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The Attorney General of the Union (AGU) obtained, in the Federal Court of Amazonas, an injunction that prevents the continuity of degradation and charges the environmental reparation caused by illegal mineral exploitation in the Indigenous Land (IT) of the Black Igarape in Amazonas. The court understood that the adoption of precautionary measures is necessary to stop the aggravation of environmental damage, inhibit other harmful practices to the environment in the same area, as well as to ensure its future recovery.
Pressure on indigenous people
The Federal Regional Attorneys Office of the 1st Region (PRF1), through the performance of the Environmental Matter Center, representing the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), filed a Public Civil Action (ACP) charging civil liability for environmental damages resulting from illegal mining and deforestation of 1,210 hectares within IT. The illicit activities would have been authorized by local chiefs, who received percentage of production, according to reports of indigenous people present at the site during the enforcement of the environmental authority.
In the action, the federal prosecutors clarified that the Indigenous Land has the black stream, located in the municipality of Novo Aripuana (AM), houses three peoples: isolated from the black stream, isolates Kaiduwa and Terim.
According to the ACP, the indigenous have been suffering great pressure from the mining. During environmental inspection, carried out under Operation Wara II, fully degraded minored areas and sterile land were found. The nearby water courses were diverted so that the original bed could be mined, extinguishing the existence of any possible form of aquatic life. At the scene, hydraulic excavators, heavy machinery, motorcycles, hoses, hoses, and other equipment used in panning were also found.
Given this, he was issued by infringement, for illegal mineral extraction and by preventing the natural regeneration of forest in specially protected area, with a fine of R 6,050,000.00 to each of the offenders - the two chiefs and the occupant of the property. The deforested area was also embargoed without environmental authorization. According to inspections, although the area remains embargoed, it is still illegally exploited, which shows the current damage and the breach of administrative measures.
Measures
In addition to environmental reparation, the AGU claimed, outright, the ban on defendants exploit the deforested area, the suspension of tax financing and incentives and the decree of the unavailability of movable and immovable property of the defendants in the amount of R 18.5 million, referring to the cost of repairing fresh damage and collective moral damage.
Federal prosecutors argued that the responsibility for environmental damage is objective in nature, being the obligation of the current offender or anterior to adopt the necessary measures for environmental regeneration, aiming to protect the entire community, in compliance with the polluter-payer principle.
In the action, the AGU claimed to be undoubtedly the severity of environmental damage, especially considering that it is indigenous land, which would justify the maintenance of the embargo imposed by Ibama, aiming to stop a real and immediate danger of damage to the right to repair the degraded area, preventing the defendants even more than the illegal act practiced.
Decision
The court of the 7th Federal Court of the Judicial Section of Amazonas recognized the risk and granted the urgent relief to prevent the degradation. As AGU proved that the defendants were breaking the administrative embargo of the deforested area, continuing to explore the embargoed area, the magistrate decreed the ban on the defendants to explore the region, because the controversial illicit deforestation and the persistent breach of area embargoes would result in significant environmental damage, circumstances that reveal that offenders are not shy about environmental inspection.
According to federal prosecutor Rafael Maia Montenegro de Araujo, substitute coordinator of the Environment Center of the Final Matter Team of the 1st Region PRF, the decision represents an important milestone in the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the rights of indigenous peoples. AGUs action and the response of justice represent the commitment of the Brazilian State to environmental preservation and the integrity of traditional territories. The result is the result of intense work coordinated between PGF and IBAMA bodies, which acted in the identification, supervision and documentation of serious environmental infractions, he said. The 1st Region PRF is a unit of the Federal Attorney General, agency of AGU.
Reference Process: Public Civil Action No. 1016500-64.2020.4.01.3200-Judicial Section of Amazonas
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