March 18, 2022

20:03

Marcela Leiros – from Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – During the first day of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Governors’ Climate and Forests Task Force (GCF Task Force), this Thursday, 17, in Manaus (AM), the State government delivered 13 Concessions of Real Right of Use (CDRUs) to representatives of Amazonas’ Conservation Units.

The documents guarantee, among other things, the land regularization of communities, the proof of rural activities and other activities such as family agriculture, tourism, fishing and extractivism for social security purposes.

“This document, which gives the right to use the land and has no set time limit, has no deadline, and the families can pass it on to their descendants. These are important advances we are having in the State of Amazonas,” said Wilson Lima at the event.

The CDRUs will benefit more than 7,300 families, about 31,900 people who live in Conservation Units. One of these people is José Melo de Araújo, president of the Association of Residents and Surroundings of the Piagaçu-Purus Sustainable Development Reserve (Amepp). The reserve is home to indigenous and non-indigenous communities, and about 80% of the community members survive on fishing.

To CENARIUM, Melo spoke of his relief at having documents in hand that prove the rights of the reserve’s residents over the land. “We have a lot of problems with invaders, people who want to exploit, and we had no way of saying we owned it. This is an instrument of protection against invaders. Today, we have the document in our hands and can work in the land area of the Piagaçu-Purus residents. It’s like a voucher, we can prove that we live there and use that area”, said Amepp’s president.

Another representative that received the CDRUs was the president of the Association of Residents and Friends of the Juma Sustainable Development Reserve (Amarjuma), Eudiana Moreira da Silva. She explains that in the reserve there are more than 47 communities, with 600 families, which will have the right over their lands and will be able to get even social benefits after 20 years of struggle.

“For 20 years we have been fighting for this document to give support to our community members. We work with 47 communities and this document will give them ownership, in terms of a concession of the actual use of the land, so that they [the community members] can get a pension from the INSS, and receive maternity benefits. This is of great relevance to us”.

“GFC Task Force”

The GFC Task Force gathered, on the morning of the first day of the event, leaders from more than ten countries at the Vasco Vasques Convention Center, in the Center-South Zone of Manaus. On the occasion, the governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, also launched the “Guardians of the Forest” program, a restructuring of the former Bolsa Floresta.

The objective of the program is to reward traditional populations that make a formal commitment to zero illegal deforestation and to participate in activities that promote the conservation and sustainability of ecosystems. The initiative imposes itself as the largest system of Payments for Environmental Services (PES) in the world.

Read also: ‘Guardians of the Forest’: AM Governor launches program that will benefit 14 thousand families in environmental reserves

“Today, we are launching a very important program. The largest environmental services program on the planet, which will benefit families living in Sustainable Development Reserves. Families that are managing chelonians, pirarucu, that live off the forest resources, and produce resources in a conscious way”, said Wilson Lima.

The main new features of the program are: an increase in the value of the scholarship by 100%, from R$50 to R$100; an increase in the number of families benefited from 9,400 to 14,150 beneficiaries; and besides the 16 Conservation Units (UCs) benefited, the program will also serve riverine, traditional, and indigenous communities from 28 UCs and surrounding areas.