Antropólogos da SALSA enviam carta à Presidenta sobre ferrovia transcontinental cortando terras indígenas

Os antropólogos que integram a Sociedade de Antropologia para as Terras Baixas da América do Sul (SALSA) protocolaram esta manhã, na Presidência da República, uma Carta à Presidente Dilma Rousseff. O tema é a estrada de ferro transcontinental a ser construída como parte de acordos entre os governos do Brasil, Peru e China, saindo da costa Atlântica do Brasil e seguindo até a costa do Pacífico no Peru, com trajeto que passa em terras de povos indígenas, nos dois países.

Na Carta, os antropólogos da SALSA solicitam do governo brasileiro respostas a três questões: 1) Como o governo brasileiro assegurará aos povos indígenas e às organizações indígenas das áreas afetadas a consulta e o envolvimento dos mesmos no processo de tomada de decisão sobre o trajeto, bem como desenvolverá as salvaguardas e os necessários sistemas de monitoramento para os planos para a sua implementação? 2) Como o governo brasileiro levará em conta os estudos de impacto social e ambiental que avaliam os efeitos de diferentes trajetos? 3) Como exatamente o governo brasileiro honra e defende os direitos à Consulta Livre, Prévia e Informada (FPIC)?

Abaixo, a íntegra da Carta, seguida do Documento da SALSA sobre a Estrada de Ferro (em inglês):

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Carbondale, Illinois, EUA, 29 de junho de 2015

A Sociedade para a Antropologia das Terras Baixas da América do Sul (SALSA) é uma associação profissional internacional de antropólogos especializados nas regiões das terras baixas da América do Sul. Os principais objetivos da SALSA, baseados em princípios éticos, são as investigações sobre os povos e ambientes das terras baixas da América do Sul, bem como a promoção da formação de estudantes e do público em geral sobre as questões que estudamos. Para a nossa organização, a vulnerabilidade e o bem-estar dos povos das terras baixas da América do Sul é uma preocupação central. Como antropólogos e especialistas nessa região, insistimos na precisão da investigação científica, integridade de interpretação, e nos posicionamos contra o uso indevido de estudos acadêmicos. Apoiamos os esforços dos líderes indígenas, organizações e outros estudiosos que colocam seus holofotes sobre as realidades das pessoas que vivem nas terras baixas da América do Sul e em outros lugares, em suas lutas para garantir os direitos e recursos de que precisam para sobreviver e prosperar como cidadãos indígenas do século 21.

É com uma grande preocupação que a SALSA tomou conhecimento que os governos peruano, brasileiro, chinês assinaram acordos para a construção de uma rede ferroviária transcontinental ligando a costa do Pacífico do Peru com a costa Atlântica do Brasil. Os trajetos da estrada de ferro proposta de Bayóvar em Piura ou então Ica, no Peru até o Porto do Açu ou então Santos no Brasil, cortam a Amazônia ocidental na região de fronteira entre o Peru e o Brasil, uma das maiores áreas de floresta tropical contínua do mundo com floresta primária relativamente intacta, e com um dos mais altos índices de biodiversidade do planeta. Esta área concentra o maior número de povos indígenas do mundo, com pouco ou nenhum contato com pessoas das sociedades nacionais. Para a maioria dessas populações indígenas, o isolamento é um estilo de vida que eles escolheram, em resposta às suas experiências históricas fatais com a sociedade moderna. Além disso, o percurso vai passar pelas terras de vários povos indígenas sedentários já demarcadas e tituladas, como os Shipibo-Conibo, Ashéninka, Nukini, Puyanawa, e Yaminawa, entre outros. O Uruaçu (GO)-Vilhena (RO) segmento da EF 354 no Brasil irá impactar diretamente o A’uwẽ -Xavante, Iranxe, Nambiquara, Mammaindê, Negarote, Umutina e Pareci, bem como grupos localizado na parte sul do Xingu Parque Nacional, incluindo os Kĩsêdjê, Yualapiti e Wauja.

A ferrovia proposta, cortando este ambiente único, e com ela a construção de muitas estradas de apoio e a manutenção de inúmeros canteiros de obras facilitarão a pressão da colonização e do fluxo de madeireiras ilegais e outros interesses extrativistas, incluindo traficantes. As consequências serão graves para os grupos indígenas isolados, para outros moradores indígenas da área, e para a biodiversidade existente da zona fronteiriça Ucayali-Acre e do cerrado no Brasil Central.

Exortamos o governo brasileiro a defender os direitos de seus povos indígenas garantidos pela Constituição de 1988 e respeitar as convenções internacionais que garantem os direitos dos povos indígenas aos quais é signatário. Estes incluem a Convenção 169 da OIT (ratificada pelo Brasil em 2002), a Declaração das Nações Unidas sobre os Direitos dos Povos Indígenas (UNDRIP), e o direito Consulta Livre, Prévia e Informada (FPIC). Nós especificamente solicitamos esclarecimento sobre as seguintes questões relativas às responsabilidades éticas e legais do Governo do Brasil.

1) Como o governo brasileiro assegurará aos povos indígenas e as organizações indígenas das áreas afetadas a consulta e envolvimento dos mesmos no processo de tomada de decisão sobre o trajeto, bem como desenvolverá as salvaguardas e os necessários sistemas de monitoramento para os planos para a sua implementação?
2) Como o governo brasileiro levará em conta os estudos de impacto social e ambiental que avaliam os efeitos de diferentes trajetos?
3) Como exatamente o governo brasileiro honra e defende os direitos a Consulta Livre, Prévia e Informada (FPIC)?

Territórios indígenas protegidos e reservas naturais são de grande importância na luta contra a mudança climática e emissões de carbono globais. Qualquer grande projeto que colide com tais territórios e reservas deve considerar esses impactos.

Obrigado pelo seu tempo e atenção a este assunto.

Respeitosamente,
Jonathan D. Hill
President, Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

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A Carta foi enviada com cópias para:

• Viceministra de Interculturalidad: Patricia Jacquelyn Balbuena Palacios ([email protected])
• INDEPA: Jefe de INDEPA: Javier Galdos Carvajal ([email protected])
• Defensoría del Pueblo: Defensor del Pueblo Eduardo Vega Luna ([email protected])
• Defensoría del Pueblo: Jefe del Programa de Pueblos Indígenas: Iván Kriss Lanegra Quispe ([email protected])
• SERNANP/Ministerio del Ambiente: Jefe de SERNANP: Pedro Gamboa Moquillaza ([email protected])
• FENAMAD: Presidente Klaus Quicque ([email protected])
• FUNAI: Coordenador Geral de Índios Isolados: Carlos Lisboa Travassos  ([email protected])
• Assessor para Assuntos Indígena, Estado do Acre: José Carlos Meirelles ([email protected])
• Associação Brasileira de Antropologia (ABA): Presidente: Antonio Carlos de Souza Lima ([email protected])

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Documento anexo, sobre a estrada transoceânica:

SALSA STATEMENT ON THE TWIN OCEAN RAILROAD

The Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA) is an international professional association for anthropologists specializing in lowland regions of South America. SALSA’s main goals are to foster sound and ethical research on the peoples and environments of lowland South America, and to promote the education of students and the general public on issues that we study. For the organization, the well-being of lowland South America’s vulnerable peoples is of central concern. As anthropologists and regional specialists, we insist on accuracy in scientific research, integrity in interpretation, and defence against misuse of academic writings. We support the efforts of indigenous leaders, organizations, and fellow scholars who focus the spotlight of public attention on the realities of life for native people in lowland South America and elsewhere, in their struggles to secure the rights and resources they need to survive and thrive as indigenous citizens of the 21st century.

The Twin Ocean Railroad

It is with great concern that SALSA has learned that the Peruvian, Brazilian, and Chinese governments have signed memoranda of understanding on building a transcontinental railroad network connecting the Pacific coast of Peru with the Atlantic coast of Brazil. The proposed railroad would cut through the western Amazon in the border region between Peru and Brazil, one of the largest continuous rainforest areas in the world with relatively intact primary forest and among the highest biodiversity indexes in the world (see the interactive map). This area concentrates the world’s largest number of indigenous peoples with little or no contact with outsiders from national societies. The majority of these indigenous populations have chosen isolation as a lifestyle in response to their fatal historical experiences with modern society. The impact of a railroad cutting through this unique environment will involve severe consequences for the isolated indigenous groups as well as many indigenous peoples whose territories are located along its path.

Several routing proposals

Two main routes have been presented: a northern route would connect the Pacific harbour of Bayóvar of Piura in northern Peru with the Atlantic super port Porto do Açu, north of Rio de Janeiro or else with the port of Santos, south of São Paulo. This route would cross the Andes and then pass through the Amazon city of Pucallpa in the Ucayali Region, the Brazilian city of Cruzeiro do Sul in the state of Acre, and then the Brazilian Amazon and the cerrado. It would cross Rondônia via the cities of Porto Velho and Vilhena, traverse the soy bonanza areas of Mato Grosso and the cattleranching center of Campinorte in Goiás, and from there reach the Atlantic. The second proposed route would take a more southern course connecting with the Pacific port of Ica in southern Peru, crossing the high Andes of Puno and Cusco, and from there cut through the Amazon, basically following the recently built Southern Interoceanic highway through Madre de Dios. It would bisect the legally protected Manu National Park and cross into Brazil at Iñapari, from where it would run southeast through Brazil and later connect with the expanding agro-frontier and wider Brazilian network to the Atlantic, as with the first proposed route. Other alternative routes have been proposed, and the Bolivian government has been lobbying for a route through north-eastern Bolivia via Santa Cruz, and then into Brazil in southern Acre and onwards to the Atlantic coast.

Impacts

The northernmost route crosses into Brazil through an area with extremely high biodiversity in mammals, birds, amphibians and plants and with many small isolated indigenous groups with little or no contact with the national society. This area is part of the largest remaining expanses of continuous and relatively undisturbed rainforest in the world. The proposed railroad would cross through the Isconahua Territorial Reservation, which was set up in 1998 for the isolated Isconahua people, who have only sporadic contact with outsiders. As EF 354, the route continues into Acre, Brazil, cutting through the Serra do Divisor National Park, established in 1989 and nominated Tentative World Heritage Site by the Brazilian government in 1998. A corresponding and bordering national park on the Peruvian side with the same name was proposed by a coalition of American and Peruvian NGOs in 2013. In 2006, this area was set aside and designated the Zona Reservada Sierra del Divisor, with the aim of establishing a national park. The isolated groups living in this border zone have been under increasing pressure from illegal loggers and drug traffickers from Peru. Several massacres have been documented, forcing some isolated groups to seek refuge on the Brazilian side of the border, potentially creating conflicts with communities in these areas. Any new infrastructure in the area will exacerbate this situation. Additionally, the route will pass through or otherwise directly affect demarcated and titled communities and lands of numerous sedentary indigenous peoples, such as the Shipibo-Conibo, Ashéninka, Nukini, Puyanawa, and Yaminawá, among others. The Uruaçu (GO)-Vilhena (RO) segment of EF 354 will directly impact A’uwẽ-Xavante, Iranxe, Nambiquara, Mammaindê, Negarote, Umutina and Pareci, and groups located in the southern part of the Xingu National Park, including Kinsede, Yualapiti, and Wauja.

If constructed, the proposed railroad will require a variety of feeder and maintenance roads and stations, which together with the railroad itself will inevitably increase colonization pressure and the influx of illegal loggers, drug traffickers, and other extractive interests into the region. This will have serious negative impacts on isolated as well as sedentary indigenous populations who reside in its path. It will also have adverse effects on two biodiversity hotspots: the Ucayali-Acre border zone and the central Brazilian cerrado. EF 354 will exacerbate conditions that many groups are suffering as a consequence of the cerrado soy boom.

SALSA strongly recommends against the northern route option to avoid the social, ethnic, and environmental disaster that this route and accompanying road infrastructure will inevitably cause in tropical forest refuges, as well as a large number of Indigenous Territories and protected areas. As proposed, the alternative southern route will cause considerably less devastation than the northern routing, although it is likely to have adverse effects on indigenous lands, the region’s ecology, and the environment. The same holds true for the Bolivian proposal. The precise impacts and affected peoples remain to be determined, since the detailed route has not been published yet, and the impacts of the railroad’s path are unique to each particular context.

Impact studies and safeguards

The Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America (SALSA) strongly urges the relevant and responsible authorities to carry out serious social and environmental impact studies to assess the effects of different routings on all potentially impacted indigenous populations. It recognizes the Brazilian government for indigenous impact reports for those groups to be directly affected along EF 354, the possible northern route within its jurisdiction. SALSA underscores that the indigenous peoples and indigenous organizations in the affected areas must be consulted and actively involved in the process of decision-making concerning the route, the development of necessary safeguards and impact monitoring systems, and plans for their implementation. Protected indigenous territories and nature reserves are of utmost significance in counteracting global climate change and carbon emissions. Any large project that impinges upon such territories and reserves must address its impact in this regard.

SALSA urges the governments involved in and financing the Twin Ocean Railroad project to take the concerns expressed here into consideration in the feasibility study of the railroad and its routing, which is expected to be carried out during 2015-2016. We exhort the Peruvian, Brazilian, and Chinese governments to respect international conventions and regulations guaranteeing the rights of indigenous peoples, including the ILO Convention 169 (ratified by Peru in 1994 and Brazil in 2002), the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), and the right to Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), which in the case of the isolated groups obviously must be through proxy. In Peru and Brazil, extensive national legislations guarantee the territorial rights and the integrity of indigenous populations, including isolated and uncontacted groups. The governments of both states are expected to abide by their respective national laws and constitutions.

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Enviado para Combate Racismo Ambiental por Renato Athias.