United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

Brasilia, May 02, 2024. With the presence of federal institutions, indigenous organizations, UN agencies and civil society representatives, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Brazil organized and hosted, on May 2, the meeting of the Interinstitutional Working Group (WG) on Surveillance for Indigenous Territorial Protection.

Held within the framework of the SAR-TI project - Strengthening Early Warning and Response Systems to Environmental Crimes related to Illegal Gold Mining in Indigenous Territories, launched by UNODC in February 2024, the meeting discussed criteria for evaluating official and community-based territorial surveillance systems, mapped competencies of the institutions present and discussed impact indicators and response flows to different crimes – including those related to illegal mining – in indigenous territories.

The Interinstitutional Working Group on Surveillance for Indigenous Territorial Protection is composed of more than 15 institutions and aims to gather information that supports the development of effective policies for indigenous territorial protection, as well as to improve the prevention and control of impacts caused by environmental crimes and other crimes in indigenous territories.

The institutions that are part of the WG are the Ministries of Indigenous Peoples (MPI), Justice and Public Security (MJSP), Environment and Climate Change (MMA), Health (MS); as well as Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger (MDS); the National Foundation of Indigenous Peoples (Funai); the Federal Police (PF); the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama); the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio); the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF); the Office of the Comptroller-General of the Union (CGU); the Federal Public Defender's Office (DPU); the Embassy of Italy in Brazil; the Articulation of the Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB); as well as the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).

There are also organizations that attend the discussions as observing members of the WG, such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM), the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), as well as the United States Forest Service (USFS).

The First Meeting of the WG sought to consolidate the group through the promotion of a technical dialogue to support the development of a surveillance, early warning and response system, as well as to foster the integration and structuring of an improved information flow between systems of different institutions. To this end, UNODC presented a roadmap for the evaluation of surveillance systems in the context of indigenous territorial protection and proposed the elaboration of a reasoned glossary, in order to promote inter-institutional collaboration in the review of important terms and concepts and technical dialogue on components and impact indicators of these systems.

The inputs used are based on the Launching Event of the SAR-TI Project, which included presentations of territorial surveillance initiatives by the Hutukara Yanomami Association (HAY), the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR), the Raoni Institute, the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM).

The institutions that were present at the 1st meeting will carry out an evaluation of their internal systems, based on a framework of activities proposed by UNODC – which, throughout this process, will conduct bilateral support meetings with each member of the WG. The results of the analyses will be presented at the 2nd technical meeting, scheduled for July.

SAR-TI – SAR-TI is a UNODC Brazil project launched in February 2024. Supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI) of the Government of Italy, it complements other ongoing UNODC initiatives, such as Tapajós – Project to reduce the prevalence of forced labour in the mining sector in the State of Pará.