New National Policy for Quilombola Territorial and Environmental Management
More detailsThe PNGTAQ was approved on the day that commemorates Black Consciousness in Brazil. It proposes, in short, to promote territorial and environmental management practices developed by quilombola communities and to implement public policies in an integrated manner. It also aims to protect the material and immaterial cultural heritage of quilombola communities.
The policy will be applied to areas occupied by quilombola communities that have a Technical Identification and Delimitation Report (RTID) published in the Official Gazette of the States or the Union, safeguarding any rights of third parties.
Five axes comprise the PNGTAQ, namely: (i) territorial integrity, uses, management and environmental conservation; (ii) sustainable production and income generation, food sovereignty and nutritional security; (iii) ancestry, identity and cultural heritage; (iv) education and training aimed at territorial and environmental management; and (v) social organization for territorial and environmental management.
A noteworthy item in the PNGTAQ guidelines is the guarantee of the right to consultation and free, prior and informed consent (CPLI) of quilombola communities in good faith, under the terms of the International Labor Organization’s Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, requiring the adoption, where they exist, of autonomous protocols for consulting communities.
Among others, the PNGTAQ aims to include institutional coordination for the allocation of public forests for land regularization of quilombola territories, as well as promoting the integration of quilombola territories into protected areas under the terms of the National Strategic Plan for Protected Areas.
On the same date that Federal Decree No. 11,786/2023 was signed, INCRA Ordinances 217 to 249 of 14 November 2023 were also published in the Federal Official Gazette, recognizing 29 quilombola territories in 16 Brazilian states and formalizing the definitive identification of the territories and their boundaries.
