Native nations do not have real political rights

Today in America there are more than 40 independent countries but not a single native nation has been able to preserve its sovereignty.

Danilo Antón

Today we can hardly realize how far we've come. The  territorial countries of the American continent have stabilized, they are globally recognized, nobody dares to reject their sovereignty. The Canadian government is authorized to speak on behalf of the Inuit and Haida, the government of the United States can proudly say that the ancient Cheroki country is now divided into states and counties, as well as the ancestral lands of the Cheyenne, Lakota and Iroquois. With the old name of Mexico, which conceals an oppressive reality the ideological descendants of the Spanish colonial control the government, the economy and the culture, keeping in the ostracism the remaining First Nations in the country. Many still speak Nahuatl but its use is relegated to the most isolated and poorest sectors of the Mexican highlands. The Maya of Chiapas and Yucatan continue to suffer discrimination, living a long exile in their own land. Other Maya, together with the Lenca and Guaymi remain ignored and relegated in Central America without their nationalities recognized as such.

Nation of the Alto Orinoco basin, Jibi, Yekwana and Yanomami, among others, suffer the aggressive character of the new colonization. The Amazon is a theater of imperial advances disguised as "economic growth". Several countries control the Amazon but nobody gave them the right to do it. The took it by force or as a legacy of European colonialism.

The control of these territories is based solely on the brute force that European imperial nations exercised for centuries by their own choice and discretion. Today these-territorial states are simply heirs of that history of abuse. Spain, Portugal, England, France and Holland invaded, occupied, enslaved, killed, raped, robbed and then established legal systems based precisely on that terrible legacy of violence and disrespect.

They introduced the property of the land, but they don't allowed to give it to the native peoples who inhabited ir for millennia. Instead, they are thoroughly devoted to divide the territory  among themselves, systematically eliminating its legitimate occupants or simply forcing them to remain as slave labor in the new parcels, plantations, farms and mines. Most of the current owners of American land base their right in this fraudulent origin.

Along with the land, the invaders seized the workforce of indigenous peoples. They were forced to serve the tyrannical foreign masters. Many of these nations enjoyed a wide individual freedom unknown in Europe. In a few decades of foreign domination would end it.

We are born free and united brothers, each is as lord as the other, while you are all servants of one man. I am the master of my body, I have myself, I do what I want, I am the first and the last of my nation .... subject only to the Great Spirit 1.

1 Explanation to give a ferret Baron Lahontan, referred to by J.Weatherford, Indian Givers, p.123

From Amerrique, Orphans Paraiso, Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Editions

Geography
Aridity and poverty in the Brazilian Northeast

Danilo Antón

The Brazilian northeast is the poorest region in the Brazilian subcontinent. Insufficient rains and a rough  has produced a tough human environment. Poverty and emigration are common. From Piauí to the hinterland of the Bahia state, the Northeast has a shared history of exploitation, poor practices of farming, slavery and frustrated rebellions. However, the main limitations of the area relate to the climatic and ecological environment.

I Climateⁱ

The Northeastern region of Brazil, possesses a hot and humid climate with a short dry season along the coast, and a hot and semiarid climate in the interior. Much of the region is a transition from the dry hinterland to the more humid coastal plains.

In the proximity of the ocean (up to about 50 to 100 km from the shoreline) annual precipitations exceed 1000 mm (i.e. Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte) reaching more than 2000 mm in some ocean-facing slopes.

As described earlier, rainfall in semi-arid areas varies from 800 mm per year to slightly below 400 mm in the driest zones of the sertão, The dry season occurs from July through September. Rainfall takes place in the Southern Summer (January through March). However, actual precipitations during the rainy season may be very irregular.

Mean monthly temperatures have small variations throughout the region, and they are more influenced by altitude than sun exposure. Annual medium temperature in the plains varies between 24 C^o (coast) and 26 C^o (interior).

Clouds and fogs can form in the highest areas even during the dry season, reducing sun exposure to less than 5 hours per day in the planalto (i.e. plateau), while the plain areas are subject to higher sun exposure, up to seven hours daily or more.

II) Geology and geomorphology

Northeastern Brazil geomorphology has developed on a very ancient shield bedrock, with cratonic (stable) geological behavior. Sedimentary basins formed along the eastern and northeastern edges of the region (Sergipe- Alagoas and Potiguar-Recife sedimentary basins), and in the Northwest and West, the large Parnaiba- Maranhão sedimentary basin and the nearby São Luis and Barreirinhas sedimentary basins, and the São Francisco sedimentary basin in the Southwest.

There are also several smaller sedimentary basins inland, within the shield region, of which the largest is the Araripe basin (approximately 15,000 km², 200 km long and about 100 km wide) which is located in the boundary of the states of Pernambuco, Piauí and Ceará..

Old erosion surfaces are found next to the water divides of the main hydrographic basins (i.e. between the Tocantins and the São Francisco, between the São Francisco and the northeastern basins) forming “chapadas” (plateaus)ⁱⁱ. Chapada soils are normally shallow and, because they have suffered long geological lixiviation, their fertility levels are low. Vegetation in drier chapadas is caatinga (see section 3), while more humid chapadas next to the coastal plain may possess other types of ecosystems (agreste).

Old chapadas are separated by erosion river valleys, often filled with alluvial deposits containing local aquifers that are normally used for water supply and irrigation.

Downstream, alluvial plains become wider until they merge with the coastal Tertiary and Quaternary formations (dunes, beach, lower valley alluvial and estuarine deposits)

III) Soils

In the interior of the Northeast region soils are shallow, particularly in the erosion surfaces and slopes. In the upper chapada flat areas fertility is low due to lengthy lixiviation. In the lower areas (alluvial valleys) soils are deeper and more fertile (more productive), but they may have salinity problems (often induced by inadequate irrigation management). However, due to their medium to high fertility and the persistent warm temperatures, if water resources (i.e. irrigation) are available, farming productivity can be very important.

Brazilian Northest; Biological environment

I) Caatinga

Caatinga (“white bush” in tupi language) occupies about 730,000 km² (7% do Brazil) and can be found in all northeastern states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Alagoas and Bahia (and North of Minas Gerais)

Caatinga is formed by cactus, bushes and small trees adapted to dry and hot conditions. The main adaptations of caatinga species are thorns, fleshy and/or small leaves, which also tend to fall during the dry season, and well developed root systems.

There are two types of caatinga the “Caatinga Hipoxerófila” typical of less extreme climate, as for instance the coastal “baixada” (slopes), and the hyper-xerophile caatinga, found in the driest regions, with thorny bushes and trees, and cactuses.

II) Agreste

Agreste is a transition zone between “caatinga” and tropical forest, including more and larger trees than in caatinga, but less than in the tropical forest. It is composed of trees, bushes and an undergrowth of herbaceous plants.

III) Cerrado

Cerrados (from the Spanish word “closed”) are a typical ecosystem of the Brazilian interior. In the Northeast they are found in the Western plateaus of the “sertão baiano”. They are composed of low canopy trees with a bushy and grassy undergrowth, producing a dense configuration difficult to penetrate.

IV) Tropical forest (mata umida)

The mata úmida or tropical forest, composed of trees with tall canopies, is found in coastal areas and in mountain valleys and lower slopes in the proximity of the sea.

In a large measure, these forests have been eliminated (logged, burned), often to make place for plantation activities. The present extension of “mata úmida” is today restricted to steep slopes and protected areas (which are not very extensive in Northeastern Brazil).
(to be continued)

i Source:Guia Internet Brasil, 1999

ii As defined by Aziz Nacif Absaber; Summit surfaces in Brazil, Revista Brasileira de Geociencias, 30 (3) 515-516; Sept. 2000.

3) The Brazilian Northeast: main issues

As described above, most Northeastern Brazil possesses an irregular semi-arid climate, and a thin and fragile soil cover. Anthropogenic deforestation processes generated excessive run-off, surface water erosion, wind deflation and increased aridity, while inadequate irrigated farming produced water logging and salinization, affecting land productivity.

The political, social and environmental factors mentioned before were, and still are, the main causes of poverty in the nordeste.

In order to address these problems, several Brazilian governments of the late twentieth century have invested large sums of money developing water engineering works: dams, canals, pumping and irrigation systems, water wells, etc. These projects only provided partial solutions to Northeastern economic and social problems. Some people think that new, more comprehensive projects, are needed, while others believe that money will be wasted, and a completely different approach is required.

Lately, the Brazilian government has initiated a process for the construction of a water transposition system from the largest Northeastern basin (São Francisco basin) to several Northeastern basins in the States of Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, and Pernambuco. There are vivid discussions on the appropriateness of the scheme.

This report will provide some basic information on the Brazilian Northeast water resources and problems that may help to understand the arguments that experts, activists and politicians are putting forward.

More specifically, the report will describe existing water resources, including those that are often unjustly forgotten: the groundwater resources. The main aquifers of the region will be listed and described and, preliminarily evaluated.

Finally, the main water issues will be discussed in order to provide some guidelines for interpretation of the complex environmental and hydrological panorama of the Northeast.

1) Water  resources and management in Brazilian Northeast and the role of São Francisco Basin

Danilo Anton

The “nordeste brasileiro”, Northeast of Brazil, is located between the parallels 2^o and 16^o latitude South and the meridians 35^o and 46^o longitude West.

It includes the Brazilian states of Maranhão, Piaui, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia with a total area in excess of 1,5 million km² (about 18% of the Brazilian territory) and a population of almost 50 million people (more than a quarter of the total population of Brazil)ⁱ.

The climate of this region varies from semi-arid to sub-humid. The semi-arid zone, also called “drought polygon” (poligono das secas), which is included within the 800 mm isohyet occupies almost half of the total Northeastern area (800,000 km²).

This drought polygon has been definedⁱⁱ as a region with the following characteristics and limitations:

1. xerophytic vegetation (mainly small thorny trees and bushes: caatinga)
2. predominant crystalline basement
3. shallow agricultural soils
4. high evapo-transpiration (above 2,000 mm per year)
5. low annual rainfall (less than 800 mm)
6. rivers without permanent flow
7. extreme hydrological events (droughts, floods)
8. reduced specific run-off ((4 liters/ second or 1260 mm/ha/year)
9. limited hydro-geological potential.

.

Farming production has been, and still remains, one of the most important economic activities in the nordeste.

In the more humid areas (generally along the coast) the “nordeste” has been traditionally, and still is, dedicated to cane plantation. Presently, a large proportion of sugar cane is processed for the production of alcohol fuel.

Other products in coastal areas are tropical fruits (banana, pineapple, etc), palm trees (for production of palmitos, margarine, etc) and several subsistence crops (manioc, beans, etc).

In the interior (sertão), tougher plants are cultivated (some for industrial purposes, such as cotton, agave and sisal, along with other subsistence crops: corn, beans and squash). The sertão is also an animal production area (cattle, pigs and sheep).

During the last decades, as a result of the development of industries and services, urban population has grown considerably to about 70% of the regional population. Some cities have particularly developed into large metropolis with the subsequent environmental and social problems. It is the case of Salvador, Recife and Fortaleza, each with populations exceeding 2 million people in their urban-suburban areas.

States of the “Nordeste”ⁱⁱⁱ

States	Area, km2	Population	Density of population inh./ km2
Alagoas	27 819	2 822 621	101.5
Bahia -	564 273	13 070 250	23.2
Ceará	145 712	7 430 661	51.0
Maranhão	331 918	5 651 475	17.0
Paraíba	56 341	3 443 825	61.1
Pernambuco	98 527	7 918 344	80.4
Piauí	251 312	2 843 278	11.3
Rio Grande do Norte	53 077	2 776 782	52.3
Sergipe	21 962	1 784 475	81.3
Total	1 550 941	47 741 711	30.8

iReferences

According to IBGE the population of Brazil is 184.661.231 inhabs (Oct.2, 2005).

ii Source: Água doce no Semi-Árido, Vicente P.P.Vieira; in Aguas Doces no Brasil; IEAUSP and Academia de Ciéncias, pp.509-531, 1999.

iii Source: Wikipedia.org