In the northwest corner of Brazil is located a state of Rondonia, extending
an area of 240 thousand km2. Bordering on the tropical lowland forest in
Bolivia, the western corner of the Brazilian Amazon remained largely intact
until the early 1970's, except for scattered settlements established by
rubber tappers since the late 19th century and abundant areas occupied by
various indigenous groups.
With the opening of BR-364 and its subsequent pavement completed in 1985
with the World Bank financing of US$ 250 millions directed toward regional
development program called POLONOROESTE, the landscape of the region has
undergone a drastic change. Hundreds of thousand of land-hungry farmers
flooded into the agricultural frontier with an annual influx of 150,000
peaked in the middle of 1980'.
POLONOROESTE was designed to promote colonization and 'integration' to the
national economy of the frontier state by settlement programs and
agricultural development through production of perennial cash crops, such as
coffee, cacao and cotton.
However, the program soon revealed itself a great failure as a massive scale
of disorderly migration triggered forest clearing of unprecedented scale,
which became entirely out of government control. Insufficient prior studies
on soil conditions assured only a miserable yield of cash crops for many
colonists, turning themselves into subsistence farmers of a rudimentary
form practicing slash and burn. Others had to abandon their settlement
unable to find basic social services of health and education.
Abandoned lands as well as primary forests were then increasingly burned and
converted into pastures of low productivity, merely supported by the
government's generous tax credits and subsidies, as well as land regulations
which acknowledged forest clearance as a legitimate form of securing land
title. During the past two decades 24 % of the total area of Rondonia has
been cleared leaving behind unproductive farms and abandoned pastures.
In addition to agriculture and pasture development, timber harvesting has
been another factor affecting severe impacts on environment as well as on
traditional populations. High-value commercial species such as Mahogany
(mogno: Swietenia macrophylla) and Cerejeira (Torresea acreana) became under
excessive harvesting pressures throughout the state. Mahogany was processed
into lumber or sheet-veneer and shipped out to the major timber industry
centers in the south of Brazil, processed into finished products as
furniture and interior materials destined to overseas market, primarily
Europe and the U.S., as well as domestic market.
Today, Rondonia has virtually run out of mahogany stocks available from
legal sources, exerting enormous pressures on various indigenous areas.
While their legally demarcated boundaries had already been reduced
significantly, almost all existing indigenous lands in Rondonia as well as
in the northwest of Mato Grosso have severely suffered from illegal
logging.
Numerous logging roads and feeder trails illegally established within the
reserves together with heavy machinery maneuvers are causing adverse effects
on the communities' livelihood resource base, catalyzing a virtual demise of
their physical and spiritual integrity due to rampant introduction of alien
habits and unknown diseases, not to speak of outright violence and murders.
Forced to surrender continuous threats and various forms of solicitation, a
increasing number of indigenous communities in Rondonia and Mato Grosso have
resorted to timber selling themselves, in the attempt to compensate for
diminished food resources and deteriorated health situations. This is
further contributing to the disintegration of the community splitting those
for vs. against timber sales, jeopardizing unification of all indigenous
communities in the region led by APIR (Association of Indigenous Peoples in
Rondonia) established in 1991.
The Uru-Eu-Wau-Waru reserve, the largest and least affected indigenous
territory in Rondonia, has now been under increasing logging pressures
dominated by Cataneo Companhia Ltda, a local logging and sawnwood processing
concern based in Ariquemes; the state's major timber industry center.
The Nambiquara reserve comprised of 36 villages within the extension of
18,000 km2 in the northwest of Mato Grosso is also among the indigenous
communities facing aggressive logging pressures in recent years. Various
intimidating flights were carried out by airplane above the Nambiquara
villages since the middle of 1992. By May 1993, the region between Comodoro
and Pontes e Lacerda along BR-174 became under complete seize and autonomy
of illegal logging interests involving municipal authority led by ex-mayor
and vice mayor of Comodoro city, interdicting by armed forces any
'trespassing' of FUNAI (Brazilian Agency for Indian Affairs) vehicles.
Increasing violence culminated in the middle of August in 1993 by
assassination of Pedro Mamainde, a well-known Nambiquara leader and adamant
opponent to illegal logging, causing a panic for various other
logging-opposing communities for fear of the ominous fate to repeat.
As illegal loggers gained an increasing strength, the FUNAI district office
in Vilhena was set unsuccessful fire, while many officials posted within the
Nambiquara reserves have been either forced out or allowed "laying
themselves on a hammock just to respond to bureaucratic radio
communications", according to Antonio de Assis, Administrator of FUNAI in
Vilhena, who has received a death threat himself.
Numerous appeals by Assis calling for support to put an end to the explicit
timber smuggling haven been sent to various government agencies, including
the governor in Mato Grosso, federal and state prosecutors as well as
regional police departments, yet have not been responded with concrete
measures. Private supports have also been sought for from NDI, Brazilian
lawyers' association for indigenous cause, as well as Amnesty International
in France. Assis advocates the need for federal force intervention and a
temporary moratorium of PRODEAGRO - the World Bank financing planned to be
used for regional development in Mato Grosso -, until the area in dispute
retains legal order.