Avoided Deforestation (REDD) and Indigenous ... - Amazon Fund

is a legal obligation and there is no additionality whatsoever by the State. Along these lines,
Article 29 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples affirms that,
“indigenous peoples have the right to environmental conservation and protection and to the
productive capacity of their lands or territories and resources. The States shall establish and
execute assistance programs for indigenous peoples to secure this conservation and protection,
without any type of discrimination.”
Thus, by enforcing its obligation to oversee the environment, neither the municipalities,
federal states or the Union are granted rights to the natural resources found there – nor to the
activities and products, as in the case of carbon credits or other benefits. Additionally, the lack of
resources and the absence of joint and integrated efforts by the public authority compromise the
satisfactory execution of supervision and protection activities for indigenous lands by the State.
The Brazilian Federal Court of Auditors (TCU) verified during an operational audit that
Funai does not have enough police power to control illegal activities on indigenous lands. Such
power has not yet been regulated and it is currently the state or federal police who exercise said
power, depending on the circumstances. According to the TCU, the lack of articulation among the
various institutions responsible for environmental monitoring on indigenous lands and the lack
of resources for this purpose limit the fulfilment of their duties with irreversible consequences to
indigenous peoples: “7.12 (...) the exercise of protecting indigenous lands carried out by the main
responsible institutions (Funai, DPF and Ibama) amasses the operational deficiencies of each agency
together with the difficulty of working in an articulated manner; and 7.13. (…) Predatory actions
have occurred for decades, with damaging and irreversible consequences to the communities.
Failure to provide assistance to communities is also indicated as a cause of the invasions.” 36
For this reason, due to indigenous peoples’ desire to protect their lands as a way of
preserving their cultures and livelihoods, indigenous peoples frequently take on the responsibility of
environmental protection tasks through their own organizations, with support from civil society entities
and sometimes with some backing from the State. On some indigenous lands in Brazil, the indigenous
peoples themselves are responsible for the direct supervision of their territories, contributing human
and financial resources to an undertaking that is actually the State’s responsibility.
In the Indigenous Park of Xingu, for example, indigenous peoples organized into
associations like the Xingu Indigenous Land Association (Atix) have been developing partnerships
with Funai and other organizations with the objective of developing a model for the protection,
36 TCU Judgment, 1226/2008 – Plenary, DOU June 30, 2008.
94 Av o i d e d d e f o re s t A t i o n (redd) A n d i n d i g e n o u s p e o p l e s: experiences, chAllenges A n d o p p o r t u n i t i e s in t h e A m A zo n c o n t e x t