Data presented by Conaq and produced by ISA show that, in 20 years, quilombos lost only 1,4% of their forests, or 82% less than the surrounding area
During participation in the 16th United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP 16), in Cali, Colombia, the National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (Conaq) presented data that proves the role of the territories of these traditional populations in the conservation of the biological diversity of the Amazon.
According to them, from 2003 to 2022, quilombos lost only 1,4% of their forests, or 82% less than the surrounding area, according to analysis of Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA). The conservation and regeneration of native vegetation in these areas is also greater than in private areas.
There are currently 112 quilombola territories that are located in priority areas for biodiversity conservation, according to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA).
Click here and download the material produced by ISA in partnership with Conaq
The data were presented at the debate panel “Quilombola Territories in Defense of Life and Biodiversity in the Amazon”, on the 21st, which also included the participation of ISA and the Process of Black Communities of Colombia (PCN). The event took place in the so-called “Green Zone” of the COP, where parallel civil society activities took place.
“The Amazon has forests, but the Amazon is the Amazon because traditional populations who care for and are committed to biodiversity resist and survive there,” said Valéria Carneiro, a member of the board of the Coordination of Associations of Remaining Quilombo Communities of Pará (Malungu) and the coordination of Conaq. For her, the COP 16 space is essential to expose the attacks on the biome and its traditional peoples.
“I come from a region that is being swallowed up by agribusiness and coming here is also an opportune moment to bring up the challenges that we, quilombolas from the Amazon, experience there,” he said. Carneiro is from the quilombola territory of Pau Furado, on Marajó Island (PA).
Titling guarantees more protection
According to the ISA analysis, land regularization is essential to guarantee the preservation of quilombola territories and biodiversity in the Amazon. Titled areas, that is, those with completed regularization, presented 12% more forest carbon than non-titled areas.
However, of the 506 quilombola territories with officially recognized boundaries throughout the Brazilian Amazon, only 116 are titled and 390 are in one of the stages prior to titling. The data comes from the National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (Incra), the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) and the National Rural Environmental Registry System (Sicar).
“Untitled quilombola territories still make up the majority of Brazil’s populations, and this poses a threat to biodiversity conservation. When areas of our biomes are protected by traditional management practices carried out by quilombola communities, forests, mangroves, sandbanks, riparian forests, fauna, and all biodiversity gain protection and care,” said Raquel Pasinato, technical advisor at ISA, during COP 16.
“If communities do not yet have land ownership over their territories, they are threatened by agribusiness, mining, extensive livestock farming and many other uses that threaten biodiversity, depleting natural resources and causing socio-environmental impacts on our socio-biodiversity. Therefore, title ownership means protecting it!” he emphasized.
Quilombos are still invisible
The titled quilombola territories total 8,9 km², which represents only 30% of the 28 km² of this type of protected area already officially identified in the Brazilian Amazon – 1 km² is equal to approximately 100 football fields. To give you an idea, the officially identified quilombos represent only 0,4% of this region, which totals approximately 5 million km².
It is also important to note that 79% of these territories do not have officially recognized boundaries in the Brazilian Amazon, meaning they remain invisible in official databases and are therefore prevented from benefiting from public policies and are even more vulnerable to pressures and threats, such as illegal deforestation and land theft.
“There is no quilombola population without territory, without biodiversity,” said Fran Paula, a quilombola from the Pantanal of Mato Grosso, member of the Environment and Agriculture collective of Conaq and researcher in agrobiodiversity. “It is very important that we outline strategies from the local level, to protect our forests, waters, and our traditional food systems, which are unique on the planet, to global strategies, such as participation in this COP,” she added.
Fran highlighted that the recognition of quilombola peoples for the conservation of biodiversity “is not only as subjects of rights, but of our trajectory of struggle, resistance, and social organization. There is a lot of process of articulation and mobilization of all of us who are here, but also of all the people who came before us and who fought, including, so that we could be occupying this space today at COP16”, he concluded.
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