Once again, the Supreme Court of Brazil has postponed indefinitely the court case in which the Justices will decide whether the Temporal Framework for the demarcation of ancestral Indigenous lands will be fixed at the date the Brazilian Constitution came into effect, October 5th, 1988. If so, only territories occupied by Indigenous communities on that date would be recognized, disregarding Indigenous peoples displaced by colonization and land theft during the previous 500 years.

This landmark case was first presented in 2017 and has been postponed three times since. The scheduled June 23rd trial date has now been removed from the court’s agenda.

Apib, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, emphasizes that it is extremely important that the Temporal Framework be overturned as soon as possible, because the longer the trial is delayed, the worse the violence by extractive industries and agrobusiness against Indigenous peoples will be.

Indigenous groups are mobilizing to protest against the Temporal Framework in Brasilia in front of the Supreme Court from June 27th through 30th!

Bolsonaro insinuates, once again, his noncompliance with the law if the « time frame » strategy for setting a cut-off date of 1988 for Indigenous land claims – is rejected by Brazil’s Supreme Court!

In September 2021, a group of around 150 Indigenous people carried an enormous symbolic coffin to the steps of the presidential palace in Brasilia and set it on fire. The coffin was inscribed with the word « Genocide » on the top with « Ecocide », « No to the Temporal Framework » as well as other slogans on the sides. 

Over 6,000 people from 176 Indigenous nations gathered at the September « Struggle for Life » camp outside Brazil’s Supreme Court in Brasilia to demand that the justices rule in their favor and reject the time limit date of 1988, adopted by the Bolsonaro government in 2016 and promoted by the agribusiness, cattle ranching, logging and gold mining sectors. 

The justices reconvened on September 1st for a ruling which would either reinforce the protection of Indigenous peoples and lands as defined by the constitution or, as Bolsonaro wants, give power to the agribusiness, cattle ranching, logging and gold mining industries to deforest and exploit and extract  natural resources in Indigenous lands, threatening the existence of Indigenous  peoples and of the Amazon Rainforest itself. But the court case was postponed…

One of the best ways to help preserve the Amazon Rainforest is to directly help the Indigenous peoples who are protecting it!

Please join me in supporting the Apib, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil.
They do far more than just petition governments who are benefitting financially from the ongoing destruction. Apib is assisting Indigenous communities address ongoing health issues and, with Indigenous lawyers, they are taking the Brazilian government to court!

Here’s information about the Apib in English, Portuguese and Spanish

And here:

Please donate here if you’d like to:

For more details, please read: