In the southern region of Amazonas state, the Apurinã Indigenous people from the Baixo Seruiní area live among the ruins of a huge local lumber yard established in their ancestral territory by the military dictatorship (1964-1985). Until the company declared bankruptcy, there were decades of exploitation that some Indigenous people compare to work analogous to slavery.
Since the end of last year, the fear of being dominated in their own land came back to haunt them. The property, which is registered under the lumber yard's name, has been sold to Nemus, a company that uses NFTs (English abbreviation for Non-Fungible Tokens) backed up by real items from the region's fauna and flora.
Nemus’ official website states that theirs is “a collectible NFT experience which is designed to preserve and protect the Amazon Rainforest”. The purpose combines the purchase of digital assets with real conservation projects that can be supervised by the NFTs’ owners.
The production and sale of digital assets are made without the collective approval of the Apurinã people and violate the right of free, prior, and informed consultation.
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The violations are the consequence of the “zero demarcation” approach adopted by Jair Bolsonaro (Liberal Party) and put into practice with the endorsement of Funai officials (Brazil’s agency for Indigenous affairs).
The Baixo Seruiní/Baixo Tumiã Indigenous land is named after the two rivers that cross the area. It has been studied for more than a decade, before the demarcation of the territory. That is why Brazilian legislation allows these areas to be commercialized as private properties.
“Besides the lack of free, prior, and informed consultation as well as the boosting to the commercialization of the forest, the Nemus Foundation initiative ignores the right of the Apurinã native people to their traditional territory and corrupts the way of life and the millenary practices of forest use. More than NFTs, the Apurinã seek the demarcation of the Baixo Seruiní Indigenous Land", says Danicley Aguiar, a member of Greenpeace.
Above, Baixo Tumiã/Baixo Seruiní Indigenous land; down, area of NFTs sold by Nemus / Reproduction
By means of statements and public documents, Brasil de Fato recovered the history of relations between Nemus and the Apurinã Indigenous people. We identified cases of disrespect for the traditional occupants of the territory that is considered by anthropologists and by the natives themselves as the cradle of the Apurinã people.
The cases include negligence with the health of natives during the pandemic, in addition to hidden information about land purchases and economic activities developed by the company.
“If we accept these people [from Nemus], the land demarcation will be suspended, and then we have no other chance. If we do not accept them, the demarcation process continues, and that’s what we want”, says Melquisedeque Lopes Soares Apurinã, a resident of the Apurinã Indigenous land.
After listening to the Apurinã people, the Federal Public Ministry in Amazonas sued Nemus and demanded the company to prove its ownership over the land, the organization of public consultation, and Funai’s authorization to economically exploit the Baixo Seruiní/Baixo Tumiã Indigenous land.
Brasil de Fato tried to contact Nemus’ press office but to no avail. The company’s official account on Twitter posted, in English, that the land is private property and does not coincide with Indigenous areas. Nemus says they respect the Indigenous communities and that they provided the Brazilian authorities with the information requested. Funai has not responded to our requests.
Two Apurinã men navigate along the Seruiní River, after which the Indigenous land is named. File: Private Collection.
“That land has always been Apurinã land”
The ancestral territory of the Apurinã people is one of the most preserved areas in the Amazon Rainforest thanks to the presence of Indigenous people. "They say they're planning to buy the land to protect it. No, we've been preserving it for a long time. We don't deforest it. We take care of it", says Melquisedeque Apurinã.
Flávio de Meira Penna, Nemus’ founder, and acclaimed environmental entrepreneur, said that Indigenous peoples are “kind of invaders in our land”. Native leaders were shocked by the comments made in English during an interview on a US YouTube channel.
Melquisedeque replied him. “They are the invaders because they are the ones coming from outside. They are foreigners. I don't even know where they are from. Our grandparents and great-grandparents were born there. They grew up and died there. They were buried there. Their bones and cemeteries – they are all there. So, we consider that land as Indigenous land. That land is the old trunk of the Apurinã people”.
“That land has always been Apurinã land”, agrees Daniel Lima, member of the Missionary Council for Indigenous Peoples (Cimi, in Portuguese), who supported the Apurinã people in denouncing the case to the Federal Public Ministry. “And even if there is still no homologated demarcation, that doesn't mean anything. Brazil’s Constitution provides for this: where the native peoples are living, there is Indigenous Land.
Indigenous people say prior consultation did not happen
The Apurinã people claim that Nemus intends to implement natural resource exploration projects without free, prior, and informed consultation with the Indigenous people, flouting Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO), of which Brazil is a signatory.
Besides NFTs, the Apurinã people heard from Nemus representatives that the company also intends to boost the production of Brazil nuts by reopening an old airstrip and building a road that would cross the forest located between Seruiní River and the city of Pauiní (Amazonas state).
The native people said they were not clearly informed about the projects. These projects, although could facilitate transportation between the urban and rural areas, could also have significant social and environmental impacts and make it easier for invaders to access the region.
“In fact, they want to open an airstrip and a Nemus’ road to Pauiní. On the one hand, that’s a good idea, because we will be able to go to the urban center and come back home on the same day. On the other hand, there is the impact we can suffer in the near future… I don't think it is worth it”, Melquisedeque concludes.
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Apurinã people heard by Brasil de Fato claim that Nemus keeps in touch with just one of their leaders, ignoring the hundreds of residents scattered in many communities and dozens of families.
Native leaders claim the company ignores their requests for information about what activities are being conducted in an area occupied by the Apurinã people for centuries, where they cultivate cassava and collect Brazil nuts.
International protocols for a free, prior, and informed consultation call for the process to be followed by all residents through meetings and assemblies with massive participation, translation into the Indigenous people's mother tongue, and ratification by authorities.
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“They do not invite collectives or people from the communities. They do not call everybody to take part in the discussions. Sometimes, they talk only to one or two people. At most, they talk to three people only”, recalls Melquisedeque.
Upon noticing the movement in the territory, Melquiseque sought out Nemus' representatives. "They said they had purchased the property, so I demanded proof. I wanted to know how far the land they bought extends. They said 'We can't. I didn't bring it, the document is in another place ", he reports.
With just one NFT image they make, they profit a lot. But they did not tell us they would make it. That’s why we say they are deceiving and stealing us. They don’t say the truth”, states Melquisedeque Apurinã.
Donizetti Apurinã, a resident at the Baixo Seruiní/Baixo Tumiã Indigenous land, also says he was not informed: “That makes us confused. We didn't receive any documents proving that they actually bought this land from the previous company.
Nemus video shows an Indigenous man in a registry office changing the Apurinã community name to "NFT". File: Nemus.
An Apurinã man was taken by the company to the registry office and signed a document changing the name of the territory to "NFT". The change was recorded in a video posted by Nemus on social media, seeking to legitimize the company's presence in the territory.
Apparently, the document is being signed by the leader's son, who is outraged by the marketing action. "They made my father sign it. But my father can't read. And they didn't show us the document", says Donezetti Apurinã, a resident of the Baixo Seruiní/Baixo Tumiã Indigenous Land.
Funai allowed non-Indigenous people to enter Indigenous areas during the pandemic
Brasil de Fato gathered evidence that Nemus probably benefited from Funai under Jair Bolsonaro’s government (Liberal Party). The company’s representatives took advantage of alleged permission by Funai’s authorities in Brasilia to pressure, out of official records, the agency’s local units. The goal was to speed up the entry of employees and facilitate economic activities on Indigenous land.
Funai allowed Nemus’ staff to disregard health protocols established by the agency itself during the Coronavirus pandemic. “During the most severe period of the pandemic, they were coming here. They were entering here without any permission”, Melquisedeque Apurinã told.
On March 17 this year, a Nemus team was authorized to enter the Apurinã Indigenous Land by the Advisory for Monitoring Studies and Research (AAEP, in Portuguese), which is linked to the presidency of Funai, then headed by federal police chief Alexandre Rocha dos Santos.
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In granting the permission, Funai president Marcelo Xavier violated ordinance 419/2020. The document prevented non-Indigenous people from entering Indigenous communities during the pandemic. Exceptions to the rule should only be granted by Funai's Regional Coordinations (CRs, in Portuguese).
Médio Purus CR, responsible for protecting the Apurinã territories, spoke out officially against the entry of Nemus’s staff. Weeks earlier, the local Funai unit had already notified the company since they did not comply with the ordinance. Even so, it was contradicted by the AAEP.
The AAEP chief ignored the health protocols in favor of Nemus, yet he used ordinance 419/2020 to prevent Fiocruz from providing medical care to Indigenous people at Yanomami land, which is plagued by outbreaks of malnutrition, malaria, and lack of medicines. In September last year, police chief Santos claimed that the entry of doctors would present "risks of contamination to traditional communities".
A century without the right to land
The presence of Apurinã people in the Baixo Seruiní/Baixo Tumiã Indigenous land is deliberately ignored by the Brazilian government for, at least, a century. The neglect began with the settlement of Indigenous people in the early 20th century by the Indian Protection Service (SPI, in Portuguese).
In 1975, Funai allowed Madeireira Nacional SA, also known as Manasa, to purchase the cradle of the Apurinã people. The certificate signed by Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency attests that "there is no knowledge of the existence of Indigenous settlements in the area of the petitioner [Manasa], and there is, consequently, no restriction to oppose the full use of the aforementioned area by the interested party".
In 1975, a document signed by the then president of Funai lied about the non-existence of Apurinã people in their ancestral land and opened up the territory to logging. / Reproduction
The documentation enabled Manasa to raise funds and tax exemptions from Sudam (Superintendence for the Development of the Amazon, in English). Decades passed, and Manasa put communities to work extracting Brazil nuts and wood.
With memories of the Manasa period in mind, older Apurinã leaders are trying to warn the community about the dangers of ceding the territory's autonomy. In a video recording to which Brasil de Fato had access, from December 2021, leaders are debating what to do to cope with the arrival of Nemus.
“They [Nemus] don’t work from seven to eleven only. They work all day long. We can’t stand it. Our kids and grandkids who are being born here will work as subordinates. They will earn just a few reais. So, our traditions will end. Few people will manage to work [for Nemus]”.
The statement was made by an Apurinã leadership and was addressed to members of the Baixo Seruiní Indigenous communities. One of them, called Penedo, is still known today as "Manasa", an acronym for Madeireira Nacional SA, a company that benefited from the military regime to exploit the natural wealth of the Apurinã land.
The man keeps on talking to warn his parentes [the word Indigenous Brazilians use to call one another, meaning "relatives"]. “This is like slavery. The food you’re going to bring, you will eat it under the sun. If you are not aware of what you’re going to do, it will happen. When I told you 'the farm is surrounded [by Nemus staff], I was waking you up."
Profits ahoy
The NFTs sold by Nemus are linked to the fauna and flora of the Baixo Seruiní/Baixo Tumiã Indigenous land. The digital assets are sold online in virtual currencies. Nemus’ strategy is focused on the international market, where NFTs are breaking records in appreciation, riding on the back of a new stage of digital financialization of the investment market and financial speculation.
Nemus presents the creation of the NFTs in Apurinã lands as an initiative of the Indigenous people themselves. In an institutional video featuring native peoples, the company writes: "To drive attention to the most non-fungible thing on the planet, forest peoples have turned the land itself into an NFT."
Flávio de Meira Penna, Nemus’ founder, gave a different explanation in an interview on the TV show Capital & Mercado, on the Brazilian channel Band. “The idea of creating NFTs came up early last year when I was talking to my kids", he told the show host.
Penna said that heard from one of his sons, a cryptocurrency trader, about the digital currency Doge Coin, which surpassed 50 billion dollars. The value impressed the businessman. “I said ‘Wait, wait. What if we created something similar to protect the Amazon?’ (…) And that’s how we begin to piecing things together and came up with the idea of making a NFT to the Amazon Rainforest”.
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To Band, Flávio explained that the initiative is not seeking to produce profits or dividends. According to him, the money will be applied to conservation initiatives. "One part is distributed to the surrounding community, valuing the surrounding community, and the other part is rewarded to the owners of the NFTs," he said.
But if the goal is to support sustainable development initiatives, why is it necessary to buy land? The answer may have been given by Flávio himself during the previously mentioned interview. The entrepreneur says most NFTs are based solely on digital properties.
“In the case of Nemus' NFTs, we actually own land. Therefore, you have the backing of a real asset with a high appreciation rate. Not that we are going to sell this land, but you actually have the financial backing", he revealed.
Nemus’ owner is 65 and was born in New York City. He defines himself as an “entrepreneur” and nature “conservationist”. His resume, available online, records investments and management positions in millionaire companies in the areas of information technology, banks, start-ups, and, more recently, business initiatives in the wood sector.
Edited by: Thalita Pires e Flávia Chacon
