The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva officially recognized six indigenous reserves on Friday, reversing the policies of his far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who opened access to land to agriculture and other industries.
Lula signed the official decrees on the last day of a five-day gathering of indigenous people from across the country, known as The Free Land Camp, in the capital Brasilia.
Designating these lands fulfills a campaign promise he made to stop the deforestation – much of it in the Amazon basin – that occurred during the Bolsonaro presidency. The former president, aligned with the agricultural and logging industries, had promised not to cede “another centimeter” of land to the indigenous people.
scientific journal Nature reported that, under his mandate, deforestation increased by 129% in the “biome” or Amazon biological community of Brazil.
Scientists consider the Amazon rainforest a crucial buffer against climate change, as the vast rainforests absorb a significant amount of carbon dioxide every year. Two of the six reserves designated Friday are in the Amazon and cover some 161,500 hectares.
Apart from these, two reserves are in the northeast of the country, one in the south and another in the center of Brazil. The land will remain under the jurisdiction of the federal government, but the designation gives indigenous peoples the right to use it in their traditional way.
In his first day in officeIn January, the president created a Ministry of Indigenous Peoples, the first in Brazilian history.
[Parte de la información para este informe fue proporcionada por The Associated Press, Reuters y Agence France-Presse]
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and activate notifications, or follow us on social networks: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
