2023-09-29 19:13:10
Leaders met with technicians from the Forestry Foundation to discuss the APA Management Plan for the Quilombos of Médio Ribeira|Taynara Borges/ISA
Quilombola leaders from 13 communities in the São Paulo municipalities of Iporanga and Eldorado met, last week, to receive technicians from the Foundation for Conservation and Forest Production of the State of São Paulo (Fundação Florestal) who were in the region to carry out the Characterization of the Management Plan for the Quilombos do Médio Ribeira Environmental Protection Area (APA).
The Seminar, which took place at the State Technical School (Etec) of Quilombo in the André Lopes neighborhood, responded to the communities’ request for the determination to carry out a Free, Prior and Informed Consultation to be fulfilled and for the APA implementation process to take into account consideration of the ways of life, demands and traditional knowledge of the populations that historically inhabit the Vale do Ribeira region of São Paulo, whose territories were overlapped by the Conservation Unit (CU).
The official demand for a Consultation Plan from APA management came from the Coordination and Advisory Team for Black Communities of Vale do Ribeira (Eaacone), which brought together requests from the communities involved. “This is a demand for consultation protocol. We are evolving in this construction through the dialogue that we set out to create”, explains the coordinator of Eaacone, Tânia de Moraes.
The meeting was marked by the presence of historical leaders from the remaining quilombo territories and young leaders who outline how the new generation presents itself as maintaining the legacy of representation and resistance of its elders.
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Following the rite of the Prior Consultation protocol, the entity, under the jurisdiction of the Secretariat of Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics (Semil), presented – in a facilitated and summarized manner – the studies carried out by its technical team to prepare the APA Management Plan of the Quilombos. The document, presented so that it can be complemented with information provided by the communities, works as an inventory of the region’s environmental, socioeconomic, historical and cultural records and will give rise to the UC’s management standards.
Over the course of two days, quilombolas and technicians focused on studies relating to the territories to provide and receive information regarding the area of 64,625.04 hectares that overlaps the territories of the remaining Quilombos André Lopes, Galvão, Ivaporunduva, Maria Rosa, Nhunguara, Ostras, Pedro Cubas, Pedro Cubas de Cima, Pilões, Piririca, Praia Grande, São Pedro and Sapatu – object of State Law nº 12,810/2008.
“I found everything you presented to us here very interesting. I found it interesting because we already know all of this. We don’t have studies and we don’t put things on paper like you do, but all of this that you are seeing and showing is what we know and live, in practice, on a daily basis”, highlights the leadership of Quilombo Nhunguara, Mr. João Catá, at the same time that he recognized the work carried out by the Fundação Florestal.
Seminar meets ILO determination Dona Benedita Rocha, from Quilombo Maria Rosa defends the participation of communities in decision-making spaces: “to get to know us, you have to participate”|Taynara Borges/ISA Niceia Santos, from Quilombo Maria Rosa: “it’s important learn from older leaders how to deal with the difficulties we always face” | Taynara Borges/ISA
The paper that Mr. João refers to is the “Management Plan – APA Quilombos do Médio Ribeira”, a large compilation with a systematization of studies and research carried out in the region that houses the 13 quilombola territories that make up the APA, which also covers a short stretch of non-quilombola land. There are records of water resources, richness of fauna and flora, geology, particularities of occupation and all descriptions raised in research.
For the technical advisor of the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) Raquel Pasinato, the simple way in which the Fundação Florestal shared this information with representatives of quilombola communities during the Seminar was positive, helping to understand its content, which reinforces the existence of possible ways to establish effective communication between both parties.
“It is a positive point that the State recognizes the guarantee of Prior Consultation, according to ILO 169 [Convenção sobre Povos Indígenas e Tribais, da Organização Internacional do Trabalho, que é lei no Brasil desde 2004] to carry out any procedure that will affect the lives of traditional communities. It’s always a step forward. And this process is important because it sets precedents for the State of São Paulo, which is a state that needs to look at the role of traditional communities in biodiversity conservation. They need to recognize that they need to be consulted before any process, including the Management Plan”, reinforces Pasinato.
Leadership of Quilombo Maria Rosa, Dona Benedita Rocha maintains that participation is also extremely important for quilombolas. “To defend the community and our territories, our way of living, we need to know. And to get to know us, you have to participate.”
The importance that Dona Benedita gives to the quilombola presence in spaces for debate and decision-making has already made a legacy. Niceia Santos, at 28 years old, has gradually taken on the role of a young leader in the community.
“For me, it is important to learn from older leaders how to deal with the difficulties that we always face. That’s why I think it’s important to always be present at APA meetings. With this dialogue that we are creating, and that our elders did not have, we are able to have greater openness with these bodies to deal with so many issues that are important to us. Now, we are able to bring the Foundation closer, for example, and show our reality. This way they see that they have a lot to learn from us too”, he explains.
Quilombola territories have almost 90% coverage by native Atlantic Forest Data collected to study the area claimed by the APA show a very high degree of preservation in quilombola territories|Taynara Borges/ISA
In addition to the representative importance of the Seminar in relation to meeting the Preliminary Consultation, Pasinato also highlights the relevance of the data collected and gathered in the “Management Plan – APA Quilombos do Médio Ribeira”.
One of these data is that 87.1% of the claimed area has a high level of native vegetation cover, with an advanced degree of conservation. This significant preservation index helps in the presence of large forest masses and forest fragments with a high level of proximity, which means the presence of ecological corridors for the movement of animals, guaranteeing their habitat and the consequent survival of species.
According to the survey, 421 species of vertebrate fauna were recorded in the territories, of which 33 are threatened with extinction, such as jaguars, hawks, monkeys and small birds. In the flora survey, 622 species were catalogued, 29 of which are at risk of disappearing from nature. And there are also records of invertebrate animals, caves and archaeological and paleontological remains.
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“The data shows what communities have been doing there in those territories. The overlap of the APA only reinforces the sense that it is a very preserved and protected area, and that this comes from long before it was a Conservation Unit”, points out Pasinato.
In moments of dialogue, quilombola leaders used speech to express their concern not only with their territories, but also with what is done outside them and poses a threat to their communities.
“We preserve it, but there are many producers abroad who do not follow environmental standards. Aerial spraying is a big problem in some territories that are close to these large plantations, for example”, recalls Mr. Ivo Santos Rosa, leader of Quilombo Sapatu.
“And then there is mining, which is something that scares us a lot because it brings a lot of contamination, especially to the waters. We are afraid of what could happen in the future to our children”, pondered Mr. Adair Soares, coordinator of the Quilombo Nhunguara association.
Afraid of the advance of mining companies in the region, Mr. Aurico Dias, from Quilombo São Pedro, says he believes that Zoning, a stage in the APA management plan that will come after Characterization, can be another instrument for strengthening and protecting their territories. “The way things happen, we have to have something to help stop these companies, a document to support us. So I think this work can be very important for that.”
APA opens a channel between communities and the State, but it was the last outlet for quilombolas At the end of the activities, communities unite the territories to form a map of the APA of Quilombos|Taynara Borges/ISA Seminar ended with the presence of quilombola leaders, the Fundação Florestal and the Socioenvironmental Institute|Taynara Borges/ISA
APA manager, technician at Fundação Florestal, Rodrigo Aguiar says he believes that the fact that the Environmental Protection Area is one of the least restrictive categories among the Conservation Units, added to the possibility of technical support that should be included in the final version of the Plan document of Management, will move the economy of socio-biodiversity in the 13 zoned quilombola territories.
“This APA is the result of the recategorization of the former Jacupiranga State Park, which was a territory of 150 thousand hectares where more than 10 thousand families lived. But in 2008, the Jacupiranga Conservation Units Mosaic (Mojac) was created, with 14 Conservation Units of different categories. Therefore, I believe that the biggest gain was the rapprochement we have been building with the communities since then. Therefore, we will seek to manage the territory in a way that reconciles human occupation, production and biodiversity, promoting sustainable development activities, which is what communities already carry out”, says Aguiar.
Coordinator of the Management Plan Center of the Fundação Florestal, Fernanda Lemes concluded the activity by evaluating that the Fundação Florestal achieved the expected objective of promoting dialogue with communities for the construction of the APA Management Plan, the update of which will still be presented to the quilombolas.
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Lemes also commented on the point of unanimous attention among communities regarding the conflicts that exist in the territories with the State, especially in the unfriendly treatment and approach of inspection entities on their lands. “From the moment we created a Management Plan integration committee that involves several institutions, not only the Fundação Florestal, but Cetesb, research institutes, the CFB itself, I think it demonstrates this institutional integration. And then, as we identify problems and conflicts, our role is to try to minimize, propose actions that we can accept and resolve.”
ISA’s legal advisor, Fernando Prioste, recalls, however, that although there have been attempts at rapprochement, the institution of the APA in overlapping the territories that have already been occupied by communities historically, for more than 300 years, is another page of the institutional racism of our country. history.
“The State recognizes that these areas are preserved and establishes Conservation Units without the communities really wanting them. They accepted the APA because the park that existed previously restricted land use much more. But that doesn’t mean they are satisfied. And, in the end, what has already become clear is that the territories occupied by traditional communities are much more efficient for conservation than the UCs themselves”, he reinforces.
As next steps, the Fundação Florestal will include in the “Management Plan – APA Quilombos do Médio Ribeira” the work carried out during the Seminar and the demands for updating demographic data according to the 2022 Demographic Census. In parallel, each community will socialize the data obtained there and discussed with its members so that Eaacone can signal to the State the deadlines for continuing systematization activities.
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