President defined institution of the National Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management Policy as “payment of historical debt that white supremacy built in this country”
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed this Monday (20/11), Black Consciousness Day, at the “Brazil for Racial Equality” event, the Decree 11.786 / 2023, which establishes the National Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management Policy (PNGTAQ).
The policy will contribute to the conservation of socio-biodiversity, the protection of cultural heritage, the promotion of public policies and the guarantee of territorial and environmental rights of quilombola communities. It makes up a package of 13 measures promoted by the Federal Government to celebrate the date, which is a historic milestone of black resistance in Brazil.
Among the measures are national programs, titling of quilombola territories, exchange grants, cooperation agreements, interministerial working groups, and other initiatives that guarantee or expand the right to life, inclusion, memory, land and reparation.
“What we have done here today is the payment of a historic debt, which white supremacy has built in this country since this country was discovered, and which we just want to restore to what is the reality of a democratic society,” stated the president.
Quilombola National Territorial and Environmental Management Policy
Structured into five axes (territorial integrity, uses, management and environmental conservation; sustainable production and income generation, food sovereignty and nutritional security; ancestry, identity and cultural heritage; education and training focused on territorial and environmental management and social organization for management territorial and environmental), PNGTAQ has a budget forecast of more than R$20 million.
The policy aims to promote territorial and environmental management practices developed by quilombola communities, act to guarantee the territorial and environmental rights of these communities, favor the implementation of public policies in an integrated manner, protect material and intangible cultural heritage, conserve biodiversity and promote its sustainable use, and also promote improved quality of life and climate justice.
“We have been fighting for this policy since 2013 and we are making a dream come true,” said national articulation coordinator Biko Rodrigues, from the National Coordination of Quilombola Black Rural Communities (Conaq).
“Although we know that the government is in a process of restructuring, it is worth remembering that a good part of the announced policy was already stranded over the [last] six years and that today [20/11] the gates were opened for these policies to get off the ground”, recalls Rodrigues.
According to the Ministry of Racial Equality (MIR), the first PNGTAQ actions will take place in the Ethnic Territory of Alcântara in Maranhão, in the territories of Vidal Martins, in Santa Catarina and Rio dos Macacos, in Bahia. “These are territories in which we already have a MIR budget planned for the implementation of Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management Plans in 2024. In addition to them, other territories titled in 2023 are priorities for service at PNGTAQ, such as, for example, Brejo dos Crioulos (MG) .
Construction of PNGTAQ
The National Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management Policy emerged from a demand from Conaq and went through a ten-year collective construction process, with representatives from quilombola communities, the government and partnerships.
The action began in 2015 with a first cycle of activities led by a partnership between the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and the Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR), through an Interministerial Working Group within the scope of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) of Traditional Peoples and Communities (PCT).
As a result, SEPPIR, MMA, Conaq and representatives of quilombola communities from 15 territories prepared a set of preliminary guidelines for formulating the policy. The objective of the workshops was to collect the territorial management experiences that quilombola communities already have in their territories.
“We already manage our territory based on our way of being and doing. We know our territory and with this we discuss the parts that we have to leave preserved, which are our sacred spaces, where we can create gardens. We know where everyone's space is, we know where the springs are, the river headwaters, when to plant crops, when to harvest. We do this whole process naturally, this is the way we manage the territory, which is why the National Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management Policy is important, to strengthen this self-management that is already taking place”, explains Célia Pinto, executive coordinator of Conaq.
After the first cycle of workshops, the Territorial Environmental Management Working Group (GT GAT) was established, with the purpose of creating a specific space to consolidate this agenda. In 2017, the MMA launched a public notice to promote the second cycle of training and informational workshops. The organizations selected to collaborate with the technical execution were ISA and Negra Anastácia.
The following year, seven regional and two national workshops were held involving 170 quilombola communities from all over Brazil, in order to improve and validate the guidelines, objectives and instruments for Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management.
With the change of government, between 2019 and 2022, the policy was paralyzed with the dismantling of environmental and social agencies and the federal government's lack of interest in implementing this agenda. This year, with the resumption of the Lula government and the establishment of the Ministry of Racial Equality (MIR), PNGTAQ once again became a priority and became a strategic line within the Aquilomba Brasil program.
“After MIR created this, he created a working group within the Aquilomba Brazil to discuss what the process of resuming quilombola environmental territorial management would be like and invited Conaq, which has always led this process, and also the [Instituto Socioambiental] ISA. In this GT, it was decided to hold two workshops, which took place in August and September”, says Raquel Pasinato, technical advisor at ISA.
“The first activity, in August, was with a smaller group of 15 quilombola leaders, with the government and partners to analyze everything that had already been done, understand the administrative procedures and make referrals. From this first workshop, a working subgroup emerged to draft everything that had already been produced in the format of a decree. In the second workshop, the quilombola movement brought 50 leaders, plus government representatives and partners to validate and make adjustments to the proposed decree. It was a very important moment for the communities to discuss who would make up the policy management committee, which ministries and how Conaq would act”, he reports.
Member of the Conaq Environmental Collective, Francisco Chagas evaluates the importance of the preparation of the PNGTAQ by Conaq as “immeasurable”. “The quilombola movement in Brazil took a stand. It pointed out paths not just for a project structure, but for a policy structure, and this is historic. We want the policy to be implemented with the quilombola communities and also within the legal process, within the rights that the communities have, because the colonization process devastated this right and the Brazilian State owes this debt to us.”
Evaluations of the decree
Célia Pinto, who was active since the beginning of the draft drafting process, celebrates the institution of the policy, but highlights some points of observation.
“We had great moments of debate and in recent months we focused on this elaboration, although some things we had put forward, mainly in relation to Conaq's participation in this process, were removed”.
The original idea was that Conaq, which has always acted actively, both on technical and political issues in the fight for rights and public policies aimed at quilombolas, would nominally join the Management Committee. What did not happen.
No Decree the following representations were published in article 17: a representative of the Ministry of Culture; a representative from the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Family Farming; a representative from the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight Against Hunger; a representative from the Ministry of Education; a representative from the Ministry of Racial Equality; a representative from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change; a representative of quilombola organizations from each of the country's geographic regions and a representative of a quilombola entity operating nationwide.
According to the MIR, “as of November 20th, ministers Anielle Franco and Marina Silva, together with minister Paulo Teixeira, must publish within ninety days a separate act establishing criteria and procedures for defining the quilombola organizations that will make up the Steering Committee”.
“But we understand the importance [of the decree] and are very happy with Conaq’s leading role in drafting this policy for quilombola communities throughout Brazil, which will certainly serve as a reference for rural Afro-Brazilian peoples in other countries,” celebrates Célia Pinto, executive coordinator of Conaq.
Pasinato also celebrates the construction of politics by the quilombola movement in the central figure of Conaq, “after all, in Brazil, it is not every day that public policy is made for the quilombola population. We are still in our infancy in the necessary historical repair.”
“However, the decree underwent changes when it began to be operated through internal government procedures. There were, for example, cuts in management instruments associated with environmental legislation, which could solve historical regulatory bottlenecks for traditional quilombola uses. A shame, but PNGTAQ in itself is an instrument that, with funding, will certainly show Brazil the power of management and management that quilombola territories play and their role in conserving socio-biodiversity and tackling the climate emergency”, assesses the technical advisor .
“Another thing too, which we are still going to debate a lot is the question of action, which quilombola territories this policy will reach. This is a debate that we will still have to have with the government. There is a prerogative in the decree that those communities that already have their Technical Identification and Delimitation Reports (RTIDs)* published. Our desire is for it to reach all quilombola territories. But this is a debate, we will negotiate, discuss and improve”, highlights Célia.
*RTID is the Technical Identification and Delimitation Report. This report brings together all Incra technical pieces that support the proposal for titling the territories
“Now it’s time to monitor and monitor all developments, because it’s not enough to just have a decree, it’s not enough to have it on paper. More important than being on paper is practice and implementation. So we are going to do this, we are going to monitor it so that it is not just another policy”, says Célia Pinto.
“PNGTAQ is a policy for all quilombola communities in Brazil. The restriction is only for actions within the Policy that involve real rights over territories. In other words, actions involving possession and ownership of land are restricted to territories with determined limits. In these cases, the publication of the RTID becomes a fundamental component”, stated, in a note, the Ministry of Racial Equality.
Secretary of Policies for Quilombolas, Peoples and Traditional Communities of African Origin and Gypsies at MIR, Ronaldo dos Santos explains that “there are GTAQ actions that are not perennial, therefore they do not characterize a violation of the right to property, such as the establishment of a vegetable garden, for example. Others have greater implications, such as works and construction. In this case, RTID is understood as the instrument that provides a better basis for the use of spaces”.
Actions for quilombos
“It is with great pride and a sense of responsibility that we celebrate this first black November in which Brazil has a Ministry of Racial Equality, as a tool to guarantee the historical continuity of public policies so that they are increasingly better and reach those who need it most” , said the Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, during the Black Awareness Day ceremony, at Palácio do Planalto.
Together with Lula and other authorities, such as the president of Incra, César Audrighi, and the minister of Agrarian Development and Family Agriculture, Paulo Teixeira, Franco announced the federal title of two quilombos, one on the Island of São Vicente, in Araguatins (TO) , and the other in Lagoa dos Campinhos, in Amparo do São Francisco (SE).
State titles were also awarded to the Association of Residents of Povoado Malhada dos Pretos, in Peri Mirim (MA); Association of Residents of Povoado Santa Cruz, in Peri Mirim (MA) and Association of the Black Community of Quilombola Rural Workers of Deus bem Sabe, in Serrano do Maranhão (MA), in addition to a decree declaring the social interest of the quilombola territory Lagoa das Piranhas, Bom Jesus da Lapa (BA). The decree marks the resumption of the policy of titling quilombola territories in the State.
Although these deliveries were announced as titles, Milene Maia, coordinator of ISA's Socio-Environmental Policy and Law Program, explains that, technically, the announcement for Araguatins (TO) corresponds to another legal instrument, called Real Right of Use Concession Agreement (CCDRU). The process of titling quilombos is long and involves several stages, with definitive titling being the last of them.
“The Island of São Vicente (TO) actually received a CCDRU, which means that the public administration grants use to traditional communities. However, it is not a definitive title to the territory, as established in ADCT 68 of the Federal Constitution. Therefore, it is a fragile legal instrument.”
The minister announced the investment of R$5 million for quilombola communities in the territory of Alcântara (MA). The investment is part of a partnership with the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Maranhão (IFMA). The resource will be used to strengthen its production systems using a method patented by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa), through the integration of several activities, such as raising chickens and fish, composting and vermicomposting and horticulture.
A photovoltaic plant will also be installed for energy autonomy and will allow communities to request payment for environmental services.
In her speech, Anielle also recalled the death of her mother Bernadete and quilombola leaders who were murdered in recent times.
“What mother Bernadete’s trajectory teaches us is that protecting the quilombola population means protecting our past, our present and our future. And also to her, for all her struggle, we need to ensure that the right to land is not a threat to the right to life.”
Conaq coordinator, Biko Rodrigues, also demanded greater effort from the Brazilian state in the process of progress towards regularization of quilombola territories. “Regularized territories save lives and do not place our leaders in threatening situations.”
“Owning quilombola territory is a guarantee of rights. We can no longer accept so many deaths, so much violence suffered for defending our territories. Territories need to have dignity”, said Sandra Braga, executive coordinator of Conaq.