IPP202 BRAZIL Alto Solimões Basic Services and Sustainable Development Project 1 Public Disclosure Authorized Indigenous Peoples Plan (Appraisal Version: January 22, 2007) Introduction: Indigenous Peoples in the Project (OP and BP 4.10) The Amazonas Regional Development Project is an integrated, cross-sectoral project comprising sustainable development, water and sanitation (WSS) and health components. The Project involves local stakeholders, including Indigenous populations, to achieve more effectively its development objectives and benefits. The Project’s design highlights the importance of working with the Indigenous people in the Project’s area, not only because of their special needs as a historically excluded group, but also because of the wealth of their culture and their central role in preserving the region’s natural resources and maintaining its ecological balance. Public Disclosure Authorized In accordance with the Bank’s policy, this Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP) was prepared for the proposed Project. Representatives of Indigenous Peoples groups will be involved as beneficiaries and in advisory activities at the planning and policy level, and in monitoring and evaluation activities of Project-financed activities. The Project would not generate negative impacts on Indigenous people, but indigenous participation is crucial to optimize the Project’s benefits. Indigenous people have for a long time used the rain forest ecosystems for their subsistence and trade without causing major environmental degradation, and many scientists the Indigenous expertise knowledge in natural resources management, as exemplary. Nevertheless, Indigenous peoples are vulnerable to changes occurring in the Amazon. Public Disclosure Authorized The first section of this IPP provides general background on Indigenous peoples in Brazil. The second section describes the main characteristics of the Indigenous peoples residing in Amazonas and the target Alto Solimões Region. The third section reviews the legal and institutional frameworks. The fourth section briefly describes land tenure issues. The next section details the consultation process. The remaining section specifies the plan for Indigenous participation, as well as the anticipated direct and indirect expected from the Project. 1. Background Brazil is one of the most diverse of all Latin American countries, with descendents of several ethnic groups blending together, including original Amerindian inhabitants, Public Disclosure Authorized Portuguese and Dutch colonizers, French invaders, European and Asian immigrants, and Africans brought as slaves. Contrary to popular belief, miscegenation was not always 1 This document is based on the work of the consultant Villy Fritz Seilert, who carried out all field trips and direct interactions with the indigenous people representing organizations and Amazonas State Government’s officials. 1 harmonious. It has produced inequities and unequal results in terms of access to resources and opportunities and control over access. In general, the Portuguese traveled without women and without wives, miscegenation was inevitable. Research on the Brazilian human genome shows that for 60 percent of the Brazilians who consider themselves as white -- have at least one Amerindian or African ancestor. Considering the above, a fundamental problem arises: how can one clearly identify that a person or a group of persons is Indigenous? In Brazil, the most accepted criterion is self- identification. In other words, the Indigenous peoples are those who identify themselves as belonging to a group that is collectively distinct from the national society as a whole, due to their historical links to pre-Colombian population.2 The Brazilian denomination of color instead of race as an identification criterion is consistent with the scientific findings about the non-existence of human races. First, the human species is too recent and its migration pattern too broad to have produced racial differentiations of human groups; and second, what is commonly known as different races indeed share between 90 percent and 95 percent of their genome variation. Skin color and human morphological characteristics originate from a small number of genes, and reflect variations only of a thousand, among billions of nucleotides in the human genome.3 Any ethnic group, such as Indigenous peoples in Brazil, is a historical, social, political and cultural reality, rather than a biological one. As such, it requires the appropriate social, political and cultural treatment from the Project. Henceforth, although many of the Indigenous individuals who will benefit from the Project do not live in Indigenous “aldeias”(agglomerates of residences where Indigenous live, within their lands or reserves) but reside in small urban and rural agglomerates that are part of the Project’s areas, their Indigenous identity was considered during Project preparation, taken into account in the Project design, and will continue so, during Project implementation. The Indigenous peoples in Brazil (Povos Indígenas) include a large number of different ethnic groups whose ancestors lived in the Brazilian territory before the existence of the Brazilian State. Brazil probably has the largest Indigenous population in the world living in isolation. At the time of European discovery, Indigenous peoples were traditionally semi-nomadic and subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering and migratory agriculture. Many of the estimated 300 nations and tribes that existed before 1500 died from diseases brought by European settlers or from ulterior contact with other groups. Many were also assimilated. The Indigenous population has decreased from an estimated four to six million to 734,000 in 2000, according to IBGE, which uses the self-identification criteria. However, there are some methodological differences in the data collection on the Indigenous population. While IBGE uses the criterion of self-identification, thus 2 http://www.socioambiental.org/pib/english/rights/stat.shtm, consulted January 31, 2006. 3 Parra, F.C, Amado, R.C. Lambertucci, J.R., Rocha, J., Antunes, C.M., Pena, S.D.J. 2003. Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S.A. 100:177- 182. Pena, S. Divergent Human Y-Chromosome Microsatellite Evolution Rates, Journal of Molecular Evolution, Volume 49, Number 2, August 1999 Pages: 204 - 214; Pena, S.D., Santos, F.R. (2000) L'origine des Amérindiens. Pour la Science, 227: 82-85. 2 comprising those who, although living in urban areas, consider themselves as Indigenous, FUNAI (National Agency for Indigenous Affairs)considers as Indigenous peoples only those who live in “aldeias”. This difference is reflected in the figures: while IBGE data shows 734,000 Indigenous people in Brazil, FUNAI reports 450,000. The difference is also reflected in targeting mechanism: only those living in aldeias are targeted by the Indigenous peoples governmental policies. In the Project’s design, to benefit Indigenous individuals living in the Project’s areas, the IBGE definition will be used. In other words, the Project will generate direct benefits for ‘urbanized” and rural indigenous groups (not residing in aldeias), while generating indirect benefits for Indigenous people residing in aldeias through agreements and partnership with the official institutions such as FUNAI and FUNASA (National Health Foundation). FUNASA has the legal mandate to work with them in the water, sanitation and health sectors supported by the project4. Since colonial times, Brazil has dealt with the issue of landless farmers by extending the agricultural frontier westward. The occupation of the State of Amazonas by non- Indigenous peoples began in the 1970s and continues to the present. At that time, the military regime provided incentives through both colonization programs and agrarian reform schemes to a large number of landless people to migrate to the state. However, the experience was disappointing. The migration of small farmers from old to new frontiers posed a threat to the forest, and a decade later, the local economy was stagnant and the price of land had escalated. The macroeconomic instability of the 80s and 90s also contributed to deforestation in two ways: (a) shifting the demand for land as a productive factor to a speculative asset; and (b) reducing the opportunity costs for small farmers to leave their lands and thus continue deforesting new land5. As a result, these settlers shifted out the frontier to areas deeper in the forest. Eventually these farmers started to migrate to urban settlements in the region, which did not have the capacity, the revenues, or the services to respond to the inflow of new inhabitants. Their vulnerability became extreme as well as the vulnerability of Indigenous peoples, who were dislodged and whose lives were dismantled with this process. 2. Indigenous People in the Amazonas State The State of Amazonas has the largest number of Indigenous peoples (27.5 percent) and the largest land area inhabited by Indigenous groups. As shown in Table 1 below, the following groups are found in the state: Apurinã, Banawá, Baniwá, Bará, Barasana, Baré, Deni, Desana, Jamamadi, Jarawara, Jiahui, Juma, Kambeba, Kanamari, Kaixana, Karapanã, Katukina, Kaxarari, Kocama, Korubo, Kubeo, Kulina Madiha, Kuripako, Makuna, Marubo, Matis, Matsé, Miranha, Mirty-Tapuya, Mura, Parintintin, Paumari, Pirahã, Piratapuya, Sateré-Mawé, Tariana, Tenharim, Ticuna, Torá, Tsohom Djapá, Tukano, Tuyuka, Wanana, Warekena,