Da demarcação e manutenção de terras indígenas como meio eficaz para a proteção do meio ambiente e de culturas tradicionais singulares

Abstract

Brazil, known for its unique biological diversity and for occupying nearly half of South America, holds the most species worldwide. The protection of indigenous peoples and their traditions is stated by the Brazilian Constitution, which also assigns to the State the responsibility to safeguard indigenous lands for productive activities and those essential to the preservation of natural resources. The central question of this thesis is: how can the effectiveness and efficacy of indigenous lands be analyzed compared to other types of environmental reserves necessary for the protection and preservation of the environment? Adopting the premise that indigenous lands are as effective in environmental protection as other reserves, it examines national and international normative instruments for the protection of indigenous peoples and the environment, investigates the current situation of indigenous lands in Brazil, and evaluates methods for verifying the effectiveness of these lands in protecting the environment, with special emphasis on methods used in multidisciplinary studies of complementary areas. Using the inductive method, it seeks to arrive at a general truth based on empirical observations. The studies and methods presented demonstrate that indigenous lands can be as effective or even more so in environmental protection compared to other biological reserves. For instance, the research drawn from contributions of different areas of knowledge supports, among other points, that the loss of conservation units and indigenous lands influence the provision of ecosystem or environmental services, and some impact studies suggest that the demarcation and protection of indigenous lands play a role in containing the advance of the development frontier, both through the direct action of indigenous populations in local conflicts, and through the protection ensured by demarcation. The analysis of the results allows not only to conclude the undeniable responsibility of Brazil to protect its biodiversity, but also to highlight the need for a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, capable of encompassing the complexity of interactions between indigenous peoples, their lands, and the environment. Such an approach is crucial to deeply understand and develop effective solutions for the conservation of Brazilian biodiversity and to analyze more accurately the potential contributions of the demarcation and maintenance of indigenous lands as an effective means for the protection of the environment and unique traditional cultures.