RE:RE:Looks like we will need to wait a bit longerLet's see if this copy & paste work Funai backs down and vetoes mining meeting with indigenous people in Par Ilha da Fazenda, a riverside community whose area is directly threatened by mining company Belo Sun, where the mining company intends to settle in Volta Grande on the Xingu River, in Par.Image: Marcelo Soubhia / ISA (Instituto Socioambiental) Rubens Valente Columnist of UOL 03/15/2021 13h40 NEWS SUMMARYMeasure was taken on the same day that UOL revealed that the agency had given the green light to a Canadian company initiative that intends to explore gold in PA Funai (Fundao Nacional do ndio) withdrew from the conclusions of a technical analysis that endorsed the initiative and has now warned Canadian miner Belo Sun that the proposal for face-to-face meetings with indigenous people in the gold mine region that the company intends is "unfeasible" explore in Par. The agency said that the meetings will not be possible "in the near future". According to Funai, the rejection of the organ was informed to Belo Sun last Thursday (11).That same day,UOL revealed that Funai gave the green lightto the mining company, based in Toronto, Canada, to hold meetings with about a hundred indigenous people in two villages in the Amazon, of the Juruna and Macaw ethnic groups, in the middle of a pandemic. The column also revealed that, two days earlier, the DPU (Defensoria Pblica da Unio) had recommended Funai to reject the possibility of any face-to-face meeting and to suspend the effects of "technical information" that the indigenous agency had issued on February 10. In terms of "information", Funai gives some guidelines, but does not veto the initiative of the mining company.It goes so far as to suggest what the mining company should do "in the event that there is confirmation or suspicion of a case of Covid-19 during the event" - "the case detected (participant) will immediately [be] isolated from the group and will have the appropriate referral articulated by the health professional present at the site ". In the document, Funai also says that the mining company should request "support for private laboratories, be scheduled before the CI-EIA presentation meetings [indigenous component of the environmental impact study], meetings by video conference, preferably with the presence of indigenous representatives. , to articulate the preparations for the meetings with the DSEI [indigenous health district, linked to the Ministry of Health] in the region ". The indigenous agency also suggested that, if DSEI support was not possible, the mining company could "request support from private laboratories and / or other professionals". In spite of all the guidelines, in a message to the column, Funai now stated that "it did not endorse the face-to-face meeting to present the Indigenous Component of Environmental Impact Studies (CI-EIA) of the Volta Grande Project for gold exploration, interest of Belo Sun Minerao Ltda ". The indigenous organ also said that "the Technical Information cited in the article analyzed a proposal presented during an epidemic situation different from the current one and that the foundation only suggested the participation of indigenous representatives in articulation meetings through videoconference". According to Funai, in a meeting that took place on the 11th by videoconference, the body finally "informed the company about the impossibility of having a face-to-face meeting to present the CI-EIA in the near future and recommended the Belo Sun company to formally present a new proposal. meeting that will be the object of a new technical analysis of the body ". "Funai emphasizes that no meeting to present the Indigenous Component of Environmental Impact Studies (CI-EIA) will be held without technical feasibility, health security and agreement from indigenous communities." In the recommendation sent to Funai on March 9, DPU condemned the meetings."The proposal presented [by the mining company] does not guarantee the health security and life preservation of the participating people, based on information that is not compatible with the situation of the pandemic in the Altamira region and other Brazilian states, nor with the guidelines of national and international health care agencies, and may also burden local health agencies, such as the DSEI and Sesai [indigenous health agencies of the Union] ", says the DPU piece signed by the defenders Wagner Wille Nascimento Vaz, Elisngela Machado Crtes and Francisco de Assis Nascimento Nbrega. Rosana Miranda, campaign advisor for the non-governmental organization Amazon Watch, said last week toUOLthat "it is unacceptable for Funai and Belo Sun to plan face-to-face meetings at the moment that Brazil is living in relation to the pandemic". "The process of prior, free and informed consultation is a right of indigenous communities, not an obligation imposed in the absence of their health and safety. If these meetings take place, it will be yet another irregularity in the Volta Grande project of the mining company Belo Sun, which tries to speed up the process to silence the evidence that this project is technically and environmentally unviable ", said Rosana, through the advisory of Amazon Watch. The column contacted Belo Sun last Wednesday (10) with doubts about the initiative of the meetings in the middle of the pandemic.The mining company replied, by e-mail: "The company chose not to meet this demand. We appreciate the interest".