Authorities said that as much as 683 mm of rain fell in Bertioga in a 24-hour period to 19 February 2023 Governor Tarcísio de Freitas declared a state of emergency for the cities of Ubatuba including 35 in São Sebastião – 31 in Barra do Sahy Flooding and landslides have damaged homes across the region and 566 people have been displaced or made homeless Civil Defense has distributed relief supplies in affected areas Drinking water infrastructure has been severely damaged in São Sebastião Caraguatatuba and the municipality of Ilhabela Drinking water is being delivered by tank trucks in areas of São Sebastião Dozens of roads have been washed out or blocked More than 130 teams from the Civil Defense Fire Department and the Brazilian Army have been delayed to the areas carrying out relief and search and rescue operations Much of the work is concentrated in the region of Barra do Sahy and Camburi in São Sebastião Around 80 more police officers are expected to be delayed on 20 February The government of São Paulo state said that heavy rain began on 18 February Below are some of the highest accumulations for a 24-hour period to 19 February: This is the second severe flood event in the state in the last two weeks Flooding affected the Greater São Paulo Region on 07 February State news agency Agência Brasil reported one person died in flood waters in Osasco Another person was reported missing and later found dead in floods in Parque São Lucas Heavy rain also has caused flooding and landslides in other areas of the state state Civil Protection provided an update for the period 01 December 2022 to 13 February 2023 Richard Davies is the founder of floodlist.com and reports on flooding news Cookies | Privacy | Contacts © Copyright 2025 FloodList Close Donate now: Support recovery from severe storms across the U.S. At least 24 inches (600 millimeters) of rain fell in a single day on the coastal region Rain continued through the end of the month hindering search and rescue/recovery and other relief and recovery efforts The disaster struck during Carnival, and many festivities were canceled. Tourists were asked to stay away from “the region in order to avoid overloading hospitals São Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas declared three days of mourning in the state and a 180-day state of calamity for six towns Some of the main highways were blocked or even washed away by landslides (Photo: Search and rescue efforts on the slope in Barra do Sahy, in São Sebastião following landslides, Feb. 22, 2023. Credit: Government of the State of SP; CC BY 2.0) See all The official death toll climbed to 65 on Feb. 27, with 64 deaths in São Sebastião and one in Ubatuba. Of these, 57 people had been identified, including 21 men On Wednesday, Feb. 22 “a local court granted São Paulo state and the municipality of São Sebastiao permission to force residents from at-risk areas who refuse to move as a last resort The floods in coastal São Paulo state were the latest in a series of such disasters to recently strike Brazil can have tragic consequences during the country’s rainy season.” Brazil has a significant social safety network with various nongovernmental and governmental organizations that have responded to the flooding The area hit by the disaster is the wealthiest state in the country but that doesn’t mean that all people affected will have their needs met Philanthropy’s role is to support those that are underserved and under-resourced As with all disasters and large-scale emergencies donating money to groups already engaged and coordinating on the ground at the disaster site is most effective They often can take that monetary donation and double or triple the value through local partnerships purchasing locally when possible can reinvigorate the economy in the disaster-affected area ensuring that support is relevant and timely Cash assistance can also help move families faster toward rebuilding their lives Those whose homes and businesses have been damaged will need immediate support with temporary shelter and basic household items Continued access to education for children and child-friendly spaces as well as protection of marginalized individuals are also priority concerns long-term recovery needs will include rebuilding and fixing homes and the replacement of cars and household items Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva does not want to have homes rebuilt in the areas at risk for flooding or landslides If you have questions or need help with making a donation to the CDP Global Recovery Fund, please contact development. (Photo: The Group for the Rescue of Animals in Disasters rescuing animals that were trapped in the rubble in São Sebastião after heavy rains that affected the region, Feb. 21, 2023. Source: Government of the State of São Paulo via Twitter) If you are a responding NGO or a donor, please send updates on how you are working in this crisis to Tanya Gulliver-Garcia We welcome the republication of our content. Please credit the Center for Disaster Philanthropy. If you are a donor looking for recommendations on how to help with disaster recovery, please email Regine A. Webster According to the government, the São Paulo Social Fund and the Civile Defense Coordination “have sent 112.5 tons of donations to families who lost property” due to the floods and mudslides On Feb. 26, the government reported that the São Paulo Secretary of State for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities sent more than 1,500 items to the North Coast including equipment and accessories for people with disabilities The products are the result of intense work by the government in partnership with companies and civil society organizations to collect donations for the injured The Brazilian Navy’s largest vessel – a multipurpose aircraft ship – arrived in the area on Feb as well as to serve as an emergency field hospital As with most disasters, cash donations are recommended by disaster experts as they allow for on-the-ground agencies to direct funds to the greatest area of need support economic recovery and ensure donation management does not detract from disaster recovery needs CDP has also created a list of suggestions for foundations to consider related to disaster giving Give with confidence The Center for Disaster Philanthropy is a 501(c)(3) charity that has earned Charity Navigator’s four-star rating and Candid’s Platinum Transparency seal Made with by creatives with a conscience This photo provided by the Sao Paulo Government shows vehicles fallen from an elevated area along the beach in Sao Sebastiao after it was damaged by a severe weather system went through the area SAO PAULO — Heavy rain caused flooding and landslides that have killed 36 people in Brazil's north Sao Paulo state Sao Paulo state government said in a statement that 35 died in the city of Sao Sebastiao and a 7-year-old girl was killed in neighboring Ubatuba some of the hardest hit and now under state of calamity canceled their Carnival festivities as rescue teams struggle to find missing "Our rescue teams are not managing to get to several locations; it is a chaotic situation," said Felipe Augusto he added there are dozens of people missing and that 50 houses collapsed in the city due to the landslides Augusto posted on social media several videos of widespread destruction in his city including one of baby being rescued by locals lined up on a flooded street Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Twitter he will visit the region Monday Sao Paulo state government said in a statement that precipitation in the region has surpassed 600 millimeters (23.6 inches) in one day one of the highest amounts ever in Brazil in such a short period Bertioga alone had 687 millimeters during that period Tarcisio de Freitas said in a statement he requested support from the army which sent two airplanes and rescue teams to the region TV footage showed houses flooded with only the roof visible Residents are using small boats to carry items and people to higher positions A road that connects Rio de Janeiro to the port city of Santos was blocked by landslides and floodwaters The northern coast of Sao Paulo state is a frequent Carnival destination for wealthy tourists who prefer to stay away from massive street parties in big cities Become an NPR sponsor Por um futuro em que as pessoas vivam em harmonia com a natureza Photos and graphics © WWF or used with permission. Text available under a Creative Commons licence You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience either observed and verified directly by the reporter or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources The term “natural” can hardly be used to refer to disasters anymore “When threats strike a community and wreak havoc [or] building in a river channel or on a very steep slope,” explains meteorologist Marcelo Seluchi Over the past decades, urbanization in Brazil has been largely unplanned and taken place at a chaotic pace. Some 84% of people now live in cities and urban areas according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics “Nobody is going to live in a risky area because they want to or because they are stupid,” says Raquel Rolnik an urbanist from the University of São Paulo “They are workers whose income does not allow for the purchase or rent of housing in a suitable location.” Larger populations living in high-exposure areas, combined with more frequent extreme weather events, trigger disasters. Science has proven that global warming has boosted evaporation which causes more intense precipitation and unpredictable storms This makes landslides even more common in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest which extend for 930 miles along the country’s coastline and reach up to 7,700 feet in elevation The rocks that comprise these mountains are covered by a thin layer of soil and vegetation “Heavy rains make water infiltrate this soil turning solid into liquid.” On these steep slopes when record-setting rains hit the São Paulo coast in southeast Brazil Cemaden predicted a heavy rainfall and reported the dangers twice to local authorities municipalities received more specific alerts to put their contingency plans in place having reached the maximum level of risk by midnight But various local municipalities responded differently to the information and the resulting range of outcomes shows what’s at stake for communities in future disasters.  While Cemaden’s forecasts predicted 7.8 inches of rain the cities of Bertioga and São Sebastião received more than triple that amount 26.8 inches of rain fell in just one day—the highest amount ever recorded by a rain gauge in Brazil (not counting unmonitored areas) is relatively flat and doesn’t have residences built in the hills “The biggest rain in history occurred there but with no problems in terms of causing victims,” Seluchi says Storms followed by landslides swept through a working-class complex on the slopes of Serra do Mar called Vila do Sahy These homes were built in the 1980s by poor families looking for jobs in the nearby beachside hot spot of Barra do Sahy where wealthy families from big cities come for the sea-view hotels and well-equipped houses costing millions of dollars these two worlds—Barra and Vila—are closely linked The only physical barrier between them is a single road precarious housing conditions in the high-risk area ended up concentrating all the victims on the road’s poorest side some moneyed people went so far as to hire helicopters to escape the devastation The city of São Sebastião did not release a single statement informing the public about the storms which came in the days leading up to Carnival—one of the most important holidays for tourism in Brazil Preparations for the festivities were already in full swing Normally the city receives 500,000 visitors on Carnival weekend so ordering an evacuation would have meant losing the income potential from these tourists had only infrastructure damage and no injuries in the storms despite having more than 7,000 families living on slopes and in stilt houses The city recorded the highest volume of rain in the past 70 years: around 16 inches The municipality managed to avoid fatalities by listening to the warnings and not underestimating the conditions’ destructive potential—a lesson learned after experiencing landslides and floods in 2020 that left 34 dead When the 2023 storm hit, people from high-risk areas left their homes before getting impacted by the rain. The population was notified via social media, SMS, and on-site visits by the Civil Defense. (This is comparable to the United States Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA municipalities and states have their own Civil Defense offices too.) “Teams went to areas of geological risk on Friday and Saturday informing [them of ] the measures to be adopted in case of heavy rain and community leaders reinforced the alert,” according to an email from the City Hall of Guarujá’s press office an effective disaster prevention plan has to go beyond warnings Across Brazil, only 17% of municipalities have alert systems to inform residents about possible risky situations associated with heavy rains who is also a director of the Brazilian Federation of Geologists “Sound alerts are the last step in the line many people don’t know what to do,” he says it is necessary to do training and simulations mapping escape routes and shelter points.” That’s why Guarujá Civil Defense’s ongoing work includes daily inspections in high-risk areas and lectures given in schools alongside simulations so the mapping must be updated and the population informed about these changes during the training,” Reis says safe long-term housing was available and affordable for everyone One of the most important aspects of any safety plan is to convince the population of the danger Even when people have the necessary information some still refuse to leave their homes for fear of their belongings being looted 50 years and [no] disaster has ever happened,’” Seluchi says because today things that have never happened are happening now—rain with a frequency of every 50 years now occurs every five to 10 years.” In the face of an evermore-threatening climate future some communities have found their own means of raising awareness and preventing fatalities Sítio Conceiçãozinha is a century-old neighborhood on the Guarujá estuary where some of the community’s 6,000 residents live in homes built on stilts Flooding was a problem for decades until the local community center launched an environmental project in 2020 Primarily aimed at cleaning up street pollution the project found that it could also avoid floods by reducing the garbage backing up storm drains The project offers educational programs for families as well as janitorial services And the cleanup works as a credit market: For each collected kilogram of recyclable material a person earns tickets that can then be exchanged for donated food baskets more than a ton of recycled material is collected by the community but not here,” says Cristiane Santos de Lima “The streets don’t flood anymore because you can’t find bottles covering the drains Picture of landslides on hills near the Barra do Sahy district after torrential rain in Sao Sebastiao The death toll has climbed to 65 a week after heavy rains sparked deadly floods and landslides along the coast of Brazil's southeastern Sao Paulo state adding "the priority continues to be a relief for the victims." volunteers and rescue workers are still digging to recover the bodies of the victims and search for people still missing Most of the victims lived in poor neighborhoods in high-risk areas on the slopes of the Sierra de Mar mountain range Around 2,440 people who lost their homes had to be evacuated due to the risk of new landslides coastal roads were reopened after being closed due to landslides and storm damage the highway that links Mogi da Cruzes with Bertioga in Sao Paulo state will remain closed for six months since the rains destroyed its drainage system Sao Sebastiao and Ubatuba saw record pouring rain in Brazil in less than 24 hours one of Brazil's exclusive tourism destinations was drenched within one day with more than twice the amount of rain usually seen in February It is estimated that around 4 million Brazilians live in 14,000 areas which are at risk from natural disasters according to data from the Brazilian Ministry of Integration and Regional Development 1.Comments will appear only after being approved by our team so it might be a while before your comment is posted 2.In accordance with the Regulations on Internet News and Information Services and other related laws and regulations of the People's Republic of China comments should not contain anything that is obscene Please [ Login ] to leave a comment either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content A pet dog has been bitten "at least" four times by a venomous snake in São Paulo, Brazil while trying to protect a 12-year-old child from the animal which took place in the Guaratuba neighborhood of Bertioga on the morning of Friday but the seven-year-old family dog is said to be making a recovery a jararaca snake that was said to be approximately six feet long was behind the attack said that the snake might have attacked her 12-year-old sister if it wasn't for Typhoon She told the Brazilian news website G1 that the girls' mother sent her little sister to a neighboring residence to open the gate and that she was confronted by the jararaca on her way back to the family she saw the jararaca approaching and screamed," da Silva said adding that her sister was frozen by fear until Typhoon arrived on the scene "My mother has four dogs and they all followed I think that in his desperation to attack the jararaca The snake then crawled away and the family took Typhoon to a veterinary clinic "The doctor even said that if he were my sister the dog has much more resistance to the poison," da Silva said The family has been trying to raise funds for Typhoon's treatment and hope he will be able to make a full recovery and return home soon Bothrops jararaca is a common snake in Brazil feeding predominantly on rodents and other small mammals The ambush predator uses camouflage and caudal luring to attract unsuspecting prey waving the pale tip of its tail to imitate a worm or insect larva "Bothrops species account for the most human deaths in the New World and Brazilian pit vipers pose a significant risk to humans," the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity database says "Encounter rates are high because the species is abundant within its geographical range and its preferred habitats include agricultural fields The toxins present in their venom cause swelling at the envenomation site these effects can lead to death due to shock Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground Newsletters in your inbox See all Arthur Casas’ book chronicles the houses hotels and retail spaces the Brazilian architect has shaped around the world the book covers 20 contemporary works in richly illustrated detail.  and the lengths to which the studio will go to create the perfect habitat or space is in evidence here with meticulously co-ordinated palettes of forms and materials giving each project a distinctive aesthetic Of particular importance is the relationship between hard-edged interior forms and the dynamic richness of external planting and natural landscapes, especially evident in Casas’ own house in Bertioga, Brazil Greenery also plays a vital role in larger urban projects where balcony planters are used to modulate the relationship between living spaces and the city skyline beyond Casas was born and raised in São Paulo and maintains a strong interest in craft processes and construction The studio’s diverse range of furniture often arises out of specific projects and locations: choosing and designing furniture is integral to the brief RizzoliUSA.com escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox ArthurCasas.com Sao Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas declared a period of official mourning throughout the state due to the tragedy on the north coast “Official mourning is declared in the State in a manifestation of deep regret for the victims of the heavy rains that hit the municipalities of Bertioga São Sebastião and Ubatuba,” the governor said on 20 February Forty deaths have now been confirmed; 39 in São Sebastião and one in Ubatuba The Secretary of State for Health reported 18 adults and 5 children have received hospital treatment for injuries six are in a serious condition while 13 were described as stable Large-scale rescue and relief efforts are ongoing More than 600 people from the security and rescue forces of the Government of the State of São Paulo the municipal government of São Sebastião and volunteers are working in affected areas The priority continues to help the victims and supply more than 2,496 displaced people including stretches of the Rio-Santos highway which has left an area stretching from Barra do Sahy to Boiçucanga in the municipality of São Sebastião isolated Governor Tarcísio de Freitas said that the accumulation of rain in the cities of the North Coast of São Paulo was the highest recorded in Brazil’s history According to the National Center for Disaster Monitoring Prediction (Cemaden) 335 mm in Ubatuba and 234 mm in Caraguatatuba The previous high was set in 2022 when Petrópolis in Rio de Janeiro state recorded 530 mm of rain in 24 hours The governor said the catastrophe on the north coast is one of the worst incidents of flooding and landslides in the state, and compared the situation to the floods in Guarujá in 2020, and in Itaóca in 2014 President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and a delegation of ministers and technicians from the Federal Government flew over some of the affected areas on 20 February and thereafter held meetings with local and state authorities including Governor Tarcísio de Freitas and the mayor of São Sebastião President Lula highlighted the need to help the most vulnerable people in particular those who have lost their homes He reaffirmed the Federal Government’s willingness to help solve the problem of housing in areas at risk of flooding and landslides He stressed the need to rebuild housing on safer ground Crustaceans along the São Paulo coast are accumulating heavy metals and exhibiting organic changes Eduardo CesarLife among the mangroves: barnacles and oysters clinging to red mangrove trunks…Eduardo Cesar biologist Marcelo Pinheiro is standing in front of his laboratory and talking about how he helped build this campus of São Paulo State University (Unesp) in São Vicente where he has been a professor for 10 years he notes that he has probably opened and examined 12,000 mangrove crabs since 1998 but he won’t venture to eat any dishes made with the crustaceans from the area around Santos and São Vicente Pinheiro and his team have confirmed that four of the six heavy metals they have analyzed—cadmium lead and mercury—have occurred at levels that exceed the legal limits in samples of water sediment and the crabs that inhabit the mangrove areas in the municipalities of Cubatão In areas with higher concentrations of these metals the crabs displayed a higher proportion of cells with genetic alterations associated with deformities According to a survey described in the PhD dissertation presented by Luís Felipe de Almeida Duarte in May 2014 the only areas free of heavy metals were in the municipality of Peruíbe near the Jureia-Itatins Ecological Station Pinheiro would not hesitate to order a plate of crabs or crab stew which has purple claws and a generally sky blue or yellowish carapace is found in mangrove areas along the Brazilian coast between the states of Amapá and Santa Catarina Degradation of the mangroves and intensive exploitation have caused a decline in production The Ministry of the Environment recorded 6,800 metric tons in 2007 less than half the 15,000 metric tons caught in 1994 This decline has been accompanied by a high rate of loss due to poor transport conditions which the agricultural research center Embrapa Meio Norte says could be reduced from 55% to 5% by using plastic boxes that have layers of foam moistened with estuarine water water is the principal vehicle for the dispersion of metals the water available for human consumption is collected mainly in Billings Dam and the Pilões River although other rivers on the Paulista Plateau supply the region’s estuaries It wouldn’t surprise me if it reaches the coast contaminated,” he says but I don’t know if they allow more detailed analyses of the waste discharged into the rivers in that municipality.” In Iguape the source of heavy metals is the mine tailings that come down the Ribeira de Iguape River few municipalities in the Santos Metropolitan Region treat all their residential and industrial waste before discharging it into the ocean and plastic packaging and other kinds of trash are strewn all over the mangrove areas on the nearby islands which are protected by law from human occupation Eduardo Cesar… and a mangrove crabEduardo Cesar where the Unesp team did not expect to find contaminated crabs a possible additional source of pollution was detected could be releasing undesirable chemicals into the Itapanhaú River “There is no longer any grease leaking out,” assures Marisa Roitman She says that an investigation is being conducted to see if the site needs to be decontaminated “There is no industrial activity that could have caused heavy metal pollution in Bertioga,” she notes Pinheiro says he did not have access to a survey of industries in Bertioga there is uncertainty about the sources of the pollution “We still don’t know what concentrations of heavy metals there are in the sediments in our state.” uncontrolled pollution from an unknown source is changing the ecological balance of the mangrove forest the least poetic face of the Atlantic Forest The mangrove forest is rich and pulsating with life It protects the coastline from erosion and acts as a nursery for fish and crustaceans The organic matter concentrated there supplies food to 50% to 80% of the world’s fish But the area is also ugly and foul-smelling because of the large amount of organic matter mixed in with its fine sediments “Any change in pH or salinity,” Pinheiro says “triggers the release of the chemical compounds imprisoned in the sediments.” The Unesp team found that the mangrove crabs from the polluted mangroves in Cubatão have 2.6 times more cells with micronuclei—encapsulated DNA fragments—than the ones in Jureia and therefore the greater the risk that the creatures will have deformities Pinheiro collected a very different-looking mangrove crab in Cubatão; one of its claws had five fixed fingers instead of one Samples of hemolymph examined under a microscope indicated the possible cause of the deformity: the animal had 11 micronucleated cells in each group of 11,000 cells studied “We still don’t know the frequency of deformities in the population but we already know that in Cubatão it is higher than in the other areas studied The history of pollution in the region is still the most obvious explanation,” he says Eduardo CesarTrash piles up in a mangrove area in São Vicente on the coast of São Paulo StateEduardo Cesar is investigating the number of micronuclei in two other species of mangrove crabs: Aratus pisonii which lives in trees and feeds on green leaves; and Goniopsis cruentata also known by the names maria-mulata and aratu red legs and a more wide-ranging diet that includes smaller crabs The preliminary data show that the frequency of alterations has remained stable: they are more common in animals in polluted areas than in the ones in preserved mangrove swamps Other groups of marine organisms exhibited similar alterations a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (Unifesp) and Santa Cecília University (Unisanta) brought mussels (Perna perna) from a farm in Caraguatatuba mercury and chromium—the latter above the maximum recommended for human consumption oysters of the genus Crassostrea brought from a farm in Paranaguá exhibited more DNA alterations than normal after being kept for a month in the Santos estuary he found 10 times more micronuclei than was detected in the same species in Cananeia out of 10 snook collected in a coastal region near a residential area in São Vicente alterations like this are probably caused by the dumping of improperly treated residential and industrial waste The harmful changes caused by these modifications to the cells of crabs and other shellfish and fish also mirror changes in the structures of the communities of living creatures that inhabit the mangrove forest Environmental degradation could promote predominance for some groups of species in polluted mangrove areas ants of the genus Crematogaster are predominant the foot-washing ants of the genus Solenopsis are the most predominant The vegetation also appears to undergo changes While walking through the mangroves on one of the islands in São Vicente Pinheiro squats down to collect a bent propagule—an embryo—of the genus Rhizophora mangle Pinheiro asked himself this question in 2012 when he found a one-centimeter-long parasitic crustacean (isopod) in the branquial cavity of a mangrove crab collected in São Vicente while analyzing 15 specimens caught in Cubatão Pinheiro believes that pollution may have compromised the crabs’ resistance to infestation by parasites and other organisms have led to losses of up to 80% of production in areas such as the Northeast since the early 1990s Eduardo CesarCrab with deformed claw collected in CubatãoEduardo Cesar Owing to either lack of time or not knowing whom to contact the researchers seldom visit the government environmental management agencies to present their research findings which could encourage measures designed to prevent any fall-off in the production or quality of fish and other organisms researchers and representatives of government agencies and crab pickers have established limits for the exploitation of mangrove crabs in Brazil Only adults with a carapace wider than six centimeters may be collected Males and females may not be caught during the early reproductive period from October 1 to November 30 nor may females be taken during the month of December Females with eggs are spared throughout the year One current source of concern is the possibility of overexploitation and an even larger consequent decline in production since it is a species that takes 10 years to grow to full size a proposed national plan for exploitation of the mangrove crab the blue land crab (Cardisoma guanhumi)—another species found in mangrove areas and the Atlantic blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) announced in 2011 by the Ministry of the Environment suggests a variety of measures such as pollutant monitoring decontamination of estuaries and mangrove areas government representatives and consumers are able to organize and implement these measures perhaps there won’t be a shortage of mangrove crabs—free of heavy metals—in the coming years Scientific article PINHEIRO, M. A .A. et al. Habitat monitoring and genotoxicity in Ucides cordatus(Crustacea: Ucididae), as tools to manage a mangrove reserve in southeastern Brazil © Revista Pesquisa FAPESP - All rights reserved IG professor sees “very tragic scenario for indigenous populations” from the Geosciences Institute (IG) at Unicamp emphasizes that he is not a student of indigenous issues although he coordinates an extension project with the Guarani population of the Rio Silveira village indigenous people of the Mbya ethnic group being concentrated especially in Mato Grosso do Sul involves agribusiness and the expansion of the agricultural frontier as well as its impacts on agroextractivist populations – indigenous people authorizing him to give his opinion on the measures announced by the Bolsonaro government on the day of inauguration and which point to the dismantling of Funai “The current scenario is quite tragic for indigenous populations which has been going on for a long time and is getting worse in this new government in the body that centralized activities related to indigenous people” extending his criticism to the PT governments there was also scrapping and a lack of employees “Transferring the role of identifying and demarcating indigenous lands to the Ministry of Agriculture is completely unfounded it is placing two completely different policies in the same body: agricultural expansion and the other of preventing deforestation and protecting these populations on reserves.” the IG professor has seen intense deforestation and the disappearance of biodiversity species creating serious problems for agroextractivist populations “The bottom and pasture communities [which maintain agricultural activity in the valleys and community activities in the plateaus such as extractivism and small animal husbandry] have suffered a great disarticulation of their economy and their customs due to the advance in the production of soybeans and then cotton It is important to remember that the Cerrado biome plays a fundamental role in the production of water for several river basins in the Amazon which flows into the Plata River in Argentina.” The geographer explains that the region that encompasses southern Maranhão has many swamps from which the water table emerges “In these areas of water accumulation there is a wide variety of plants a palm tree whose fruit and straw are heavily used by agroextractive populations These ecosystems are disappearing because agribusiness I have data collected in fieldwork on rivers that have dried up as irrigation water does not return to the aquifers at the same intensity Another problem that directly affects these populations is pesticides which contaminate water and cause diseases.” An aggravating factor highlighted by Vicente Alves is that Matopiba as it is a region of recent agricultural expansion has land that is still cheap and attracts large foreign investment funds that associate with Brazilian companies “An issue discussed in our research project concerns the extent of land sales to foreigners because in addition to the oversight bodies being disjointed these buyers associate themselves with national capital the profit for some of the companies already comes from the purchase and sale of land within a strategy to occupy agricultural frontier areas.” this new government intends to create facilities for the expansion of agribusiness (with the support of an extremely strong bench) Our surveys show that agriculture has also grown a lot in the region pasture is produced (which is cheaper) and then comes monoculture which is in the transition region from the Cerrado to the Amazon which buys a large quantity of wood production from this plant for cellulose But firewood from the Cerrado itself becomes charcoal for the ovens of companies such as Bunge Alimentos tradigns which have soybean processing units in Bahia data from CIMI (Indigenist Missionary Council) and CPT (Pastoral Land Commission) show the intensification of conflicts caused by the advance of agricultural expansion in regions of Tocantins indigenous people suffer from the loss of their lands and the process of violence A more aggressive advance of this export-oriented economy can be clearly seen in the Cerrado region The Unicamp Entrance Examination raised an interesting question about the increase in the number of deaths in land conflicts in Brazil: that after a reduction for ten years The Unicamp geographer considers that the option for an economy even more dependent on primary sectors is a setback in terms of worldview demanding that we think about a national project that values ​​the country's wealth “The problem with this government is submission exploiting products with no added value and with great harm to both extractive populations and natural wealth Thinking about the immediacy of the sale of primary products Brazil is failing to make a future calculation: that not only soybeans are being sold for a small value in view of the liabilities that remain for the country for the places and for the populations of those places.” Through the extension project that Vicente Alves leads in the Rio Silveira village between 20 and 30 students from different areas at Unicamp have already passed “The Guarani of the North Coast of São Paulo went through a very complicated process with the opening of the Rio-Santos highway in the 1960s which led to the death of many of them from diseases caused by more direct contact with the non-indigenous population they managed to demarcate part of the area where the village is today and there are a large number of children in two schools The IG professor says that the initial proposal was to build a bilingual Portuguese-Guarani atlas because priority was given to a book on local flora and fauna “This material was a request from one of the Karai [spiritual leader] of the village as they realized that young people no longer have knowledge about plants and animals and have also abandoned rituals They wanted to rescue and record this knowledge Indigenous people consume a lot of what we consume and a situation of cultural conflict has been created: young people use cell phones watch a lot of mass television programs and resist following the culture of their elders.” but writing is very recent in this universe on the North Coast “The publications created in the project are bilingual because they are Guarani speakers while all the school material is in Portuguese Many elderly people only speak their native language but children and young people are bilingual due to the greater coexistence with non-indigenous people – in addition to school they produce and sell their handicrafts on the banks of Rio-Santos One concern at the moment is to encourage young people who are finishing high school to enter Unicamp through the Indigenous Entrance Exam.” Access JU news on Unicamp’s social networks secexec@unicamp.br Subscribe to our English language newsletter and keep up-to-date with the most important news from Brazil All materials contained in this page may not be reproduced in any media without the prior written permission of Folhapress.