Loggers charged with illegal deforestation on indigenous land in Brazil

Criado em 09/08/13 15h20 e atualizado em 12/08/13 11h33
Por Luciano Nascimento Edição:Nádia Franco/ Nira Foster Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – Two men charged with illegal deforestation in the state of Mato Grosso, Midwest Brazil, will face a total of $9.197 million in fines for clearfelling an area of 5,659 hectares on indigenous land. The decision is unappealable.

“Clearing and prospecting indigenous land is ultimately a case of misappropriating federal property. This means criminal and civil liabilities to reclaim the stolen property. We filed a suit to claim compensation for illegal logging based on its worth, a large portion of which includes hardwood which is running low in the area,” federal prosecutor William Tetsuo Teixeira Iwakiri told Agência Brasil. He pointed out that this kind of crime does not become time-barred.

In June 2011, a court ruled that Antônio Pereira da Silva and Edevilson Vicentim must pay $9.197 million in property damages and $13,000 in moral damages.  

In 2002, in a joint operation by the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (“Funai”) and the Federal Police, the two loggers were caught in the Sararé Indigenous Area, west of the state of Mato Grosso. At the inspectors' arrival, the two lumbermen ran away, leaving behind a tractor and a bulldozer, a motorcycle and a notebook with notes on the amount of lumber they were carrying. Upon finding that they had cleared over 21,000 cubic meters of woodland, Federal Public Prosecution filed a suit to seek damages on the lumber stolen.

According to Iwaikiri, since the court ruling was made in 2011, the final amount of the fines has risen. “By the date when payments are made, interest and adjustments will apply,” Iwaikiri explained.

Edition: Nádia Franco/ Nira Foster
Translation: Mayra Borges/Olga Bardawil