SETAG employees taking the official marks (signals) to the forest to begin the official demarcation of the land, which will be identified by clear signage and a visible border that will encompass over 1500 square kilometres of the Brazilian
In 1999, a Greenpeace investigation uncovered that the Deni
Indian land was under imminent threat from destruction by the
Malaysian logging company, WTK. WTK intended to start logging in
the area to produce plywood. Greenpeace discovered that a great
part of the land purchased by WTK from the local Amazon patron
Mario Moraes overlapped the Deni territory (1) - this exposed the
fact that their indigenous land had been illegally sold During
successive expeditions to the remote villages on the Cuniuá and
Xeruã Rivers, Greenpeace was able to inform the Deni leaders about
the invasion of their land by the Malaysian logging company.
To mark the official start of the demarcation, Deni leaders met
with representatives from the organisations who have aided the Deni
in attaining legal recognition of their homeland: PPTAL (Protection
of Indigenous People and Their Lands in the Amazon Region Project),
GTZ, SETAG, Greenpeace, CIMI (Missionary Indigenist Council) and
OPAN (Native Amazon Operation). The company SETAG, engaged by FUNAI
(National Indigenous Foundation, a Brazilian government agency), is
in charge of the demarcation, which is funded by PPTAL and the
Brazilian Government.
The process began in 1985, when the Deni started official
demarcation procedures to save their land from the growing threat
from logging. By 1999, official channels had failed the Deni and
they approached Greenpeace to assist them in protecting their
homeland.
"We have been working in partnership with the Deni for four
years to protect their land and their traditional lifestyle," said
Nilo D'Avila, Greenpeace Amazon Campaigner, who was in the Deni
area following the beginning of the official demarcation process.
"We are convinced that the preservation of the Amazon biodiversity,
which is threatened by economic interests and by an unsustainable
pattern of consumption, will only be guaranteed if it is done in
partnership with the people who take care of the Amazon forest as
their homeland". According to D'Avila, if all the indigenous lands
in the Brazilian Amazon were demarcated, almost 20% of the forest
area would be under legal protection. "The Deni demarcation is an
historical step for all those who fight to reverse the trend of
destruction of the natural heritage through working with
traditional communities and the enforcement of law."
Greenpeace targeted WTK markets overseas and demanded that the
logging company give up their project and recognize the integrity
of the Indian lands in the Amazon. The UK importers, the main
consumer of WTK's Amazon plywood, cancelled their commercial
contracts and the UK market was virtually closed. After several
meetings between Greenpeace and WTK in Manaus and London, the
company publicly declared that they would not explore the area
which overlaps with the Deni territory and they would not
judicially fight against the demarcation process.
It was not until the end of 1999 that the Brazilian government
agency FUNAI finalised the mapping of the area and published a
report on the Deni land. The process then became tangled in red
tape within the Ministry of Justice and the Deni people announced
their intention to go ahead with self-demarcation, without the
Government. Greenpeace invited CIMI and OPAN to create a project
which would enable the Deni to outline the traditional boundary of
their lands, thus controlling the demarcation process.
Between 2000 and 2001, a multi skilled team, including
anthropologists, indigenous issues experts, sociologists and
agriculture engineers worked directly with the Deni leaders from
all eight villages preparing them for the self-demarcation (2). The
Deni learned how to handle surveying equipment, such as
theodolites, compasses and GPS (global satellite positioning
systems), which enabled them to acquire a clear picture of the
borders of their homelands.
A month after the beginning of the self-demarcation project, the
Minister of Justice published the Demarcation Decree, granting
constitutional recognition of the Deni rights over their
traditional territory.
VVPR info: Stills and footage available at Greenepeace International Photo Desk, John Novis (m)+31 (0) 653819121 and Video Desk, Tom McCabe +31 (0) 653504721
Notes: 1. In 1997, an investigation by the Brazilian Congress revealed that a local Amazon patron, Mario Moraes, who claims ownership of over 1,000,000 hectares of forest, had been trading off Deni Indian lands. WTK had purchased 313,000 hectares from Moraes, of which about 150,000 ha overlapped with the Deni lands. 2. The 13 Greenpeace volunteers who took part on the Deni land self-demarcation project are from: Brazil, Chile, the U.K., the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Germany, Austria, the U.S. and China.