BRAZILIAN FEDERAL COURT CONVICTS LOGGER FOR ILLEGALLY EXTRACTING MAHOGANY
FROM INDIGENOUS RESERVE IN MATO GROSSO
The First Federal Court of Mato Grosso State (in the Brazilian Amazon)
convicted logger Marco Antonio Bogaski for illegally extracting mahogany
from the Guapor Valley Indigenous reserve, located in the west side of
the State.
The sentence also determined that the logger pay for all costs and
expenses with the implementation of an environmental recovery plan for
the area. Besides, it determines that he pay damages to the Hahaintesu
Indians, a Nambiquara sub-group that strongly opposes any logging in
their traditional lands.
It is the first sentence convicting a logger for illegal activities in
Indigenous lands. The Nucleus for Indigenous Rights (NDI) has already
obtained a preliminary injunction against loggers, but his is first
sentence.
The judgement was issued by judge Maria Divina Vit"ria on August 9th, 93,
on a lawsuit brought by the Nucleus for Indigenous Rights (a non-
governmental organization based in Bras!lia) on behalf of the Hahaintesu
Indigenous community.
The Guapor Valley Indigenous reserve has 242,593 hectares and is
officially recognized and demarcated since 1985.
According to the judgement, Marco Antonio Bogaski will have to pay
damages to the Hahaintesu Indians for illegally cutting 132 logs from
their reserve. The exact value of the damages owed to the Indian
community will have to be calculated by a judicial accountant, and it
will be approximately US$40,000. Through such lawsuits, the Nucleus for
Indigenous Rights intends to make illegal logging in Indigenous reserves
less lucrative, through the imposition of heavy fines and penalties. NDI
and the Federal attorneys Office (Procuradoria da Rep#blica) has several
other similar lawsuits against loggers and other invaders of Indian
lands, that have not been judged yet but that will be strenghtened by
this decision.
At the request of Federal Attorney Roberto Cavalcanti, judge Vit"ria has
already determined, on September 92, that the Federal Police arrest
Bogaski, for "endangering the public order in the Guapor Valley
Indigenous reserve". Since then, he is running away from the police, and
has not even denied the allegations made by NDI.
Bogaski is a frequent invader of this Indigenous reserve, and has already
been caught several times by FUNAI and IBAMA employees and Police
officers inside the reserve, cutting mahogany trees. In such
confrontations, he made death threats to Indians and FUNAI employees,
firing bullets in the direction of Indian children and women, and saying
loudly " the more FUNAI denounces me, the more logs I will take". Such
incidents are reported, with detail, on criminal charges filed by Federal
Attorney Roberto Cavalcanti against him.
This sentence is an important victory of the coalition formed by 72
Brazilian Non-Governmental Organizations against the illegal and
predatory exploitation of mahogany, of which NDI participates.