a messaging services with Elisângela Dell-Armelina Suruí [370] Data provided to Human Rights Watch by the Program to Protect Defenders of Human Rights and Environmentalists via email on July 10 [371] Ibid [372] Human Rights Ministry Regulation 300/2018, September 3, 2018, arts. 4 and 5, http://www.in.gov.br/materia/-/asset_publisher/Kujrw0TZC2Mb/content/id/39528373/do1-2018-09-04-portaria-n-300-de-3-de-setembro-de-2018-39528265 (accessed August 26 [373] Information provided to Human Rights Watch by Tassiana Cunha Carvalho then Director of Protection and Defense of Human Rights at the Ministry of Human Rights Human Rights Ministry Regulation 300/2018 details possible protection measures in article 13 [374] Minas Gerais and Maranhão have functioning state programs are in the process of implementing their own programs Information provided to Human Rights Watch by the Program to Protect Defenders of Human Rights [375] Decree 6,044 2019; and Human Rights Ministry regulation 300 Information provided to Human Rights Watch by Tassiana Cunha Carvalho [376] Bill 4,575/2009, https://www.camara.leg.br/propostas-legislativas/422693 (accessed July 31 [377] Information provided to Human Rights Watch by Tassiana Cunha Carvalho [378] Information provided to Human Rights Watch by the Program to Protect Defenders of Human Rights [379] Message to Human Rights Watch from the Program to Protect Defenders of Human Rights and Environmentalists via messaging service on August 12 [380] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Felipe Fritz Braga [381] Ação Civil Pública signed by federal prosecutor Janaina Andrade de Sousa and state prosecutor Ione Missae da Silva Nakamura [382] Judicial decision by federal judge Sandra Maria Correia da Silva case number 0002184-49.2015.4.01.3908 Itaituba [383] Human Rights Watch interviewed three of the five defenders cited in the judicial decision in May 2019 They said they had police patrols and had been provided medical and psychological care but the security cameras had not been installed Human Rights Watch interviews with three environmental defenders names and place withheld for security reasons [384] Human Rights Watch interview with an attorney at the Pastoral Land Commission [385] Response to Human Rights Watch questions sent by the Program to Protect Defenders of Human Rights [386] Decree 6,044, February 12, 2007. Annex, art. 7, https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/decret/2007/decreto-6044-12-fevereiro-2007-551016-publicacaooriginal-67118-pe.html (accessed August 22 [387] Human Rights Watch interviews with Cleber Buzatto executive secretary of the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) 2019; federal prosecutor Felipe Fritz Braga 2019; and with an attorney at the Pastoral Land Commission See also: Comitê Brasileiro de Defensoras e Defensores dos Direitos Humanos “Vidas em Luta: Criminalização e violência contra defensoras e defensores de direitos humanos no Brasil em 2017,” Rio de Janeiro: Justiça Global [388] Human Rights Watch interview with an attorney at the Pastoral Land Commission [389] Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Fermino Silva [390] Silva said that loggers and miners who live on the side of a road near the Montanha Mangabal settlement made several death threats against him and other community leaders publicly in a restaurant which were overheard by people who relayed them to him who works for loggers who illegally harvest timber in a national park told him the logger who commanded those activities said he would kill him Silva believes a killer prepared an ambush against him in the forest in March 2018 by the traces they later found in the bush The killer did not shoot because he was accompanied by a group of Indigenous people He and the other leaders of the community reported the death threats to federal police at the end of 2018 but Silva does not know whether the police opened an investigation Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Fermino Silva [391] Despite the protection measures the program has provided Silva and other leaders of the Montanha Mangabal settlement — albeit very limited — ten months after his interview with program staff Silva was unsure whether he was formally included in the program or not as he did not have any document that attests it Other defenders like him in Pará have also received some protection measures for many months after their interview but it was unclear to them or to the Pastoral Land Commission who requested their entry into the program whether they were actually included in the program 2019; and an attorney at the Pastoral Land Commission [392] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Felipe Fritz Braga [393] Human Rights Watch interview with Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [394] Ibid [395] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Felipe Fritz Braga [396] Article 2 of Decree 8,724 determined that the Deliberative Council be made up of two representatives of the human rights ministry and one of the justice ministry They can also invite a representative of the federal prosecutors’ office and of the justice system [397] Decree 9,937 but maintained the make-up of the deliberative council in article 5 [398] The program is administered by an entity contracted by the federal government [399] Human Rights Watch interview with an attorney at the Pastoral Land Commission [400] Human Rights Ministry regulation 300/2018 [401] Human Rights Watch interview with Itahú Ka’apor [402] Human Rights Watch interviews with Felipe Fritz Braga 2019; and telephone interview with Sandra Carvalho [403] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Felipe Fritz Braga “Romance de Bolsonaro com a mineração visa tesouros da Amazônia,” Exame https://exame.abril.com.br/economia/romance-de-bolsonaro-com-a-mineracao-visa-tesouros-da-amazonia (accessed June 19 [405] Ricardo Della Coletta “Bolsonaro defende revogação de reserve ecológica para estimular turismo,” Folha de São Paulo https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/05/bolsonaro-defende-revogacao-de-reserva-ecologica-para-estimular-turismo.shtml [406] Fernando Tadeu Moraes “Itamaraty elimina setor de mudança climática e ambiente fica sob soberania nacional,” Folha de São Paulo https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/01/itamaraty-elimina-setor-de-mudanca-climatica-e-ambiente-fica-sob-soberania-nacional.shtml (accessed June 19 “Bolsonaro mantém Ministério do Meio Ambiente https://epocanegocios.globo.com/Brasil/noticia/2019/01/bolsonaro-mantem-ministerio-do-meio-ambiente-mas-esvazia-pasta.html (accessed June 19 [410] Human Rights Watch interview with an ICMBio official [413] Sabrina Rodrigues, “Governo corta R$ 187 milhões do MMA. Saiba como o corte foi dividido,” ((o))eco, May 7, 2019, https://www.oeco.org.br/noticias/governo-corta-r-187-milhoes-do-mma-saiba-como-o-corte-foi-dividido (accessed June 19 [416] “Justiça de SP condena futuro ministro do Meio Ambiente por improbidade administrative,” G1, December 19, 2018, https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2018/12/19/justica-de-sp-condena-futuro-ministro-do-meio-ambiente-por-improbidade-administrativa.ghtml (accessed June 19 [417] Gabriel Prado, “STF decide futuro do ministro do meio ambiente condenado por beneficiar mineradoras,” Justificando, January 29, 2019, http://www.justificando.com/2019/01/29/stf-decide-futuro-do-ministro-do-meio-ambiente-condenado-por-beneficiar-mineradoras (accessed June 19 [419] Gabriel Prado, “STF decide futuro do ministro do meio ambiente condenado por beneficiar mineradoras,” Justificando, January 29, 2019, http://www.justificando.com/2019/01/29/stf-decide-futuro-do-ministro-do-meio-ambiente-condenado-por-beneficiar-mineradoras (accessed June 19 [421] “Ricardo Salles exonera 21 dos 27 superintendentes regionais do Ibama,” Folha de São Paulo https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/02/ricardo-salles-exonera-21-dos-27-superintendentes-regionais-do-ib.shtml (accessed August 22 [422] “Portarias de 10 de abril de 2019,” Diário Oficial da União, section 2, p. 59, April 11, 2019, http://www.in.gov.br/materia/-/asset_publisher/Kujrw0TZC2Mb/content/id/71099927 (accessed August 28 [423] Dimitrius Dantas, “'Políticas indigenistas e ambientais não trabalham em prol do Brasil,' diz Bolsonaro,” O Globo, January 12, 2018, https://oglobo.globo.com/brasil/politicas-indigenistas-ambientais-nao-trabalham-em-prol-do-brasil-diz-bolsonaro-23274351 (accessed July 11 [424] Rogério Daflon, “Foi vingança pessoal, diz ex-fiscal do Ibama demitido por governo Bolsonaro,” Agência Pública, March 29, 2019, https://apublica.org/2019/03/foi-vinganca-pessoal-diz-ex-fiscal-do-ibama-demitido-por-governo-bolsonaro/ (accessed July 11 [426] Ascema, Denúncia da Asibama-DF à Comissão de Ética da Presidência da República, June 7, 2019, http://www.ascemanacional.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/COMISS%C3%83O-DE-ETICA-P%C3%9ABLICA.pdf (accessed June 25 2019); and Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema the National Association of Environmental Public Servants [429] André Borges, “Ministro Ricardo Salles corta 24% do orçamento do IBAMA,” April 26, 2019, https://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,ministro-ricardo-salles-manda-cortar-24-do-orcamento-do-IBAMA,70002806082 (accessed June 19 [430] Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [431] Cristiane Agostine and Carolina Freitas, “Bolsonaro promete rever demarcações e quer explorar Amazônia com EUA,” Valor Econômico, April 8, 2019, https://www.valor.com.br/politica/6202927/bolsonaro-promete-rever-demarcacoes-e-quer-explorar-amazonia-com-eua (accessed June 19 [432] Ricardo Della Coletta “Bolsonaro defende revogação de reserva ecológica para estimular turismo,” Folha de São Paulo, May 12, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/05/bolsonaro-defende-revogacao-de-reserva-ecologica-para-estimular-turismo.shtml (accessed June 19 [435] Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988, art. 231, http://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf (accessed June 22 2019); Decreto 9,667 de 2 de Janeiro de 2019 http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2019/decreto/D9667.htm (accessed June 19 [438] Provisional Measure 886, June 8, 2019, http://www.in.gov.br/web/dou/-/medida-provisoria-n-886-de-18-de-junho-de-2019-164324640 (accessed June 19 [440] FUNAI, “Terras Indígenas,” n.d., http://www.funai.gov.br/index.php/indios-no-brasil/terras-indigenas (accessed June 19 [444] Human Rights Watch interview with Laercio Souza Silva deputy coordinator of the Tenetehara forest guardians in Araribóia Indigenous Territory [445] Human Rights Watch interview with Paulo de Tarso Oliveira [446] “Nomeação de general para presidência do Incra gera preocupação em movimentos do campo,” Brasil de Fato, February 11, 2019, https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/02/11/nomeacao-de-general-para-presidencia-do-incra-gera-preocupacao-em-movimentos-do-campo/ (accessed June 19 [447] Technical Note 885/2019/GABT-1/GAB/P/SEDE/INCRA [448] Human Rights Watch interview with Marco Paulo Froes Schettinto [449] “Bolsonaro diz que IBAMA e ICMBio vão deixar de ser indústrias de multa em seu Governo,” Rondoniagora, September 1, 2018, https://www.rondoniagora.com/eleicoes/bolsonaro-diz-que-ibama-e-icmbio-vao-deixar-de-ser-industrias-de-multa-em-seu-governo (accessed November 6 [450] IBAMA issued 4,323 fines related to deforestation nationwide from January 1 through August 31, 2018, and 2,701 in the same period of 2019. IBAMA publishes the data on this website: https://servicos.ibama.gov.br/ctf/publico/areasembargadas/ConsultaPublicaAreasEmbargadas.php (accessed September 5 [452] Human Rights Watch interviews with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [453] Human Rights Watch interview with an ICMBio official [454] Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [455] Ibid [456] Data provided to Human Rights Watch by Carlos Rittl Rittl obtained the data from the federal government through a Freedom of Information Request Human Rights Watch also petitioned data about anti-logging operations by IBAMA through a Freedom of Information Request filed in May 2019 but it had not received an answer by August 27 [457] Data provided by ICMBio to Human Rights Watch on September 4 2019 in response to a Freedom of Information Request [458] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector The agent asked that his name be withheld for fear of reprisals [459] “IBAMA avisa em seu site onde serão as ações de fiscalização,” Folha de São Paulo, May 27, 2018, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/05/ibama-avisa-em-seu-site-onde-serao-as-acoes-de-fiscalizacao.shtml (accessed June 19 [461] Decree 9,760, art. 97-A, April 11, 2019, http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2019-2022/2019/decreto/D9760.htm (accessed June 19 [465] Fabiano Maisonnave “Bolsonaro desautoriza operação em andamento do IBAMA contra madeira illegal em RO,” Folha de São Paulo [466] Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [467] Decree 6,514 regulates the 1988 Environmental Crimes Law the decree states that environmental agents can destroy equipment used to carry out environmental crimes “when their transport and custody are inviable considering the circumstances or they can put the environment at risk or endanger the population and of agents of the state.” IBAMA started using those powers around 2011 [468] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector [469] Human Rights Watch interview with Elisângela Ambé [470] Human Rights Watch interview with Roberto Cabral [472] Ibid [473] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector 2019; interview through messaging services with an ICMBio agent in Brasilia 2019; and phone interview with a high-level federal police officer in the Amazon region [474] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector 2019; and interview through messaging services with an ICMBio agent in Brasilia 477 “Salles faz visita a madeireiros em Rondônia após atos contra Ibama,” Folha de São Paulo, July 17, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/07/salles-faz-visita-a-madeireiros-em-rondonia-apos-atos-contra-ibama.shtml (accessed July 31 478 Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [477] Giovana Girardi, “Bolsonaro edita nova MP que altera Código Florestal,” O Estado de São Paulo, June 14, 2019, https://sustentabilidade.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,bolsonaro-edita-nova-mp-que-altera-codigo-florestal,70002873423 (accessed August 24 “Bolsonaro pode acabar com 129 processos de demarcação de terra indígena,” O Estado de São Paulo https://economia.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,bolsonaro-pode-acabar-com-129-processos-de-demarcacao-de-terra-indigena,70002560644 (accessed November 6 Bolsonaro defende exploração econômica de terras indígenas,” O Estado de São Paulo https://politica.estadao.com.br/noticias/eleicoes,em-roraima-bolsonaro-defende-exploracao-economica-de-terras-indigenas,70002266170 (accessed November 6 “Bolsonaro recua de fusão de Ambiente e Agricultura e diz não querer xiita ambiental,” Folha de São Paulo http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2018/11/bolsonaro-recua-em-fusao-de-meio-ambiente-e-agricultura-e-diz-nao-querer-xiita-ambiental.shtml (accessed November 6 [479] “'Brasil é uma virgem que todo tarado de fora quer', diz Bolsonaro ao falar sobre Amazônia,” G1, July 7, 2019, https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2019/07/06/brasil-e-uma-virgem-que-todo-tarado-de-fora-quer-diz-bolsonaro-ao-falar-sobre-amazonia.ghtml (accessed July 31 [480] Ibid [481] Mônica Bérgamo, “Não é o caso de comprar brigas que não podemos vencer, diz Hamilton Mourão,” Folha de São Paulo, November 23, 2018, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2018/11/nao-e-o-caso-de-comprar-brigas-que-nao-podemos-vencer-diz-hamilton-mourao.shtml (accessed August 26 [486] Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Communications news release, August 2, 2019, https://www.mctic.gov.br/mctic/opencms/salaImprensa/noticias/arquivos/2019/08/Nota_a_Imprensa__INPE.html (accessed August 4 [488] “Em mais uma derrota do governo, MP das ONGs é alterada no Congresso,” Revista Forum, May 9, 2019, https://revistaforum.com.br/em-mais-uma-derrota-do-governo-mp-das-ongs-e-alterada-no-congresso/ (accessed July 11 2019); “Presidente Jair Bolsonaro extingue centenas de conselhos federais,” Consultor Jurídico https://www.conjur.com.br/2019-abr-14/presidente-jair-bolsonaro-extingue-centenas-conselhos-federais (accessed June 19 [491] Ricardo Della Coletta, “STF impede Bolsonaro de fechar conselhos criados com aval do Congresso,” Folha de São Paulo, June 13, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/06/stf-impede-bolsonaro-de-fechar-conselhos-criados-com-aval-do-congresso.shtml (accessed June 19 [492] Human Rights Watch interview with a former member of the council Name withheld upon the interviewee´s request for fear of reprisals from the government [493] For the list of Ramsar sites see: https://www.ramsar.org/wetland/brazil (accessed August 29 [494] Human Rights Watch interview with a former member of the council [495] Human Rights Watch interview with an ICMBio official [496] Law 6,938 from August 31 established that CONAMA would have 96 members and municipal governments and 22 representatives of “workers and civil society.” Decree 9,806 from May 28 2019 reduced the size of the council to 23 members and increased the relative representation of the federal government from 29 percent to 44 percent assigned by a lottery system for a one-year term Civil society organizations previously had selected representatives to most of the seats reserved for civil society [497] Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Nicolão Dino [498] Besides Norway the government of Germany has contributed 6 percent of the funds and Petrobras 0.5 percent; “Relatório de Atividades 2018,” Amazon Fund http://www.fundoamazonia.gov.br/export/sites/default/en/.galleries/documentos/rafa/RAFA_2018_en.pdf (accessed August 28 [499] “Relatório de Atividades 2018,” Amazon Fund [501] Letter by the ambassadors of Norway and Germany in Brazil to ministers Ricardo Salles and Carlos Alberto dos Santos Cruz [502] Human Rights Watch interview with Annette Windmeisser chief of cooperation for sustainable development at the German embassy in Brasilia [503] Ludmilla Souza, “Ministro diz que há indídios de irregularidades no Fundo Amazônia,” Agência Brasil, May 17, 2019, http://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/geral/noticia/2019-05/ministro-diz-que-ha-indicios-de-irregularidade-no-fundo-amazonia (accessed June 25 [504] “Governo propõe usar parte do Fundo Amazônia para indenizar donos de terras,” AFP https://noticias.uol.com.br/ultimas-noticias/afp/2019/05/27/governo-propoe-usar-parte-do-fundo-amazonia-para-indenizar-donos-de-terras.htm [505] “Diretrizes e critérios para aplicação dos recursos e foco de atuação para o biênio 2017 e 2018,” Amazon Fund http://www.fundoamazonia.gov.br/export/sites/default/pt/.galleries/documentos/diretrizes_criterios/2017_2018_Diretrizes_e_Focos_junho18.pdf (accessed June 19 [508] Human Rights Watch interview with Annette Windmeisser chief of cooperation for sustainable development at the German embassy in Brasília [509] Human Rights Watch interview with Jan Dybfest minister counsellor of the Norwegian Embassy [510] “Norway stops Amazon fund contribution in dispute with Brazil,” Reuters, August 5, 2019, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-norway/norway-stops-amazon-fund-contribution-in-dispute-with-brazil-idUSKCN1V52C9 (accessed August 30 told Human Rights Watch in August 2019 that Germany was trying to discuss the establishment of a new steering committee with Minister Salles Human Rights Watch interview with Annette Windmeisser [511] Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [512] The contracts are available in the Amazon Fund´s website: http://www.fundoamazonia.gov.br/pt/carteira-de-projetos/busca/index.html?reloaded&facet_category_exact=tema/combate-a-incendios-queimadas/ (accessed August 30 [513] The contracts are available in the Amazon Fund´s website: http://www.fundoamazonia.gov.br/pt/carteira-de-projetos/busca/index.html?reloaded&facet_Responsavel_prop=ibama&facet_Responsavel_prop=ibama (accessed August 30 [515] Ibid [516] Human Rights Watch interview with Deborah Duprat 2019; Human Rights Watch interview with Marco Paulo Froes Schettinto 2019; and with a high-level IBAMA official He asked that his identity be kept confidential because he did not have authorization from his superiors to speak publicly.  [517] Human Rights Watch interview with Marco Paulo Froes Schettinto [518] Human Rights Watch interview with Deborah Duprat [519] Human Rights Watch interview with a high-level IBAMA official [520]Human Rights Watch interview with federal prosecutor Nicolão Dino [521] Human Rights Watch interview with a high-level IBAMA official [522] Human Rights Watch interview with Osvalinda Pereira [523] Human Rights Watch interview with Maria Márcia Elpidia de Melo [525] Human Rights Watch interview with Awapu Uru-eu-wau-wau [529] “MPF alerta sobre invasões na terra indígena Uru-eu-wau-wau,” Rondônia federal prosecutors’ office news release, May 2, 2019, http://www.mpf.mp.br/ro/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-ro/mpf-alerta-sobre-invasoes-na-terra-indigena-uru-eu-wau-wau (accessed June 19 [530] Rubens Valente, “Invasão em terra indígena chega a 20 mil garimpeiros, diz líder ianomâmi,” Folha de São Paulo, May 16, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/poder/2019/05/invasao-em-terra-indigena-chega-a-20-mil-garimpeiros-diz-lider-ianomami.shtml (accessed July 29 [532] “MPF requer reforço na fiscalização da Terra Indígena Awá Guajá,” Maranhão federal prosecutors’ office news release, January 18, 2019, http://www.mpf.mp.br/ma/sala-de-imprensa/noticias-ma/mpf-requer-o-reforco-na-fiscalizacao-da-terra-indigena-awa-guaja (accessed June 19 [533] July 2019 deforestation alert by Imazon, a research institute, https://imazon.org.br/publicacoes/boletim-do-desmatamento-da-amazonia-legal-julho-2019-sad/ (accessed August 30 [534] Fabiano Maisonnave, “Amazon´s indigenous warriors take on invading loggers and ranchers,” The Guardian, August 29, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/29/xikrin-people-fight-back-against-amazon-land-grabbing (accessed August 30 [537] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector [539] Human Rights Watch interview with Ione Missae da Silva Nakamura 2019; and with Marco Paulo Froes Schettinto [540] ICMBio “Ofício Circular SEI nº 10/2019-SETEC II-UNA/UNA/GABIN/ICMBio,” April 22 [541] Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth Eriko Uema [542] Human Rights Watch interview with an IBAMA inspector [543] Human Rights Watch interview with Tiir Cwuj (Maria Helena Gavião) [544] Human Rights Watch interview with Francisco Fermino Silva [545] Data from the Real-Time Deforestation Dectection System (DETER), a satellite system used by INPE, available here: http://terrabrasilis.dpi.inpe.br/app/map/alerts?hl=pt-br (accessed August 28 Although the system is designed to provide near real-time information for enforcement purposes it does alert to changes in the rate of deforestation during the year INPE publishes official deforestation data only once a year using its Program to Calculate Amazon Deforestation (PRODES) [547] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Clarissa Gandour senior researcher at the Climate Policy Initiative [549] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Raoni Rajão professor of environmental management and science and technology professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais [550] Pedro Rochedo et al. “The Threat of Political Bargaining to Climate Mitigation in Brazil,” Nature Climate Change, July 9, 2018, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0213-y (accessed August 26 [551] INPE provides daily hotspot data on this site: http://queimadas.dgi.inpe.br/queimadas/bdqueimadas/ (accessed September 7 [552] Matheus Moreira and Karina Toledo, “Satélites mostram invasão de ´rio de fumaça´ de queimadas sobre São Paulo,” Folha de São Paulo, August 22, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/08/satelites-mostram-invasao-de-rio-de-fumaca-de-queimadas-sobre-sao-paulo.shtml (accessed August 28 [556] “Amazon on Fire. Technical Note from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute – IPAM,” IPAM report, August 23, 2019, https://ipam.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NT-Fogo-Amazo%CC%82nia-2019_English_v2.pdf (accessed August 27 [557] Rafael Garcia “Focos de incêndio na região têm assinatura do desmatamento “Locais com mais queimadas também diveram mais desmatamento [558] Human Rights Watch interview with Gabriel Zacharias [559] Human Rights Watch phone interview with Clarissa Gandour chief of mintoring at the ICMBio Gurupi Biological Reserve [564] “Governo do Pará começa a identificar responsáveis por queimadas,” Pará government news release, August 26, 2019, https://agenciapara.com.br/noticia/14560 (accessed August 28 [566] Rosane D´Agostino, “Raquel Dodge diz que há 'suspeita de ação orquestrada' em queimadas na Amazônia,” G1, August 26, 2019, https://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2019/08/26/raquel-dodge-diz-que-ha-suspeita-de-acao-orquestrada-em-queimadas-na-amazonia.ghtml (accessed August 28 [567] “Governo do Pará começa a identificar responsáveis por queimadas,” Agência Pará, August 26, 2019, https://agenciapara.com.br/noticia/14560 (accessed August 28 [568] Tweet by Minister Ricardo Salles, August 20, 2019, https://twitter.com/rsallesmma/status/1163990341361553415 (accessed August 28 [569] “Amazon on Fire. Technical Note from the Amazon Environmental Research Institute – IPAM,” IPAM report, August 23, 2019, https://ipam.org.br/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/NT-Fogo-Amazo%CC%82nia-2019_English_v2.pdf (accessed August 27 [570] “Deforestation – not the dry season – responsible for Amazon burning in 2019,” IPAM, August 23, 2019, https://ipam.org.br/deforestation-not-the-dry-season-responsible-for-amazon-burning-in-2019/ (accessed August 29 [572] Sabrina Rodrigues, “Governo corta R$ 187 milhões do MMA. Saiba como o corte foi dividido,” ((o))eco, May 7, 2019, https://www.oeco.org.br/noticias/governo-corta-r-187-milhoes-do-mma-saiba-como-o-corte-foi-dividido (accessed June 19 [574] “'O que eles querem lá?', diz Bolsonaro sobre oferta de ajuda do G7 para Amazônia,” BBC, August 26, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-49471483 (accessed August 29 [575] Gustavo Uribe, “Bolsonaro diz que aceita negociar R$ 83 mi do G7 se Macron 'retirar insultos,'” Folha de São Paulo, August 27, 2019, https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/ambiente/2019/08/bolsonaro-recua-e-diz-que-ainda-pode-discutir-r-83-milhoes-do-g7.shtml (accessed August 27 [576] UN Human Rights Committee “The Nature of the General Legal Obligation Imposed on States Parties to the Covenant” (80th Session http://www.refworld.org/docid/478b26ae2.html (accessed June 8 [577] Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Case of Human Rights Defender et al. v. Guatemala, Judgement of August 28, 2014 (Preliminary objections, merits, reparations and costs), Inter-Am. Ct.H.R (ser. C) No. 283, para. 141–42, 157, 263, http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_283_ing.pdf (accessed August 22 [579] UN General Assembly “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders” https://www.refworld.org/docid/57d2a3364.html (accessed 22 August 2019) [580] International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) 9; American Convention on Human Rights (Pact of San José reprinted in Basic Documents Pertaining to Human Rights in the Inter-American System OEA/Ser.L.V/II.82 doc.6 rev.1 at 25 (1992) [581] Article 12 (2) of the UN Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“Declaration on Human Rights Defenders”) [582] Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders “Violence against environmental defenders – New UN major report urges zero-tolerance,” OHCHR http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20730&LangID=E (accessed March 9 [583] UN General Assembly [584] Regional Agreement on Access to Information Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters in Latin America and the Caribbean https://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/43583/1/S1800428_en.pdf (accessed August 21 [585]“Assinatura do Acordo Regional sobre Acesso à Informação Participação Pública e Acesso à Justiça em Assuntos Ambientais na América Latina e no Caribe (Acordo de Escazú),” Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Relations news release http://www.itamaraty.gov.br/pt-BR/notas-a-imprensa/19558-assinatura-do-acordo-regional-sobre-acesso-a-informacao-participacao-publica-e-acesso-a-justica-em-assuntos-ambientais-na-america-latina-e-no-caribe-acordo-de-escazu (accessed July 9 [586] Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) “Latin America and the Caribbean Adopts Its First Binding Regional Agreement to Protect Rights of Access in Environmental Matters,” March 4 https://www.cepal.org/en/pressreleases/latin-america-and-caribbean-adopts-its-first-binding-regional-agreement-protect-rights (accessed March 8 2018); Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) “Countries Agree on Protection of Defenders of Human Rights in Environmental Matters during Negotiation of Regional Treaty,” December 1 https://negociacionp10.cepal.org/9/en/news/countries-agree-protection-defenders-human-rights-environmental-matters-during-negotiation (accessed March 8 [587] UN General Assembly, “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment”, A/HRC/37/59, January 24, 2018, para. 7   https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3148450 (accessed September 7 [588] Ibid. [589] Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988, art. 225, http://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf (accessed June 22 [590] Environmental Crime Law [591] Forestry Code, Law 12,651, May 25, 2012, art. 12. “O que é reserva legal,” ((o))eco, August 20, 2013, https://www.oeco.org.br/dicionario-ambiental/27492-o-que-e-reserva-legal/ (accessed June 19 [593] Ibid [594] Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic and Cultural Rights (Protocolo of San Salvador) [596] UN Human Rights Committee, “General Comment No. 36 (2018) on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life,” October 30, 2018, CPR/C/GC/36, para. 62, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/CCPR_C_GC_36_8785_E.pdf (accessed August 22 [597] Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil, 1988, art. 231, http://www.stf.jus.br/arquivo/cms/legislacaoConstituicao/anexo/brazil_federal_constitution.pdf (accessed June 22 [598] Ibid [599] Ibid [600] Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Mayagna (Sumo) Awas Tingni Community v Nicaragua, Judgment of August 31, 2001, Inter-Am. Ct. H.R., (Ser. C) No. 79 (2001), para. 149, http://www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/casos/articulos/seriec_79_ing.pdf (accessed August 23 [601] ILO Convention No 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention) [602] Ibid. [603] Ibid. [604] Ibid. [605] American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted on June 15, 2016, O.A.S., OEA/Ser.P AG/RES. 2888 (XLVI-O/16), art. XIX, para. 2., https://www.oas.org/en/sare/documents/DecAmIND.pdf (accessed August 21 [606] Ibid. [607] The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on September 13, 2007. Brazil voted in favor, https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html (accessed August 4 [608] Climate change and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Statement of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, October 8, 2018, para. 6. Available at https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23691&LangID=E [609] UN Human Rights Committee, “General Comment No. 36 (2018) on article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the right to life,” October 30, 2018, CPR/C/GC/36, para. 62, https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CCPR/Shared%20Documents/1_Global/CCPR_C_GC_36_8785_E.pdf (accessed August 22 [610] The Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment addresses the urgent need for action to ensure a safe climate, July 15, 2019, A/74/161, https://undocs.org/en/A/74/161 (accessed September 3 [611] Paris Agreement, adopted December 12, 2015, entered into force November 4, 2016, ratified by Brazil on September 21, 2016, https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf (accessed August 22 [612] Ibid. [613] Ibid. [614] Ibid. [615] Brazil communicated to the UNFCCC Secretariat pursuant to UNFCCC decisions 1/CP.19 and 1/CP.20 its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (iNDC) and by virtue of UNFCCC decision 1/CP.21 regarding the Adoption of the Paris Agreement Brazil is considered to have communicated its first NDC upon Brazil becoming a party to the Paris Agreement [616] Federative Republic of Brazil, “Intended Nationally Determined Contribution Towards Achieving the Objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”, NDC Registry, September 21, 2016, p. 1, https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/NDCStaging/Pages/Party.aspx?party=BRA (accessed July 9 [618] Trade part of the EU-Mercosur Association Agreement, “Chapter: Trade and Sustainable Development” (Draft), arts. 5, 6, http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2019/july/tradoc_158166.%20Trade%20and%20Sustainable%20Development.pdf (accessed August 3 [619] Ibid. Human Rights Watch is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit registered in the US under EIN: 13-2875808 Janildo Oliveira Guajajara had recently taken part in an Amazon assembly organised by murdered Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira A rainforest activist from one of Brazil’s leading Indigenous protection groups has been killed just weeks after participating in an Amazon assembly organised by the murdered Indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira a member of the Guardiões da Floresta (Forest Guardians) collective was reportedly shot dead in the early hours of Saturday near the Araribóia Indigenous territory where he lived Carlos Travassos, an Indigenous expert who works with the group in Maranhão state, said he was the sixth Forest Guardian to be murdered since 2016 “We still don’t know exactly what motivated this but we presume it was some kind of retaliation,” added Travassos who said eyewitness reports suggested the victim was ambushed and shot from behind while visiting the town of Amarante do Maranhão “We want authorities to investigate but everything suggests he was killed because he was a Guardian.” Civil police chief César Veloso told local media Guajajara was returning from an Indigenous celebration when he was attacked His teenage nephew was also shot but survived Guajajara was one of dozens of Indigenous activists who gathered in the Araribóia territory in July to exchange tips on rainforest protection The meeting was attended by the Araribóia’s Guajajara inhabitants as well as Indigenous activists from the Javari Valley representing the Matis, Marubo, Kanamari and Mayoruna peoples. At the summit, Forest Guardian volunteers described their perilous quest to keep illegal loggers from invading their supposedly protected territory. Zé Guajajara, whose cousin was murdered in 2019, said he was now too scared to travel to nearby logging towns such as Amarante. “I feel like a prisoner,” he admitted, nevertheless vowing to continue fighting for his ancestral lands. “If they kill me, I believe God will put me in a good place because I didn’t just die for myself. I died for the people – just like Bruno.” Free daily newsletterOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters Antônio Marcos de Oliveira, the retired police officer who trains the Guardians, said: “This is a hidden war, but it’s a war. And it’s a war in which we’re at a total disadvantage because we receive no reinforcements, no support, the media hardly reports on it because it doesn’t do anything for their ratings … and as far as I can tell, there’s absolutely no political will to fight or at least try to improve this situation.” Travassos, a former top official at Brazil’s Indigenous agency, Funai, said Saturday’s murder showed how the dismantling of government protections under president Jair Bolsonaro had exposed activists to growing danger. Read more“If you have a chicken coop and you take away your guard dog the fox is going to invade,” Travassos said during the Araribóia exchange He removed the only protection these places had.” The results have been tragic for the Amazon and its original inhabitants Since Bolsonaro took power in 2019 deforestation has soared and attacks on Indigenous communities risen Activists now warn that, with Bolsonaro seemingly likely to lose power in October’s election, environmental criminals are engaged in a last-minute scramble to destroy the Amazon before a new government takes a tougher line. Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. Local police say killing not driven by racism but indigenous activists demand answers I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice An indigenous 15-year-old boy has been stabbed to death in an Amazonian reserve in Brazil the latest in a string of murders which have heightened tensions in the region Erisvan Soares Guajajara’s body was found on Friday in the Amarante do Maranhão city, on the edge of an increasingly deforested indigenous reserve on the fringes of the Amazon rainforest The killing is the fourth in the Guajajara tribe in recent weeks and has further fuelled recrimination and racism in the febrile atmosphere surrounding indigenous people and deforestation a charity which advocates on behalf of Brazil’s indigenous population reported Erisvan had travelled to the city with his father to buy groceries and clothes was also killed at the same party Erisvan was at The local police have handed the bodies over for autopsies and believe they may have died during a fight the Brazilian version of the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Detectives have told the local press the killings were unconnected to previous murders of indigenous people and therefore could be investigated locally But this has been strongly refuted by indigenous advocates the executive co-ordinator of the indigenous association ABIP and a leader in Erisvan’s tribe said it was time the authorities took attacks on her people more seriously “Another brutal crime against the Guajajara people,” she tweeted “Everyone who doesn’t like us feels allowed to kill because they know impunity rules According to figures from CIMI, murders of indigenous people rose 23 per cent in 2018. Since the far-right Jair Bolsonaro won the presidency there have been increasing reports of conflict between Brazilian loggers and the indigenous people who live in the forests they want to exploit. Just last week, two other Guajajara leaders were killed in a drive-by shooting on a motorway in another indigenous reserve in Maranhão state. A third leader, Paulino Guajajara, was murdered in an ambush on indigenous land 100km from Amarante do Maranhão in November, The federal agency in charge of indigenous affairs, Funai, has said it is following the latest case, according to The Guardian. However, other reports suggest Funai have confirmed the police’s account, which has ruled out any connection between Erisvan’s death and “hate crime, dispute over timber, or land”. “There is a sequence of violence afflicting the Guajajara people and Funai should look into that,” said Gilderlan Rodrigues, CIMI’s co-ordinator in Maranhão. Earlier this week, the federal justice minister, Sergio Moro, sent agents from Brazil’s National Public Security Force to “ensure the physical and moral integrity of indigenous peoples, Funai's officials and non-Indians” in the reserve where the drive-by shooting took place. The measure will only last for 90 days, however, and does not include the Arariboia reserve, where Erisvan lived. Arariboia has been hit particularly hard by deforestation and seen regular violent clashes between loggers and the Guardians of the Forest, an indigenous volunteer force which patrols protected areas of the rainforest. According to Brazil’s Pastoral Land Commission, killings of indigenous leaders are at their highest for 11 years. Illegal logging gangs, empowered by the rhetoric of Mr Bolsonaro, have swept into vast swathes of the Amazon, triggering increased violence with the indigenous communities who live there. There is also evidence of growing antipathy towards the indigenous from the Brazilian public in the Amazonian regions, with racist messages calling for further violence rippling across social media and WhatsApp groups in recent weeks. “These are common people… inciting crimes against indigenous people,” Érika Nogueira, the director of the Ascalwa indigenous association, said in The Guardian. “That is what is most worrying, it is civil society.” Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies indigenous groups in Brazil’s Amazon have been battling incursions by illegal ranchers and other land grabs Scores of leaders trying to protect their territories have been attacked and killed and presence of Amazon’s indigenous in their home lands With us to discuss the plight of the Amazon – and its indigenous population – is Andrew Miller. He’s the Advocacy Director for Amazon Watch and has worked with indigenous groups in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved It is a priority for CBC to create products that are accessible to all in Canada including people with visual Closed Captioning and Described Video is available for many CBC shows offered on CBC Gem Dramatic images of the devastation of world's largest tropical rainforest Get the latest news and updates straight to your inbox Look: Al Jouf's olive trees burst into bloom Rent-a-chicken takes off as egg prices soar in the US An indigenous forest guard has been killed and another has been injured after a group of illegal loggers ambushed them in the Amazon in Brazil.   Paulo Paulino Guajajara, who died after being shot in the face, was a leader in a group seeking to protect the Arariboia indigenous reserve from incursions. Federal police will investigate Mr Guajajara's killing in order to 'bring those responsible for this crime to justice,' said Sergio Moro, the justice and public security minister. An indigenous leader in the area said the forest guards had previously received threats and wore protective vests while on patrol. 'We informed federal agencies of the threats but they didn't take any action,' leader Sonia Guajajara said. Some indigenous groups in the Amazon rainforest say they are increasingly vulnerable to incursions by loggers and cattle ranchers.  Fires used to clear land in the Amazon increased sharply in July and August, causing international alarm over a region seen as critical to curbing climate change. A logger also died in an attack last night in Maranhao, a northeastern state, according to FUNAI, a state agency that represents indigenous interests.  Concern about the rainforest had heightened after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro took office this year with calls to loosen protections for nature reserves and indigenous lands. 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Indigenous 'forest guard' is killed by illegal loggers in the Amazon Commenting on this article has endedNewest{{#isModerationStatus}}{{moderationStatus}} a group of six Guajajara tribesmen with their faces painted for battle listen to the rumble of heavy trucks about 19 miles (30 km) from their village in the Amazon rainforest They suspect a caravan of illegal loggers felling trees on their reservation The “forest guardians,” as they call themselves hurry to a choke point in the local network of rutted dirt roads and lay in wait apprehend the loggers and deliver the culprits The men say they are among some 180 guardians patrolling their tribal land against loggers on night missions most guardians carve out an existence farming manioc rice and other staples in the Arariboia Indigenous Territory 1,600-square-mile stretch of rainforest in the northeastern Brazilian state of Maranhao The rest of Maranhao has lost most of its original rainforest over the past century Loggers and ranchers have cleared land right up to the Guajajara reservation and crossed the border increasingly in recent decades when the ‘forest guardians’ formed they estimate that illegal incursions have fallen by half “I’m proud of the warriors who are continuing the fight because the Arariboia Indigenous Territory was considered lost,” says Laercio Guajajara Efforts by vigilante groups such as the guardians have gained attention this year the world’s largest tropical rainforest More than 2,400 square miles of the Brazilian Amazon have been cleared so far in 2019 state of Delaware and nearly twice that registered by satellites in the same period of 2018 spurring global outcry at the response of Brazil’s right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro The president has said the country’s indigenous reservations are too expansive He has called for mining and industrial farming on tribal land and weakened environmental regulator Ibama The Guajajara forest guardians say that has strengthened their conviction that the fate of their land is in their hands “Those who should be enforcing laws and protecting indigenous lands are not doing it,” says Olimpio Guajajara “I have a mission to protect the land.” An Ibama spokesman told Reuters in August that previous governments were to blame for challenges facing Ibama The Environment Ministry has said that it takes its role in protecting the rainforest seriously Ibama did not respond to a request for comment on the Guajajara fight against logging on their land Local law enforcement agencies have recognized the guardians’ work in flagging illegal activity and presenting evidence officials say that vigilantism is not the best method for dealing with the issue Some guardians have been killed by loggers and several wear face coverings during operations to avoid becoming marked men They receive no compensation for the risky and grueling detective work while spending part of their meager incomes on ammunition they spend nearly an hour in tense silence until a scout for the loggers approaches the scout quickly surrenders and confesses that three trucks loaded with illegal timber are on their way the guardians block the road with a 4×4 of their own With no space to bring the captured scout to the police the guardians leave him in the forest to be retrieved by his colleagues After failing to start the logging trucks they have seized the guardians burn them to make sure they are not used again and they didn’t,” says Laercio “We’re burning the trucks now to show our response.” Powered by PageSuite KUALA LUMPUR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Leaving cleared tropical forests to regrow naturally has the potential to absorb a quarter of global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels each year A study led by the World Resources Institute (WRI) looked at and mapped the potential carbon-storing benefits of letting cut forests recover on their own many countries have launched big tree-planting programmes signing up to high-profile schemes like the Bonn Challenge But some deforested areas in the tropics may benefit more from allowing them to regrow naturally – which is often cheaper and more likely to benefit native wildlife The approach could absorb 8.9 billion metric tonnes of carbon each year through to 2050 – much higher than previously thought That is on top of the carbon sponge already provided by existing forests which absorb about 30% of planet-heating emissions research manager at Global Forest Watch (GFW) said the key was to identify where forests can grow back and store carbon faster “Now we have a map that says ‘go to the tropics because those areas will recover carbon the quickest’,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation Cleared forest areas with the most carbon-storing potential when left to regrow are located in Brazil Central Europe and the Middle East have the lowest rates for young forests to absorb carbon from the atmosphere tropical rainforests – whose preservation is considered crucial to curbing climate change – disappeared at a rate of one football pitch every six seconds Environmentalists say conserving existing forests and restoring damaged ones reduces the risk of flooding helps limit global warming by storing more carbon and protects biodiversity the study looked at cleared tropical forests that were unused but unable to return to their former state due to activities like sporadic logging or farming such land could be utilised with incentives for local people to help the cleared forests grow back “Natural forest regrowth was probably previously under-appreciated as a natural climate solution,” he added Harris noted that natural solutions like this were just “one tool in the toolbox” for tackling climate change “Reducing fossil fuels is also a very important aspect to this entire problem,” she said