In an audience at the Chamber, the president of the National Foundation for the Indian (Funai), Márcio Meira, was not able to convince most of the deputies about the need of new administrative rules creating technical workgroups, to identify and delimit indigenous land that supposedly belongs to the Guarani Indians in the satate of Mato Grosso do Sul. The areas encompassed by the administrative rules of that body amount to around 7 million hectares, 26 municipalities, from which most are located at the border of Paraguay. Around 40 thousand Indians would allegedly live in that region.

Meira, who participated on Wednesday (11/19) in a debate promoted by the Committee for Agriculture, Livestock, Supply and Rural Development, informed that the studies correspond to an old claim from the Guaranis, in which they asked for the extension of their traditional territory. "The administrative rules regard only the necessary studies for the demarcation. They do not demarcate” said the president.

Nevertheless, according to Deputies Dagoberto (PDT-MS) and Waldir Neves (PSDB-MS), who proposed the hearing, the administrative rules threaten the economy of Mato Grosso do Sul. "These 26 municipalities finance the state thanks to agribusiness. There are a few Indians in that region and now some Indians from Paraguay are migrating to that place” affirmed Dagoberto. Waldir Neves, though, said he believes in the existence of international interests in the phosphate beds found in the region.

The opinions of the two deputies were confirmed by participants in the debate. The economist Normann Kalmus, vice-president of the Brazilian Institute for Economics and Finances (Ibecon), affirmed that the economy of the state will be directly harmed if there is a demarcation in the region, because the area concentrates the production of oleaginous vegetation and cattle, in addition to sheltering mineral-water springs and mineral beds.

The executive secretary of the Agency for Agrarian Development and Rural Extension of Mato Grosso do Sul, José Alexandre Tranin, informed that the administrative rules encompass the region that corresponds to 21.48% of the territory of Mato Grosso do Sul, amounting to 1,000,000  hectares of soybean plantations in the state. According to him, the population of the affected municipalities is worried and capital defection, employment reduction, credit suspension and land devaluation can already be noticed.

Legislation
Deputy Dagoberto has already proposed the cessation of six administrative rules from Funai, edited in June, by means of the Legislative Decree 797/08. He argues that they do not comply with the administrative rules for demarcating indigenous land, provided for in the Decree 1.775/96 and violate Law 9.784/99, which regulates the administrative process in the scope of public administration.

Dagoberto says that the demarcation process of indigenous land should start with the elaboration of an anthropological opinion and with the identification of the ethnical group to be benefited from the demarcation process. Only after this stage should Funai institute the specialized technical workgroup.

The president of the National Committee for Agrarian and Indigenous Subjects/Issues of the Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of Brazil (CNA), Leôncio de Souza Brito Filho, argued that the Decree 1.775/96 does not address the demarcation of private land (in this case, farms of the region), but of land that is traditionally occupied by indigenous peoples. “With the verb in the present tense”, he highlighted.

According to Márcio Meira, though, the administrative rules will not be revoked. The president explained that Funai is acting in compliance with Brazilian legislation, and, if it did not act this way, it could be sued by the Public Attorney’s Office. Anyway, the work with technical groups is paused until Funai presents the detailed objectives of the study to the community, as it was agreed with the government of Mato Grosso do Sul.

Report - Noéli Nobre
Editing - Marcos Rossi