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The far right-wing government of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil has used the COVID-19 pandemic as a smokescreen to undo environmental regulations and undermine the territorial rights of Indigenous Peoples and traditional Afro-Brazilian communities in the Amazon.

The strategy of the Bolsonaro’s government and its allies in congress is very clear: to take 9.8 million hectares from Indigenous and traditional territories in the Amazon to seize more land for agribusiness.

These actions pose an existential threat to Indigenous Peoples and others living in communities in the Amazon, as the new policies would effectively disintegrate their territories and lead to more deforestation in the coming years.

Turning crime into legal activities

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro’s government has ushered in a rapid process of dismantling of policies that protect Indigenous and traditional communities. There are 305 Indigenous groups in Brazil and .

On April 22, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), the Brazilian government agency that oversees policies relating to Indigenous peoples, introduced that would encourage land-grabbing of undemarcated Indigenous lands.

On May 12, the so-called “ruralist bench,” a group of wealthy landholders with an important presence in congress, failed to approve a measure () that would have legalized the occupation of Indigenous lands by land-grabbers, usually for the purpose of deforestation, agribusiness or mining.

This temporary victory, the , was overshadowed by the presentation of another proposed bill, with the same intentions, on May 14.

FUNAI and the secretary of land affairs are controlled by two representatives from the ruralist bench. agrarian reform and the demarcation of Indigenous lands. They also have acknowledged to undo environmental and Indigenous protections, and are aligned with Bolsonaro who said, “.”

Environment Minister , when he advised Bolsonaro and his cabinet to take advantage of the media’s attention on COVID-19. He argued COVID-19 was an opportunity to “run the cattle herd” through the Amazon, and change “all the rules and simplifying standards” in all the ministries to facilitate agribusiness and mining projects.

Quilombola Afro-Brazilian territories at risk

These measures will also have devastating impacts on the 3,658 territories that are home to Quilombola, descendants of escaped slaves. of them have been fully titled.

The plight of the Quilombola under Bolsonaro’s government has received little press. Land conflicts that involved some form of violence, caused by alleged landowners and/or land-grabbers, peaked in 2019. According to data from the , 13,687 Quilombola families were involved in land conflicts and the lives of 15 leaders were threatened in that year alone. This was the highest number of land conflicts recorded by the commission since 1985.

shows how the Quilombola community of Nova Betel in the municipality of Tomé-Açu, in the Amazonian state of Pará — as well as territories that are not yet demarcated and fully recognized by the Brazilian state — could disappear under Bolsonaro’s government.

Nova Betel contains 1,850 hectares of land, certified in 2016 by Fundação Cultural Palmares (FCP) — the first (and easiest) step on the long path to collective land rights. Despite this, deforestation and land-grabbing have accelerated in Nova Betel since 2007. For example, , owned by Vale, one of the world’s largest mining companies, has planted palm oil trees in .

Other projects also threaten to take land from the Quilombola community. A , power and even a cut through their territory. Each of these initiatives pushes the Quilombola members towards selling their lands.

Our interviews in May with Quilombola leaders in Nova Betel revealed how employees of the pressured eight families to allow a power line to cross through their territory. ETEP offered each family about US$580 as financial compensation, but they refused.

Not only did ETEP violate the Quilombola right to self-determination and prior consultation as enshrined in the International Labour Organization’s , but it also breached the health protocols introduced by the community during the pandemic, putting at risk the health of isolated and vulnerable Quilombola families.

Quilombola lives matter

The together with the COVID-19 pandemic wreaks havoc on Quilombola communities in the Amazon. According to the COVID-19 , a joint initiative of the National Organization for the Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (CONAQ) and the Socio-Environmental Institute, an independent non-profit civil society organization, the mortality rate among Quilombola is 25.1 per cent, the highest among all social groups within Brazil.

In the states of Pará and Amapá, Quilombola account for 54.9 per cent of COVID-19-verified deaths. The inequality in the fight against COVID-19 caused by historic dynamics of institutional racism will have a devastating impact on Quilombola people if the disease maintains this rate of spread and lethality.

Taking inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, CONAQ launched on May 12 the campaign (Quilombola Lives Matter) to condemn the racism against Afro-Brazilians.

Bolsonaro’s government, however, has refused to take urgent measures to safeguard the lives of Quilombola during COVID-19 and to provide protection to their land rights.

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, Doutorando, Desenvolvimento Socioambiental, and , Assistant Professor, Global Development Studies, .

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