Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro during a meeting with Amazonian governors, 27 August 2019. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors agree with Bolsonaro policies to destroy the Amazon rainforest and assimilate the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Marcos Corrêa / Agência Brasil
Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro during a meeting with Amazonian governors, 27 August 2019. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors agree with Bolsonaro policies to destroy the Amazon rainforest and assimilate the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Marcos Corrêa / Agência Brasil

By Jenny Gonzales
9 September 2019

(Mongabay) – It is not only President Jair Bolsonaro who views rainforests and indigenous people as obstacles to Brazilian economic development. Seven of the nine Amazon state governors are in line with the policies of the chief executive, as attested to at an August 27 meeting between the president and representatives of the states within Legal Amazonia.

Although the agenda set for that day was a discussion of deforestation and the Amazon fires, Bolsonaro used the meeting instead to push his development goals: abolishing Indigenous Lands (TIs) and protected areas to facilitate agribusiness and mining expansion.

Those aligned with the president include the governors of Acre, Roraima, Tocantins, Rondônia, Amazonas, Mato Grosso and Amapá states. Only Helder Barbalho, representing Pará, and Flávio Dino, of Maranhão, opposed opening more forest areas to development and favored upholding indigenous rights as they currently exist.

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest burning out of control in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state on 24 August 2019, just days before nine Amazon state governors met with Bolsonaro to discuss pkans to continue destroying the rainforest and assimilating the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace
Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest burning out of control in the municipality of Colniza, Mato Grosso state on 24 August 2019, just days before nine Amazon state governors met with Bolsonaro to discuss pkans to continue destroying the rainforest and assimilating the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace

The need for continuing the Amazon Fund — with most of its assets now frozen by Norway in protest against Bolsonaro’s policies — and the need for land regularization were the only subjects on which the nine governors seemed to agree.

Bolsonaro barely spoke of the Amazon fires, except to say that they “are below average compared to the last few years,” which is false; the last time January-to-August fire totals were higher than now was 2010, according to the administration’s own data. Bolsonaro spent more time attacking the demarcation of indigenous lands and the extent of preserved areas. […]

Opening the rainforest to mining companies is also part of the plans for Amazonas state. According to The Intercept website, last June governor Wilson Lima began negotiations with The InterAmerica Group, a Washington DC-based lobbying company, to attract US mining and agribusiness companies to the state. […]

The same day Bolsonaro met with the governors, the Brazilian House of Deputies’ Committee on Constitution and Justice (CCJ) approved a proposal for a constitutional amendment that would allow agricultural and forestry exploitation on indigenous lands. The text, which must go through a special commission and be approved by Congress, would allow indigenous communities to “be autonomous to manage their assets and the selling of production.” [more]

State governors support Bolsonaro’s Amazon mining, agribusiness plans