- Quilombos, rural settlements and environmental protection areas will be impacted by a new rail and port project in Brazil, according to Quilombola residents and a coalition of civil society organizations.
- They say the company did not consult all affected communities who depend on a wetland for fishing and called into question the validity of its environmental license.
- While some residents reject the project, the plans were approved by an association of residents of the rural Black Quilombola community in Cajual Island following promises of new housing, school and health centre, as well as 6% of profits.
- The project aims to transport iron ore extracted from Pará’s Carajás mine to China and European countries, as well as food and other commodities.
Plans to construct a sprawling port and railway line in Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhão is sparking concerns among some residents and civil society groups about its potential impact on the environment and lands used by marginalized communities.
Some residents fear the construction of the Grão-Pará Maranhão (GPM) project, which includes the 1,180-hectare (2,916-acre) Alcântara Port Terminal in Alcântara city and the 520-kilometer (323-mile) Maranhão Railway (EF-317), will destroy the homes, agricultural lands and fishing areas of the local communities. While some approve of the project, others point to the project’s irregular consultation and environmental licensing process.
The company behind the GPM project, Grão-Pará Multimodal, Brazil’s Ministry of Environment, and the State Secretariat for the Environment of Maranhão (SEMA) did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of this publication.
The port will be constructed within a large mangrove wetland, the Reentrâncias Maranhenses, a protected area and Ramsar site on Brazil’s northeastern Amazonia coast. The site covers a vast area of mangroves and is home to 50% of the country’s coastal bird population, including the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica) and the whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus), as well as lush forests and babassu palm (Attalea speciosa) groves.
“The construction can end up killing all the biodiversity in the mangroves and in the flooded areas,” Gilberto Lima, the regional secretary of the Pastoral Council of Fishermen (CPP), told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “It can even kill the fish that artisanal fishers depend on. On top of that, there is the traffic of ships and other vessels.”
The port part of the project will occupy almost 90% of the Vila Nova quilombo on Cajual Island, an area located within the larger Alcântara quilombo that is home to multiple communities and descendants of African slaves who escaped in the 19th century. Vila Nova is inhabited by a community of 51 families who rely on fishing, agriculture and small-scale farming.
While the community on the island approved of the project, public prosecutors found they were not fully informed of the impacts before they agreed. This makes the contract “legally fragile” as residents can turn around to disapprove of the project if uninformed impacts occur.
Brazil’s minister of integration and regional development, Waldez Góes, said in a press release that the project will help reduce economic regional inequalities by enabling the transportation of grain from the country’s central-west region to the north and northeast. He added that the project is an opportunity for job creation and is “well-structured in terms of social, environmental, green infrastructure and renewable energy commitments.” The governor of Maranhão, Carlos Brandão, said “it is perhaps one of the most important projects in Brazil.”
The railway and port are expected to help transport the iron ore extracted from the Pará state’s Carajás mine to China and European countries, as well as soybeans, fuel, fruits and other commodities.
Some residents from the mainland remain firm in their concerns. This is especially because, unlike with residents of Cajual Island, the company failed to consult these other affected communities or to reach an agreement, as required by law. They, too, rely on the wetland for their livelihoods. The Anti-GPM Articulation, a coalition of groups affected by the project and civil society organizations, such as the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI) Regional Maranhão and the Pastoral Council for Fisheries (CPP), fear the railway and port will cause air pollution, contamination and health issues.
A few residents from the Alcântara quilombo told Mongabay that the company has never approached their community to consult them.
“Nobody has ever come to look for us to talk about licensing, construction, nothing,” Arnaldo dos Santos Costa, a quilombola from the Cujupe community of Alcântara and director of social policies, senior citizens and the elderly for the Union of Rural Workers, told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “We know about it from the mouths of others, the internet, television, radio.”
Meanwhile, the Anti-GPM Articulation published in a report that the company has carried out an irregular environmental licensing procedure and failed to obtain free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) from communities.
“It is a deadly project that will affect the way of life of many communities,” Lima said. “It will also disrupt and destroy cultural and social aspects.”
Germany’s national railway company Deutsche Bahn (DB) told Mongabay it is currently “not contractually involved in the project” but its consulting company DB Engineering & Consulting has a “non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on possibilities for cooperation.” DB did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comments about the company’s irregular licensing procedure and its failure to obtain FPIC from communities.
Communities rely on the wetland
In 2017, GPM approached the association of the rural Black Quilombola community residents of Vila Nova to sign a deal. In exchange for the transfer of 36 million square kilometers (14 million square miles) of Quilombola land on Cajual Island for the port’s construction, island residents were promised 51 new homes, an elementary school and a health centre, as well as 6% of the project’s profits.
The contract seen by Mongabay, which is valid for an indefinite period, was signed by the association on behalf of the Cajual Island community.
The Alcântara municipality is home to the largest number of Quilombola people in the country. About 152 Quilombola communities are distributed across the Alcântara quilombo, the Santa Tereza (Itamatatiua) quilombo and the Cajual Island quilombo, which is where the Quilombola association signed the deal.
However, in 2018, when six analysts from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) visited Cajual to conduct a technical inspection, “it was found that, in general, residents had little information about the correct location and the impacts it would cause.” In the end, according to IBAMA’s report, the community still “unanimously agreed” to the project’s implementation, “as long as their homes are kept close to their relatives’ and their living conditions are improved.”
Residents from other Alcântara Quilombola communities on the mainland told Mongabay that the project will affect their fishing livelihoods, too. And yet, the company never approached them. “The project is only taking the association into account,” Lima said.
Dorinete Serejo Moraia, a general coordinator of the Movement of People Affected by the Alcântara Space Base (MABE) from Canelatiua community in Alcântara, told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages that “the company never reached out to anyone in the community,” despite the potential damage it will cause to the environment and their livelihoods.
The preservation of the Reentrâncias Maranhenses environmental protection area is critical for local communities who rely on fishing and the area’s aquatic resources to survive. The wetlands connect with four other internationally important sites, including the Cabo Orange National Park and Baixada Maranhense Environmental Protection Area.
“The fishing sector and agricultural areas will be affected, not to mention the cultural aspects,” Dorinete said. “There are many impacts, and the communities need to be aware of this. Many of them don’t even know what is happening.”
Danilo Serejo, a Quilombola from the Canelatiua community, political scientist and member of the MABE, told Mongabay over email that even the agreement signed between the association on the island and the company is “legally fragile.” This is because the community was not fully informed before they approved, which “violates all national and international legislation protecting the rights and guarantees of [Q]uilombolas.”
According to Brazilian law, these quilombo lands are inalienable, imprescriptible and unseizable, and therefore cannot be transferred, Serejo said. In addition, for such an agreement to have any legal legitimacy, it should have been preceded by FPIC.
“As far as we know, there was no collective authorization from the [Cajual Island] community for the installation of the port,” he said. “Some [Alcântara] residents are not aware of the situation and even fewer have any idea or measure of the impacts generated by the implementation of the port.”
Environmental licensing maneuver
According to the Anti-GPM Articulation, the company has carried out an irregular environmental licensing procedure. This involves dividing the licenses of the port and railway in two to ensure that its approval is up to the state government of Maranhão, rather than IBAMA, the federal agency responsible for environmental licensing. Mongabay sought to verify this information but hasn’t heard back. It is unknown whether any of the licenses have been approved yet.
Lima said that environmental assessments carried out by IBAMA are “more rigorous and transparent.” This is because IBAMA follows more detailed and comprehensive technical standards and protocols than the Maranhão government. Unlike the Maranhão government, IBAMA also has specialized teams and greater technical capacity to analyze the environmental impacts of large-scale or complex projects.
“Licensing by the Government of Maranhão has been carried out in secret in some cases, making it difficult for civil society, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and other regulatory agencies to monitor the process,” he said.
An IBAMA spokesperson told Mongabay over email that the impact of the port on the environmental protection area has been considered by IBAMA, “but since the case was archived at the company’s request, the analysis of these potential impacts was not carried out in depth at the federal level.”
This strategy, which facilitates the approval of projects without the more rigorous analysis of IBAMA, has been widely used by companies in other cases, such as licensing power transmission tower installations in Quilombola territories without the FPIC of communities, a wind farm and eucalyptus plantations.
In addition, by fragmenting licensing, “studies fail to assess the cumulative and synergistic impacts of the project,” the Anti-GPM Articulation said in a report. But Serejo told Mongabay this strategy violates national law, as the area is under the jurisdiction of the federal government. “Legally it is up to IBAMA to do the licensing.”
An IBAMA spokesperson told Mongabay “the magnitude of the project and its impacts suggest that licensing is a federal responsibility” and “if the state license is granted in disagreement with the law, its validity may be challenged in court.”
According to a federal prosecutor from the Federal Public Ministry (MPF), “the port is in a federal area” and, therefore, “licensing should be done at the federal level.” He told attendees at an Anti-GPM meeting that the federal public ministry would “analyze it legally and, if irregularities are found, there will be an immediate challenge.”
Banner image: Fishers from the community of Iguaiba, in the Alcântara Quilombo. Image courtesy of Ana Mendes/Imagens Humanas.
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