“Authorization? That's Outrageous:” Ayahuasca Environmental Legislation and Indigenous Populations in Brazil
OpenAlex – February 27, 2023
Source: OpenAlex
Summary
Legislation regulating ayahuasca in Brazil has sparked significant debate, particularly among Indigenous groups. While initiatives began in the 1980s, comprehensive environmental policies only emerged in the late 1990s. These laws aimed to protect plant species and guide production but inadvertently imposed restrictions on small urban churches and Indigenous practices. Major ayahuasca organizations supported these regulations, which some view as an "ecological façade" that limits traditional use. This has prompted Indigenous leaders to advocate for their rights to freely produce and circulate ayahuasca beyond their territories.
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the environmental legislation on the use of ayahuasca in Brazil and its implications for Indigenous peoples. Although the first initiatives to regulate the use of ayahuasca date from the second half of the 1980s, the first environmental policies emerged only in the late 1990s. Thus, this work analyzes the state legislation of Acre and Rondônia that sought to regulate the extraction and transportation of plant species, as well as the production and circulation of ayahuasca in the national territory. We highlight the innovative character of the legislation, which involved the establishment of a number of procedures in order to preserve the plant species in their natural habitat, as well as providing a series of guidelines for ayahuasca groups regarding the production of the brew. However, we note that, beyond the legitimate initiative to preserve the plant species that make up ayahuasca, and the worry concerning the progressive extraction and commercialization by different groups in the Northern Amazonian states, this new environmental legislation ended up creating new forms of control and restriction on the practices of ayahuasca groups in Brazil, with special burdens on small urban churches and Indigenous groups. It's important to note that the main Brazilian ayahuasca groups in Acre and Rondônia (Alto Santo Universal Light Christian Illumination Center [a Santo Daime branch known as Alto Santo], Union of the Vegetal Beneficent Spiritist Center [known as UDV], and Spiritist Center and Praying House of Jesus, Source of Light [known as Barquinha]) appear to have supported the creation of these new bureaucratic and institutional standards and regulatory parameters; we argue that this "ecological façade" has worked in practical terms as a means to, in fact, control and restrict different forms of use of ayahuasca. As a result of these dilemmas, a number of Amazonian Indigenous groups have entered the public conversation on ayahuasca, establishing a new political agenda focused on the Indigenous use of ayahuasca, and giving rise to new demands, such as the right of free circulation of the beverage and the freedom to produce and administer it beyond their territories. This recent Indigenous leadership has led to the contestation of the protocols and bureaucracies stipulated by the legislation on the religious use of ayahuasca in Brazil in general, disclosing the need to establish a dialog with the Brazilian State in order to develop public policies regarding the Indigenous use of ayahuasca in the Brazilian territory.