Incra, the federal agency responsible for land reform, has decided to reduce the area of a settlement created 22 years ago in Pará to make way for mining. The project, designed to be the largest gold exploration company in the country, targets the banks of the Xingu River, just below the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam, an area that already suffers from the plant’s water control. .
oh state discovered that a contract had just been signed between Incra and the Canadian Belo Sun, which for a decade traded shares on the Toronto Stock Exchange promising to turn its “Volta Grande Project” into a surface mining company of ‘a billion dollars.
Incra has agreed to reduce an area of 2,428 hectares, cutting off the territory of the colony of Ressaca and Ituna gleba, where around 600 families live, in the region of the municipality of Senador José Porfírio (PA). In exchange, he will receive a farm more than 1,500 kilometers away, in Luciara (MT), on the banks of the Araguaia.
The agreement provides for the transfer to Incra of the Ricaville farm, with 1,898 hectares. The negotiation also determines that Belo Sun buys, for Incra, two 4×4 traction double cab vans, ten laptops, ten tablets, four scanners and four “RTK” type GPS devices.
The decision surprised residents, associations and researchers who are following the gold mining project at the foot of Belo Monte, a factory which has been the target of changes imposed by Ibama due to its socio-environmental impact.
‘Dazed’
“My father has 100 hectares of land in this area that they want to reduce. No one has argued with me or my father. Incra said they would hand over our final document and they never did. I grew up here in Ressaca “, he told the state Idglan da Silva, who has lived with his father, José Pereira Cunha, in Vila Ressaca since 1996. “It’s a horrible situation, we are stunned. We cannot sleep at night. No one said what was going to happen to us . “
Incra established the settlement of Ressaca in 1999. At the time, what was in the region was nothing more than requests for mineral exploration. Nothing prevented the creation of the colony.
The Canadian Belo Sun registered with the Internal Revenue Service in July 2007, when he bought a company called Verena and resumed research in the area. With its reports approved between 2010 and 2012, it has since requested the environmental authorization of the project, currently under the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment of Pará, despite all the environmental impacts that it can cause in synergy with the plant of Belo Monte, a federal project under IBAMA license.
Even before the deal, Belo Sun bought at least 21 lots from settlers, according to researcher Elielson Pereira da Silva, a doctor of science and social and environmental development at the Federal University of Pará. “The practice is irregular and illegal. be sold, “recalled Silva, who also criticized Incra:” What is proposed in the agreement is the opposite of carrying out land reform.
repercussion
In view of the information revealed by the state, the Federal Public Defender’s Office announced yesterday that it would seize the Federal Court to request the annulment of the contract. “It is clear that this contract is null and void and must be canceled. We will sue the Federal Court of Altamira (PA)”, he told state the regional human rights defender in Pará, Elisângela Machado Côrtes.
Belo Sun has been negotiating with Incra for years
Negotiations between the mining company Belo Sun and Incra for an area of Pará had already been going on for several years, the federal agency revealed. Incra also said it accepted a farm in Mato Grosso for failing to find legal land to acquire in the settler region.
Throughout 2017, the company offered three zones in compensation, two in the surrounding area and one in Pacajá (PA), all of which were abandoned. Finally, the Ferme Ricaville, in Luciara (MT), was offered. “The area was inspected by a technical team from Incra, who indicated the feasibility of establishing a colony,” Incra said.
Asked about the distance, Incra declared that “Incra’s agrarian reform policy is a national action”. Regarding the illegal negotiation of lots, INCRA declared that “in the event of the transfer of areas from the National Agrarian Reform Program (PNRA) by settlers, without the agreement of INCRA, an administrative offense can be set up, with application of the internal regulations ”.
“Discussion overcome”
Belo Sun said the mining exploration concessions and the establishment of the settlement “occurred at different times, but the importance of the agreement goes beyond this discussion as conditions are set for the use of the area. of Incra “, through payments for the use of the and” compensatory measures to the land reform program “. The company did not comment on the acquisition of lots during negotiations with the settlers. A B
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