The Amazon rainforest in Brazil, is currently witnessing unprecedented levels of deforestation, with levels increasing 400% per month since October 2014. The indigenous people that inhabit these forests are under threat like never before.
Much of the deforestation in Brazil is down to the cattle and beef industry. Brazil is the largest exporter of beef in the world, and ranchers slash and burn vast amounts of rainforest each year to make place for their farms. Unbelievably more than 200,000 acres of rainforest around the world is lost every day. Logging illegally cuts out wage regulation, permits and taxes, making it hugely profitable for the cattle and beef industry. 70% of logging in Para' Brazil's largest state is illegal. Federally protected indigenous land is often targeted for its rich virgin forests by illegal loggers, forcing indigenous people to fight back often resulting in death and violence on both sides.
However, the Tembe Tribe in Para is fighting back. Discovered as an isolated tribe by catholic missionaries in the 17th century, the Tembe have long had their lands exploited and settled by illegal squatters. They say around 40% of their land has been cleared but the government has ignored their pleas and has done nothing about it. Due to Brazils extremely slow judicial system, the Tembe are often unable to obtain eviction notices from the courts to kick ranchers off their ancestral lands. The ranchers have reportedly hired gunmen known as pistoleros to hunt members of the tribe who stand in their way. Members of the tribe have described seeing their own families and children massacred.
The tribe has now taken matters into their own hands, arming warriors to participate patrols around the reserve, capturing and arresting illegal loggers and burning their diggers. They are even starting to reclaim some of the stolen land from the grasps of the ranchers. Isadarous a chief from the Tembe tribe notes that "if we stop doing the patrols, paying attention and defending, that will be good for them, then they will invade and it will all be over. We have to make them leave and if they want to kill us, then kill us but we will die fighting for what is ours".
The Awa, the worlds most critically endangered tribe, is also at the mercy of encroaching loggers. The Awa is one of the last 100 uncontacted tribes on earth, that have never been contacted by the outside world. They have lived for centuries as hunter gatherers deep in the forest, but are now on the run, hiding from the outside world. Their homes are currently being bulldozed to the ground, their culture decimated and their families murdered; the genocide of an entire people whose plight is ignored by the international community. After a series of massacres, the numbers of Awa are limited to only 350 today.
(one of the only pictures ever captured of the uncontacted Awa)
Two centuries ago indigenous people lived in most of the earth's ecosystems. Today they have the legal right to use only "6% of the planet's land and in many cases, their rights are partial or qualified. "For indigenous people, land is not only a means of production and survival but is central to how they define their identity. In many instances, indigenous people and their natural habitats are inextricably linked. For example the Maasai herding grounds in Kenya/Tanzania, the Inuit with their kayaks in Greenland, the Maya in the Andean mountain range, the Ifuago in the multi-tiered rice terraces of the Cordilleras (Philippines), the Saami with their reindeer in the Artic reaches of northern Norway (also Sweden, Finland and Russia) and Jumma farmers in the jhum (Swidden fields) of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Indigenous lands have long been threatened by colonialism, settlement, encroachment and exploitation, and land dispossession continues to this day".
Indigenous people today are also facing chronic health problems and endure "some the worst of the diseases that accompany poverty" and endure "serious mental health problems and high levels of substance abuse and suicide." Survival International states that the Pikangikum Indians of Ontario, have a suicide rate nearly 40 times the national Canadian average. A study by Kunitz in 1994 stated that in general, the most devastating consequences for indigenous people seem to have been associated with dispossession from the land.
In a globalised world, even with the threat of climate change and the loss of biodiversity on a unprecedented scale, it is crucial that we continue to protect indigenous populations and the ecosystems that they inhabit. Indigenous people have in many places, lost their land and resources but have yet kept their dignity, pride and generosity. We in Britain, have our own language, culture, custom, literature and history. For the tribes of Para, the fight to protect their heritage is clear. It is now time for us to put our mark on the history of mankind, so the last jungle nomads and their culture do not disappear from our earth forever.
An article by Harry Wright
Fore more information about how you can help please visit the fantastic charity Survival International which works with protecting the rights of indigenous people throughout the world, including the uncontactable Awa http://www.survivalinternational.org/
References:
Making the Declaration Work: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples edited by Claire Charters and Rdolfo Stavenagen
