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Text updated on 25/4/2025 at 20:47.

The National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Conaq) announced, this Thursday (24), its departure from the Quilombola Board of the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra). In video posted on Instagram, the executive coordinator of Conaq Maria Rosalina announced the decision accompanied by a group of quilombola leaders and said that “there is no table for dialogue if those who have the pen in their hands do not participate”. 

The decision came after the absence of the presidency of the authority at the meeting held on Thursday. According to Conaq, the absence reflects the lack of commitment and progress on the issues previously presented by the movement. 

Em note published on its website, Conaq stated that it is open to dialogue and requested an agenda with the President of the Republic, the Minister of Agrarian Development, Paulo Teixeira, and other ministries involved in the quilombola agenda. “The complexity and seriousness of the issues faced by the quilombos demand the effective and committed participation of other ministries and federal agencies, with decision-making power and the capacity to establish and fulfill concrete commitments,” it points out. 

“According to data from Terra de Direitos, 'at the current pace, Brazil will take 2.188 years to title all quilombola territories with processes at Incra'. In view of the above, and considering the structural slowness in the titling of quilombola territories, CONAQ demands dialogue with the institutions and authorities responsible for the protection of our territories, as provided for in extensive national and international legislation – such as article 68 of the Act of Transitional Constitutional Provisions (ADCT), Decree No. 4.887/2003 and ILO Convention No. 169”, says the note. 

Created in 2013, the Mesa Quilombola aims to enforce and guarantee rights, such as the recognition and titling of territories. The body brings together representatives of the quilombola movement, partner organizations and public agencies to discuss and propose solutions to the challenges faced by the communities. The mesa was suspended in 2017, during the Temer government, and was only resumed six years later, in 2024. 

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The meeting was scheduled and several quilombola leaders from different states traveled from their territories to be present and discuss urgent demands. However, the president of INCRA, César Aldrighi, did not attend and sent his vice president, Débora Mabel Nogueira, who left before the meeting ended, leaving the meeting without any progress being made. 

“This is the 18th meeting that we have come to express our regrets to ourselves, because those who truly have the power of the pen are not present so as not to commit to the quilombola cause,” explained Rosalina in the video. 

This is not the first time that Conaq has withdrawn from the Quilombola Board. In 2015, during the 9th National Board of Quilombola Land Regularization Policy, the entity also left the meeting, justifying INCRA's disregard for the agenda. Despite criticism of the agency, the situation repeated itself. 

"Since 2023, Incra has based its actions on dialogue and respect for the autonomy of social movements. The National Monitoring Board for Quilombola Land Regularization Policy is an achievement for society. Its activities were resumed after being suspended between 2017 and 2022," says the agency in a note sent to the reporters of Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA). "The Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming and Incra are available to continue the dialogue and planning of actions that strengthen the quilombola policy in the country," the text continues.

"It is important to highlight that the resumption of the quilombola policy resulted in more than 735 thousand hectares identified and allocated, 32 titles delivered and 19 thousand families benefited. The Incra Directorate of Quilombola Territories was created - unprecedented in the history of Brazil. In 2024, we had the highest number of decrees of social interest for quilombola territories per year in history: 31", informs the document. 

Titling in Pará

Also on Thursday, the Coordination of Associations of Remaining Quilombo Communities of Pará (Malungu) also published a rejection note against the stagnation of the titling of quilombola lands in Pará. The organization denounces that Incra has not titled quilombola communities in Pará since 2018, when the last one occurred, in the municipality of Bujaru. Malungu brings together 31 quilombola organizations. 

“Until regularization is completed, quilombola areas remain vulnerable to invasion by farmers, miners and squatters, in addition to the advancement of large projects. Thousands of quilombola families in Pará continue to fight for the realization of the right guaranteed by the Federal Constitution: the regularization of their collective lands,” the note states. In addition, Malungu points out the lack of capacity of the agency, which does not have enough staff to handle the number of open titling processes. 

“At the INCRA Superintendence in Santarém, for more than three years, only one employee has been responsible for forwarding 19 procedures for the titling of Quilombola Lands, 84% of which were opened more than 18 years ago. [...] At the INCRA Superintendence in Belém, 53 procedures are being processed, and of these, 29 are in the initial phase, without the land agency going to the field. Among these, there are procedures that began in 2005,” the document states.  

Malungu demands the dismissal of the current superintendent of INCRA in Santarém, José Maria de Sousa Melo, and the immediate structuring of the Quilombola Division within the same superintendence. It also demands immediate action to speed up the process of preparing the Technical Identification and Delimitation Report (RTID) at the Belém Superintendence. It also demands urgent measures to update the List of Beneficiaries of quilombola territories throughout the state of Pará.