MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Indigenous groups ready for week-long protest in Brasilia

The indigenous groups will also try to persuade COP30 attendees that they are part of the solution to gas emmissions

Some 10,000 indigenous people from across Brazil are expected to stage the 21st edition of the Free Land Camp (ATL) in Brasília between April 7 and 11 to advocate for land demarcation and oppose the Temporal Framework, which restricts demarcation rights to territories occupied by 1988. Indigenous leaders reject mining proposals and highlight the harmful impacts on communities like the Yanomami.

As the first participants began pouring into the country's capital Sunday, ATL 2025 also aims to connect indigenous land issues with global warming discussions at COP30. Under the theme “We are the answer,” the camp features events and protests, emphasizing constitutional rights and the preservation of indigenous territories.

In the camp, amid the trade in indigenous handicrafts, Portuguese is mixed with other of Brazil's 274 indigenous languages, in the largest annual mobilization of Brazil's indigenous peoples.

Andrea Nukini, 44, took four days and four nights to travel by bus from the village of the Nukini people, in the municipality of Mancio Lima (AC), to Brasilia. According to her, the lack of demarcation forces the peoples to remain mobilized.

“Our struggle never ends because we never have our territory fully demarcated. All of us indigenous peoples were supposed to have our territories demarcated, as mandated by the Constitution more than 35 years ago. But that's not happening,” said the indigenous woman.

Among the movement's priorities this year, as in previous editions, is the fight against the Temporal Framework, which says that only indigenous peoples who were in their territories when the Constitution was promulgated in October 1988 have the right to land demarcation.

Marciely Tupari, coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), explained that the expectation is to reverse the current scenario created by the conciliation table set up at the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to discuss the Temporal Framework. The indigenous people abandoned the negotiating table because they questioned its legitimacy.

“The indigenous movement defined that to be in this space was to validate what Gilmar Mendes was proposing, and one of the proposals was mining in indigenous territories, which we have always been against. It didn't make sense for us to be in a space to debate our rights and free our territory for projects. Our rights are not negotiable,” Tupari said.

After the Temporal Framework was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, the National Congress approved the law that established it. The case then returned to the STF, where case rapporteur Gilmar Mendes opened a conciliation table to deal with the issue, a solution that has been rejected by the indigenous movement.

At this meeting, Mendes presented a proposal for legislation that would open the way for mining on demarcated lands. The proposal was later withdrawn but will be dealt with again in another conciliation opened by Mendes.

“We have examples of the impact that mining has on our territories and our rivers, such as the Yanomami and the Munduruku. Their relatives are suffering from malnutrition, mercury in their bodies, and contaminated fish,” Tupari explained.

ATL 2025 also seeks to link the indigenous peoples' agenda with COP30 to convince foreign dignitaries coming to Brazil that the demarcation of indigenous territories is part of the fight against global warming. The UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) will take place in Belém (PA) in November this year.

“We're also working together to make, for example, an indigenous NDC [Nationally Determined Contribution], to counter the NDC that the government launched at last year's COP, when it didn't introduce the problems that agribusiness brings to climate change,” added the COIAB leader.

The NDCs are the targets set by countries for reducing greenhouse gases. The Brazilian government presented its NDC, which aims to reduce gas emissions by 53% by 2030.

Under the motto “We are the answer: In defence of the Constitution and of life”, the Free Land Camp 2025 is organized by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) and is expected to welcome around 200 peoples from all regions of the country for five days of events and protests in favour of the demarcation of indigenous lands. (Source: Agencia Brasil)