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Victory for Brazil Tribe as Hotel Group Cancels Plans for Luxury Resort

Reuters

   LISBON/BRASILIA - A Brazilian tribe that has been fighting for 15 years
   to preserve land they use to gather food won a victory on Monday when
   public pressure made Portuguese hotel group Vila Gale cancel plans to
   build a 500-room luxury resort on the Bahia coast.

   Indigenous group Tupinambá de Olivença, numbering 4,631 people, has
   been fighting for the land to be designated as a reserve since 2003.
   Brazil's indigenous rights agency Funai approved the request in 2009,
   and Brazil's second-highest court unanimously voted in favor of the
   Tupinambá in 2016.

   But the tribe still requires final sign-off from the Ministry of
   Justice and the president himself for the protected status of the
   territory to become official. Despite multiple requests from the tribe,
   nothing has happened since 2016.

   Last week, Brazil National Human Rights Council urged the Bolsonaro
   government to speed up the final demarcation of the Tupinambá land,
   which is located in the coastal Atlantic forest in southern Bahia,
   known for its coconut tree-lined beaches that attract millions of
   tourists each year.

   Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has not yet made a decision on the
   specific case of the Tupinambá but stated on multiple occasions that
   he does not intend to sign off any more territory for indigenous
   groups, saying earlier this year there is "too much land for too few
   indigenous people."

   Vila Gale said a local businessman offered them the land in 2018.
   Regional and state government representatives approved of the project,
   as did Embratur, Brazil's tourism agency. The company put the project
   on its website, with a note saying it was due to open in 2021.

   The company's CEO Jorge Rebelo de Almeida consistently denied that
   there were any traces of an indigenous population on the territory in
   question, a claim repeated in the company's statement to Portuguese
   press on Monday.

   "In the region and in a radius of many kilometers, there was no sign of
   any occupation or utilization, nor signals of any extractive activity
   from anyone. There is no indigenous reserve in this area, nor will
   there be," the statement said.

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