- Titled quilombo territories — traditional Brazilian communities originally formed by runaway enslaved people — have significantly lower deforestation rates, making them crucial for conserving Brazil’s natural biomes.
- However, only 4.33% of all Quilombolas in Brazil have been granted proper land rights.
- Quilombola communities in Alcântara have fought for their land rights since the 1970s, facing displacement and government neglect, but the Brazilian Air Force is pushing for an expansion of the local space center, delaying the recognition of Quilombola land claims.
- Brazil has admitted to human rights violations against the Alcântara Quilombolas, but progress on land titling remains slow and uncertain.
In the late 1970s, the Brazilian military showed interest in establishing a rocket launch site in the municipality of Alcântara. At the Ministry of Aeronautics’ request, the Maranhão state government expropriated 52,000 hectares (128,494 acres) and later declared another 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of public utility in 1991. The Alcântara Launch Center (CLA) was built in the coastal area, but before its construction, 312 families were forcibly removed from their homes and relocated to seven agro-villages more than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the beach. The plots provided were smaller than the minimum rural area needed for family subsistence.
The area, historically home to escaped slaves and their descendants since the 19th century, known as quilombos in Brazil, includes the Alcântara ethnic territory, one of Brazil’s most disputed Quilombola claims. The fight for land rights by Quilombola communities in Alcântara, inside the launch center perimeter, has persisted for more than 40 years. Despite their historical presence, the communities remain without formal land titles, leaving them in a state of legal limbo — a status that is likely to change soon.
Alcântara also includes two other quilombos, Itamatatiua and Vila Nova, both still untitled, and the municipality is home to 15,600 Quilombolas, the third-largest population of that group in Brazil.
“The quality of the soil [in the agro-villages] is poor,” a resident who preferred to remain anonymous told Mongabay. “The military did not respect our way of working collectively and placed us on separate plots. Some of the families did not even get one. To this day, we still need to show an identification card, provided by the military, to go fishing where we used to live.”
In April 2023, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) heard the quilombo case. In the court, before Quilombola representatives, Brazil acknowledged having violated collective property rights and pledged to “formulate proposals for territorial titling.” However, progress has been slow.
Quilombola territories, or quilombos, are defined by Brazilian law as a legal category that aims to secure definitive property rights for Black communities with ancestral ties to lands dating back to the slavery period. However, only a small fraction of these communities have received formal land titles. According to the 2022 Brazilian Census — the first to provide data on the Quilombola population within their territories — only 4.33% of the 1,330,168 Quilombolas hold collective titles to their lands.
These territories are among the most protected areas in Brazil, contributing significantly to environmental conservation. Quilombos are known for their low deforestation rates compared with private lands. According to a study by MapBiomas, a collective of researchers who map changes in land use, between 1985 and 2022, the loss of native vegetation in quilombos with property titles was only 3.2%, while for untitled quilombos, it was 5.5%. By contrast, deforestation in private rural areas was 26%.
“The Quilombola lands are very well-preserved, and some parts had already lost vegetation cover before 1985,” said Marcos Rosa, technical coordinator of MapBiomas. “Deforestation generally happens in conflict areas, on untitled lands where there is an attempt at illegal possession.”
According to Rosa, the expectation of deforestation changes dramatically when a territory is officially titled, reducing the risk of land conflicts and further loss of natural vegetation. “When an area is recognized by the state, the chance of irregular appropriation ends. If it is a forested area, the invader cannot claim they were already using the land. Deforestation is an expensive process, and no one will do it in an area with no chance of taking possession.”
Together, quilombos occupy 3.8 million hectares (9.4 million acres), of which 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres) are covered with native vegetation (0.6% of Brazil’s territory). Until 1985, the forest loss in these areas was 160,000 hectares (395,000 acres). In the next 38 years, it increased by 150% — 240,000 hectares (593,000 acres). The Amazon biome holds 73% of Quilombola native vegetation, the largest in Brazil.
Delays in granting titles and legal insecurity
Despite their importance in environmental conservation, granting land titles to Quilombola communities has been notoriously slow. “The demand is immense,” Márcio Santilli, co-founder of Instituto Socioambiental, a nonprofit that advocates for environmental and Indigenous rights, told Mongabay. “It is greater than that for Indigenous lands.”
At the current rate, it will take 2,708 years to secure land tenure for all Quilombola territories, as estimated by the NGO Terra de Direitos. Since 1988, when the right to Quilombola land was enshrined in the Constitution, only 57 territories have been formally recognized, either partially or fully. In 2023, the current federal government titled five; four of which were partial.
Until these titles are concluded, the communities live in legal insecurity, aggravated by economic pressures and external interests. A survey co-authored with the National Coordination of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (CONAQ) identified that 485 of the 494 quilombos with some form of formal land demarcation face pressures from mining requests, private property claims and planned infrastructure works.
There are 1,385 mining applications overlapping 52.8% of Quilombola lands, 15,339 rural property registrations on 94.1% of the territories, and planned infrastructure works with the potential to impact 48% of the total area.
An ongoing struggle
Alcântara is one of the most prominent examples of the delay in granting titles. The Brazilian Air Force has long maintained an interest in the area due to its strategic position near the equator, which offers advantages for satellite launches.
For more than a decade, the Brazilian Air Force has planned to lease the Alcântara base for commercial activities, such as space tourism. Carlos Moura, when president of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro (2019-22), stated that Brazil’s goal was to capture 10% of this market by 2040. By then, the global space industry is expected to generate revenues of $1.1 trillion.
Linked to the Ministry of Defense, the Alcântara Space Center is based close to the equator, where gravitational pull is slightly weaker than at higher latitudes. This feature favors the thrust of launchers, allowing space operations with less fuel burning and greater cargo capacity in orbit. INPE, Brazil’s space research agency, uses this advantage at Alcântara. “It is one of our main satellite tracking and control stations, contributing to the success of the agency’s missions,” said Marcos de Souza Júnior, head of communications at INPE.
However, while the space industry thrives, the Quilombola communities of Alcântara live without basic infrastructure, including sanitation, and suffer from food insecurity. The municipality has one of the lowest per capita incomes in the country.
The Brazilian Air Force and the Ministry of Defense did not respond to Mongabay’s request for comment.
In late September, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a decree allocating 78,105 hectares (193,000 acres) to the Alcântara quilombo. The decree paves the way for expropriating private areas and gives a one-year deadline for granting the title to the communities. At the same event, held in Alcântara, Incra, Brazil’s land regulatory agency, recognized the area as a Quilombola territory. Lula also issued 21 titles to Quilombola communities in Amapá, Ceará and Sergipe states, among others.
The move was possible after Alcântara communities reached a compromise with the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, mediated by the Attorney General’s Office deputy, Junior Fideles.
The Quilombola representatives agreed not to file any new lawsuit if the Air Force gave up its claim to an additional area and if Lula went to Alcântara to sign the decree. “A conciliation agreement with the military alone would not be enough for us, though,” said Valdirene Ferreira, president of the Alcântara Quilombola Ethnic Territory Association, told Mongabay. The military also requested the creation of a state-owned company to develop the Brazilian Space Program.
Banner image: Fishers from the community of Iguaiba, in the Alcântara Quilombo. About 2,000 people are at risk of losing their homes near the coast, as happened with other communities in the 1980s, so the FAB can carry out its plans. Image courtesy of Ana Mendes/Imagens Humanas.
Quilombola communities take iron mine to U.K. court, alleging decade of damages
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.
Credits
