For the formation of the Itaipu reservoir, an area of approximately 100,000 hectares was misappropriated in the municipalities of Foz do Iguaçu, São Miguel do Iguaçu, Medianeira, Santa Helena, Matelândia, Marechal Cândido Rondon, Terra Roxa and Guaíra.

At the time, the studies conducted by the National Indian Foundation (Funai) and other indigenist organs (such as the Missionary Indigenist Council) have located and identified, in 1977, a total of 27 people belonging to 11 indigenous families. They lived in approximately 30 hectares on the banks of the Paraná River, between the Ocoí and Jacutinga rivers, in the area of coverage where the reservoir was formed.

Meeting the request of Funai, in 1982, 19 indigenous families were resettled, consisting of 71 people, in the area constituted as the Ocoí Indigenous reserve, in São Miguel do Iguaçu, with about 250 hectares.

Even with the resettlement in a larger area than the one originally identified by the legally responsible organ, in 1997 Itaipu acquired 1,744 hectares in the municipality of Diamante D’oeste, constituting the indigenous village Tekoha Añetete. Subsequently, in 2007, Funai acquired an area contiguous to this, with approximately 240 hectares, forming the Itamarã village.

In these three areas, Itaipu has been active, especially through its Sustainability Program of the Indigenous Communities, keeping covenants with the respective municipalities, supporting financial and human resources and contributing sensitively to the Improve the quality of life of these communities.

*Explanatory note on indigenous communities-Itaipu Legal Board

Irregular Occupations in the Reservoir Protection Range

Recently, areas of the reservoir protection range have been the target of irregular occupations by indigenous groups, especially in the municipalities of Santa Helena and Itaipulândia. This situation has demanded a cautious treatment on the part of the company, given the known sensitivity and complexity that permeates the indigenous question and considering that such areas are unsuitable for housing.

The Itaipu Reservoir Protection Range consists of permanent environmental preservation areas and is inserted in the Atlantic Forest biome, considered to be a high conservation priority.

These areas play an important environmental function, not only for the protection of the hydric body, but also to ensure the genetic flow of flora and fauna, since they are part of the Paraná River biodiversity corridor.

Itaipu, within its sphere of attributions and with the support of the organs legally entrusted with the treatment of the indigenous question, has been engaged in the search for a short-term solution to this problem.

Currently, in spite of the commitment of the local public prosecutor in trying to mediate the situation, the Indians have rejected the idea of transference to the villages in the region, in São Miguel do Iguaçu and Diamante d’Oeste, although these areas legally can offer conditions that are undeniably superior to the situation of vulnerability to which indigenous people end up undergoing irregular occupations in inappropriate places.

Faced with this position of the indigenous people, Itaipu has submitted these occupations of permanent preservation areas to the evaluation of the judiciary. Judicial proceedings have been conducted with a lot of responsibility and prudence, under the sieve of the Federal Judiciary and monitoring of the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, fully guaranteed the contradictory and the broad defense of the indigenous peoples through both of Funai and the public Defender of the Union, and the Federal Union has also been scientific in these processes.

Itaipu, as seen throughout its history, has always maintained and continues to keep open the channel of dialogue and relationship with the indigenous community Ava Guarani, especially in relation to the indigenous areas legally established in its region of operation, in which important socio-environmental actions sponsored by this entity are undertaken.