By Liliana Usvat
Blog 279-365
We need to protect those those that cannot protect themselves. We need to speak for those that cannot speak for themselves.
An indigenous group living in extreme isolation in the Amazon rain forest has stirred fresh controversy and new concerns over the fate of the region's so-called uncontacted tribes. They are at risk of extinction from disease and land theft.
Aerial footage of one of the world's last uncontacted tribes has been released. Survival's new film, narrated by Gillian Anderson, has launched our campaign to help protect the earth's most vulnerable peoples.
Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, has confirmed the presence of 27 indigenous groups living in extreme isolation in Brazil's vast Amazon region, making it the home of the largest number of uncontacted tribes in the world. (It's possible Brazilian forests may shelter as many as 84 such tribes.) After Brazil, Peru has the second largest number: 15.
A meeting took place between Brazilian and Peruvian officials in Lima, where the two countries agreed to strengthen cross-border monitoring of the volatile region to protect the uncontacted indigenous groups.
Peruvian loggers and The Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is prospecting for gas in the state of Acre, and that is increasing pressure on the tribes.
The Acre state government is reported to have recently built a road straight into the remote region. Experts agree that road construction in the Amazon rain forest leads to land speculation, rampant deforestation, and grave risk to indigenous populations.
Kawahiva tribe, an isolated indigenous people whose few dozen surviving members live in a state of constant flight from loggers and land speculators who have invaded their territory.
Brazil's constitution guarantees indigenous populations the right to the undisturbed use of their traditional lands and obliges the federal government to intervene to protect them.
Uncontacted tribes are extremely vulnerable to any form of contact with outsiders because they do not have immunity to Western diseases.
International law recognizes the Indians’ land as theirs, just as it recognizes their right to live on it as they want to.
Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUVqF4kLJKA
http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/theevidence
http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/uncontactedencounters
Blog 279-365
We need to protect those those that cannot protect themselves. We need to speak for those that cannot speak for themselves.
In the depths of the Amazon rainforest in Peru live tribes who have no contact with the outside world.
Oil workers and illegal loggers are invading their land and bringing disease. They won’t survive unless this stops.
An indigenous group living in extreme isolation in the Amazon rain forest has stirred fresh controversy and new concerns over the fate of the region's so-called uncontacted tribes. They are at risk of extinction from disease and land theft.
Aerial footage of one of the world's last uncontacted tribes has been released. Survival's new film, narrated by Gillian Anderson, has launched our campaign to help protect the earth's most vulnerable peoples.
Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, has confirmed the presence of 27 indigenous groups living in extreme isolation in Brazil's vast Amazon region, making it the home of the largest number of uncontacted tribes in the world. (It's possible Brazilian forests may shelter as many as 84 such tribes.) After Brazil, Peru has the second largest number: 15.
A meeting took place between Brazilian and Peruvian officials in Lima, where the two countries agreed to strengthen cross-border monitoring of the volatile region to protect the uncontacted indigenous groups.
Peruvian loggers and The Brazilian state oil company Petrobras is prospecting for gas in the state of Acre, and that is increasing pressure on the tribes.
The Acre state government is reported to have recently built a road straight into the remote region. Experts agree that road construction in the Amazon rain forest leads to land speculation, rampant deforestation, and grave risk to indigenous populations.
Kawahiva tribe, an isolated indigenous people whose few dozen surviving members live in a state of constant flight from loggers and land speculators who have invaded their territory.
Brazil's constitution guarantees indigenous populations the right to the undisturbed use of their traditional lands and obliges the federal government to intervene to protect them.
Uncontacted tribes are extremely vulnerable to any form of contact with outsiders because they do not have immunity to Western diseases.
International law recognizes the Indians’ land as theirs, just as it recognizes their right to live on it as they want to.
Everything we know about these isolated Indians makes it clear they seek to maintain their isolation.
On the very rare occasions when they are seen or encountered, they make it clear they want to be left alone.
If you want to understand the society follow the money!
More than 70% of the Peruvian Amazon has been leased by the government to oil companies. Much of this includes regions inhabited by uncontacted tribes.
Oil exploration is particularly dangerous to the Indians because it opens up previously remote areas to other outsiders, such as loggers and colonists. They use the roads and paths made by the exploration teams to enter.
In the past, oil exploration has led to violent and disastrous contact with isolated Indians.
In the early 1980s, exploration by Shell led to contact with the isolated Nahua tribe. Within a few years around 50% of the Nahua had died.
Now a consortium of companies led by Argentine Pluspetrol is working on the Nahua’s land and plans to expand the massive gas project. It is Peru’s largest gas field, and is known as ‘Camisea’.
Loggers
The other principal threat is illegal loggers, many of them after mahogany. Known as ‘red gold’, mahogany commands a very high price on the global market.
Peru’s rainforest has some of the last commercially viable mahogany stands anywhere in the world, prompting a ‘red gold fever’ for the last of them.
Tragically, these are the same regions where the isolated Indians live, meaning that loggers invade their territory and contact is almost inevitable.
In 1996 illegal loggers forced contact with the Murunahua Indians. In the following years over 50% of them died, mainly from colds, flu and other respiratory infections.
Loggers have also been forcing members of an uncontacted tribe to flee from Peru across the border into Brazil.
Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUVqF4kLJKA
http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/theevidence
http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/uncontactedencounters
