Sobrevoo no Vale do Javari localiza quatro aldeias isoladas na floresta amazônica, onde vivem cerca de 200 pessoas. foto: Peetsa/Arquivo CGIIRC-Funai
Pesquisadores brasileiros anunciaram, nesta quinta-feira, a descoberta de uma das últimas tribos indígenas não contactadas pela civilização ocidental, em um ponto remoto da Floresta Amazônica. Fotos aéreas reveladas pela Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai) ao canal árabe de TV Al Jazeera mostram quatro grandes construções no Vale do Javari, na tríplice fronteira com o Peru e a Bolívia. Diretor da Funai, Aloysio Guapindaia garantiu que o governo brasileiro trabalha no sentido de preservar a tribo encontrada do contato com o homem branco como forma de preservá-los de doenças desconhecidas por seu sistema imunológico.
Ainda segundo Aloysio Guapindaia, a tribo localizada pertence ao grupo linguístico Pano, difundido na região amazônica e alto Mato Grosso, onde outras tribos ainda não contactadas subsistem à exploração da madeira e de outras riquezas encontradas no solo. Até agora, ainda existem nove grupos não contactados naquela área e, em todo o país, são mais de 50 referências – sinais de sua existência em determinada região. No Estado, eles permanecem embrenhados nas matas dos municípios de Cotriguaçu, Apiacás, Aripuanã, Tabaporã, Juara, Juína, Comodoro e Colniza.
Outro sertanista, José Carlos dos Reis Meirelles, que chefia a Frente de Proteção Etno-Ambiental do Rio Envira, diz em um artigo publicado recentemente que já se sabia, “de antemão, da presença de madeireiras legais e ilegais explorando mogno nas cabeceiras dos rios Juruá, Envira, Purus e seus afluentes. Mas tudo de ruim que imaginava não chega nem perto da realidade. O que ocorre naquela região é um crime monumental contra a natureza, índios, fauna, além de um atestado da mais pura irracionalidade de como nós, civilizados, tratamos o mundo, casa de todos nós”.
“É preciso considerar que esses povos isolados não sabem o que é a civilização, e quando encontram algum sinal de civilização, ou atacam ou fogem. Mesmo quando fogem, acabam entrando em conflitos. O governo brasileiro e o governo peruano sabem de tudo isso, mas não movem uma palha ao menos para tentar solucionar a questão. Tudo fica nos protocolos de intenção, em atas de reuniões, em salas refrigeradas de encontros binacionais. Nada além disso. A principal causa do desmatamento na fronteira com o Peru é demanda de madeiras nobres, como o mogno, usado para fazer móveis ‘coloniais’, principalmente caixões” acrescentou.
Presentes e doenças
O velho método de contato usado por anos a fio foi deixado para trás. Nada de se apresentar, levar presentes e novos moldes culturais para os grupos isolados.
– Quando se faz isso, eles adoecem, se sedentarizam e mudam de hábitos – explicou a jornalistas o indigenista Juscelino Melo.
A Funai agora apenas observa de longe os movimentos dos indígenas, a fim de conhecer suas características e poder demarcar uma área adequada à sobrevivência do grupo. Esta é, aliás, a tentativa do órgão com os índios descobertos na serra Morena. Depois de estudar seus hábitos, o que era uma área de restrição se adequa e torna-se uma reserva indígena – em que o encontro entre brancos e índios, apesar de inevitável, é adiado ao máximo.
Não se sabe qual o parentesco do grupo isolado de Colniza com etnias das imediações. Mas tanto os índios cinta-larga quanto os arara – ambos habitantes daquela região do estado – reconheceram os artefatos recolhidos nos acampamentos como semelhantes aos que produzem. “Por enquanto, podemos dizer apenas que há grandes chances de serem um braço dos índios tupis”, apontou Melo.
Busca começou em 1999
Quando souberam que a região da serra Morena poderia abrigar um grupo indígena não contactado, funcionários da Funai organizaram a primeira expedição, em meados de 1999. O primeiro passo foi tentar extrair informações do funcionário da madeireira, o primeiro a avistar os vestígios. Mas a tentativa não vingou:
– Ele queria R$ 20 mil para mostrar onde era a área – lembrou o indigenista Juscelino Melo.
A equipe partiu então para outras estratégias. Juntou pistas informadas por fazendeiros da região, até encontrar a mesma picada que, tempos antes, havia sido aberta pelo primeiro a avistar o achado. Seguindo o rastro do trabalhador da madeireira – que perderam em muitas ocasiões – a Funai conseguiu encontrar o acampamento indígena. Isso depois de oito dias de viagem, e 160 quilômetros de trecho.
Ao final do “picadão”, os pesquisadores depararam-se com uma vigia de espera. Trata-se de uma espécie de camuflagem, usada por índios para observar a passagem de animais. À frente, encontraram dois abrigos de palha, que aparentemente acolheram um par de famílias. Mais tarde, nova dupla de malocas de palha foi descoberta, seguindo os mesmos padrões. Junto aos abrigos, uma fartura de artefatos: imensos cochos de palmeira trançada para fazer bebidas, cestos de palha, pedras de quebrar cocos, abanos, esteiras e assim por diante.
Segundo os cálculos de Juscelino Melo, as duas moradas deveriam abrigar oito pessoas. Ainda é cedo para saber se elas são os únicos indivíduos do grupo, ou uma parcela desgarrada de uma comunidade maior, que perambula pela região. Uma das características observadas pela Funai é que os índios produzem utensílios a cada novo acampamento – costume interpretado como a busca de mobilidade, em caso de fuga.
Seja qual for a hipótese, não há mais muito espaço para se locomoverem.
– Por isso, é importante preservar a área que ainda existe – observou Melo.
Os 160 mil hectares pleiteados pela Funai são ocupados por fazendas, madeireiras e poucos seringueiros, copaibeiros e coureiros, sobreviventes da decadência das três atividades.
publicado no Correio do Brasil em 23/6/2011
via Aljazeera (22.06.2011)
Funai descobre nova referência de índios isolados no Vale do Javari, no Amazonas
Entre 2000 e 2010, a Frente de Proteção Etnoambiental Vale do Javari (FPEVJ), na fronteira do Amazonas com o Peru, localizou pelo menos 90 pontos com referências de índios isolados vivendo em floresta densa naquela região.
Uma das referências foi identificada em 2010, quando uma maloca dos indígenas do rio Quixito foi vista durante sobrevoo da Funai. Desde 1978 não havia qualquer referência deste povo.No último dia 22 de abril uma nova referência surgiu durante expedição da FPEVJ e da Fundação Nacional do Índio (Funai).
Foram identificados três grupos de malocas na região na bacia do rio Jutaí, afluente do Solimões.
O chefe de Frente Etnoambeintal Vale do Javari, Fabrício Amorim, diz que ainda não é possível concluir se estas pessoas vivendo em isolamento são da família dos indígenas korubo (que também vivem em isolamento, mas já foram contatados há 15 anos) ou se pertencem a algum grupo ainda desconhecido da língua Pano.
Nas malocas registradas durante o sobrevoo feito pela Funai, os indigenistas acreditam que vivem pelo menos 100 pessoas. Há registros de malocas menores, tapiris e plantações de milho.
“A região do Vale do Javari é rica em indígenas que vivem em isolamento. A nossa política não é fazer contato, apenas monitorar a situação deles e promover a vigilância. Temos uma certa preocupação para que não ocorra a invasão dessas terras”, disse Amorim.
Conforme o chefe da Frente, é preciso fazer novas expedições (provavelmente no próximo ano) na região para confirmar se a nova área de referências de índios isolados está dentro da terra demarcada dos indígenas do Vale do Javari ou na fronteira.
Vigilância
Carlos Travassos, chefe da Coordenação Geral de Índios Isolados e de Recente Contato (CGIIRC) da Funai reiterou que a identificação dos isolados não pressupõe que o contato será feito.
“A área passará a ser estudada e trabalhada para que os instrumentos de vigilância seja realizado no local onde vivem os indígenas”, disse ele.
Conforme Travassos, no Vale do Javari, localizado na região do município de Atalaia do Norte (a 1.136,12 quilômetros de Manaus), há três postos de vigilância da Funai.
Algumas das principais ameaças dos indígenas daquela região são invasões de madeireiro, pescadores e doenças transmitidas por “brancos”.
No Vale do Javari existem povos indígenas de diferentes etnias. Entre as que já foram contatados estão marubo, matis, maioruna, kulina, além dos korubo, que estão na categoria de etnia de recente contato.
publicado em A Crítica em 16 de Junho de 2011
Funai confirma existência de novo grupo de índios isolados no Vale do Javari (AM)
Uma nova comunidade de índios isolados foi localizada pela Frente de Proteção Etnoambiental da Funai no Vale do Javari. A existência do grupo foi confirmada durante sobrevôo realizado em abril deste ano, com apoio do Centro de Trabalho Indigenista (CTI). A expedição aérea avistou três clareiras com quatro grandes malocas no total.
Segundo o coordenador da Frente do Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim, que identificou as clareiras por satélite antes da realização do sobrevoo, “os métodos, diretrizes e normas que guiam esse trabalho de identificação e proteção de isolados faz parte de uma política pública do Estado brasileiro. Para a confirmação de uma referência como essa, são necessários anos de trabalho sistemático e metódico, com realização de pesquisas documentais, expedições e análises de imagens de satélite, explica”.
Segundo ele, “a roça, bem como as malocas, são novas, datadas de no máximo um ano. O estado das palhas usadas na construção, e a plantação de milho indicam isso. Além do milho, havia banana e uma vegetação rasteira que parecia ser amendoim, entre outras culturas”, relata. As observações preliminares apontam que esse grupo pode pertencer à família linguística Pano.
Até o momento da confirmação, a presença desses índios isolados era apenas uma referência “em estudo”, pois havia relatos de sua existência, sem informações conclusivas sobre a exata localização e características da comunidade.
“Na Terra Indígena Vale do Javari há um complexo de povos isolados considerado como a maior concentração de grupos isolados na Amazônia e no mundo”, avalia Amorim. “Entre as principais ameaças à integridade desses grupos estão a pesca ilegal, a caça, a exploração madeireira, o garimpo, atividades agro-pastoris com grandes desflorestamentos, ações missionárias e situações de fronteira, como o narcotráfico. Outra situação que requer cuidados é a exploração de petróleo no Peru, que pode refletir na Terra Indígena do Vale do Javari”.
Referências – Oficialmente, a Funai reconhece a existência de 14 referências de índios isolados no Vale do Javari. Esse levantamento, no entanto, está em reformulação e o número pode aumentar. Atualmente há oito grupos de índios isolados com malocas, roças e tapiris já localizados por sobrevôo ou por expedições terrestres.
Entre os anos 2006 e 2010, foram localizados mais de 90 indícios da ocupação territorial desses grupos, como roças, tapiris e malocas. Essas observações apontam para a existência de uma população de aproximadamente 2 mil pessoas na Terra Indígena do Vale do Javari. Nessa última referência confirmada, estima-se que haja cerca de 200 pessoas, no conjunto de quatro malocas.
comunicado da Funai em 21 de Junho de 2011
Funai localiza povoado indígena isolado no Amazonas
A Funai (Fundação Nacional do Índio) confirmou nesta terça-feira (21) a localização de uma comunidade indígena que vive isolada no Vale do Javari, no Amazonas. De acordo com o órgão, a descoberta ocorreu durante uma expedição aérea realizada em abril deste ano, quando foram avistadas quatro aldeias em três grandes clareiras na região.
Segundo o coordenador da Frente do Vale do Javari, Fabrício Amorim, responsável pelo sobrevoo na área, até a descoberta, havia apenas relatos que indicavam a existência de um povoado isolado.
A Funai estima que cerca de 200 pessoas vivam nesta comunidade na floresta amazônica. De acordo com Amorim, o povoado cultiva milho, amendoim, banana e outras culturas.
- Para a confirmação de uma referência como essa, são necessários anos de trabalho sistemático e metódico, com realização de pesquisas documentais, expedições e análises de imagens de satélite.
A Funai reconhece a existência de 14 comunidades indígenas isoladas no Vale do Javari. De acordo com o órgão, entre 2006 e 2010, foram localizados mais de 90 indícios da ocupação territorial desses grupos, como roças, tapiris e aldeias. Essas observações apontam para a existência de uma população de aproximadamente 2.000 pessoas na região.
publicado no R7 em 21/06/2011
Uncontacted Tribe's Existence In Amazon Confirmed By Brazil
The Brazilian government confirmed this week the existence of an uncontacted tribe in a southwestern area of the Amazon rain forest.
Three large clearings in the area had been identified by satellite, but the population's existence was only verified after airplane expeditions in April gathered more data, the National Indian Foundation said in a news release Monday.
The government agency, known by its Portuguese acronym Funai, uses airplanes to avoid disrupting isolated groups. Brazil has a policy of not contacting such tribes but working to prevent the invasion of their land to preserve their autonomy. Funai estimates 68 isolated populations live in the Amazon.
The most recently identified tribe, estimated at around 200 individuals, live in four large, straw-roofed buildings and grow corn, bananas, peanuts and other crops. According to Funai, preliminary observation indicates the population likely belongs to the pano language group, which extends from the Brazilian Amazon into the Peruvian and Bolivian jungle.
The community is near the border with Peru in the massive Vale do Javari reservation, which is nearly the size of Portugal and is home to at least 14 uncontacted tribes.
"The work of identifying and protecting isolated groups is part of Brazilian public policy," said the Funai coordinator for Vale do Javari, Fabricio Amorim, in a statement. "To confirm something like this takes years of methodical work."
Story continues below
That adds up to a population of about 2,000 individuals in the reservation, Amorim said.
Their culture, and even their survival, is threatened by illegal fishing, hunting, logging and mining in the area, along with deforestation by farmers, missionary activity and drug trafficking along Brazil's borders, Amorim said.
Oil exploration in the Peruvian Amazon could also destabilize the region, he said.
In spite of the threats, most of Brazil's indigenous groups maintain their languages and traditions.
Many have long fought for control of land in which they've traditionally lived on. They won legal rights to reclaim that territory in Brazil's 1988 constitution, which declared that all indigenous ancestral lands be demarcated and turned over to tribes within five years.
So far, 11 percent of Brazilian territory and nearly 22 percent of the Amazon has been turned over to such groups.
Associated Press via Huffington Post
Brazil confirms existence of uncontacted tribe
The Brazilian authorities have confirmed the existence of a group of approximately 200 uncontacted Indians in the Amazon.
An overflight carried out by the government’s Indian Affairs Department, FUNAI, has revealed that these Indians are living in three clearings in the Javari Valley in the western Amazon, close to the border with Peru.
Fabricio Amorim, the leader of FUNAI’s overflight expedition, said that the Indians were growing corn, bananas, peanuts and other crops.
He warned, ‘Among the main threats to the well-being of these groups are illegal fishing, hunting, logging, mining, cattle ranching, missionary actions… and drug trafficking’, and added that oil exploration on the Peruvian side of the border also poses a risk to these people.
FUNAI’s policy is not to contact the Indians, but to monitor their land so that they can live there undisturbed, as they wish. It is crucial that the authorities remove all illegal invaders from the indigenous territory.
The Javari Valley is home to the highest concentration of uncontacted tribes in the world; around 2,000 uncontacted Indians are thought to live there.
Survival International’s release of unique aerial footage of another uncontacted tribe nearby, and its warning that these Indians were threatened by illegal logging in Peru, sparked a worldwide outcry.
publicado no Survival International
New isolated Amazon tribe
As far as I am aware, the discovery was first reported June 16 by A Critica newspaper in Manaus, and confirmed this week by the Brazilian government’s national Indian foundation, known as Funai.
The new tribe was discovered in the remote eastern part of the Brazilian Amazon about 1,130 kilometers east of Manaus.
They live in the Vale do Javari, a huge demarcated reserve roughly 80,000 square kilometers in size, slightly larger than Ireland.
In Javari alone Funai has identified 14 isolated tribes; the area is thought to hold the highest concentration of uncontacted tribes anywhere in the world.
The discovery was made during a research flyover of the region conducted in April after satellite images picked up specks of unknown clearing.
The newly discovered tribe is thought to be of the Pano linguistic group and likely an offshoot of the korubo family, according to Funai.
“This is a great discovery that required very careful and intense work,” Carlos Travassos, chief of the isolated/newly contacted Indians division at Funai, told Al Jazeera by phone. “We have been working in this region since 2002 and have detailed information about several tribes.”
Also discovered on the recent flyover were new huts never before photographed of identified tribes - the korubo, their first contact with outsiders famously conacted in 1996 in this video.
Only in very rare instances (like the video link above) is contact ever made with uncontacted tribes. The Brazilian government policy is to avoid personal contact with uncontacted tribes in fear of disrupting their natural habitat or passing on germs the Indians are not immune from. “Our work now is to guarantee their survival and population growth, without contact,” Travassos said. “We have to keep monitoring them in order to protect their territory from ranchers and loggers.”
The new discoveries come just a little over two years since dramatic photos of another uncontacted tribe were captured near the same area in Brazil by longtime Funai Indian researcher Jose Carlos Meirelles. The photos showed painted Indians firing arrows at the passing airplane.
Those Indians lived in another remote area of the Amazon, in Acre state, not far from the Peru border. (Meirelles refuses to give the GPS coordinates to anybody, he says, in fear that rouge explorers might try to contact them).
At the time, I went to Feijo, Brazil in the Brazilian Amazon to interview Meirelles and my video report detailing his now famous expedition can be seen here.
Meirelles, who is part of a small group of Indian researchers who live deep in the jungle to document un-contacted tribes, told me back then that the threat of illegal, cross border logging, and gold and oil exploration was pushing into uncontacted Indians lands and surely a lethal threat.
“There is massive logging on the Peru side of the Border, and unfortunately the Peru side of this border is a no-mans land and everything is permitted,” Meirelles told me.
Meirelles told me then that while outsiders should never contact isolated tribes, it is up to outsiders to protect them because it is outsiders encroaching on them, not the other way around.
“The destiny of these (uncontacted tribes) is not in their hands, it’s in our hands,” Meirelles told me. “Their future existence depends on us, and what the government of Brazil and Peru are going to do with the Amazon region. If we don’t protect it, these people will soon be gone, and the world will be a sad place.”
The Funai researchers say they will examine the photos, and maybe do another flyover of the huts, to try to gain more insight into the mysterious natives who live inside.
por Gabriel Elizondo
para a Aljazeera - 23 de Junho 2011
Uncontacted tribe found deep in Amazon rainforest
Ancient community discovered after small forest clearings detected on satellite images
foto: Gerd Ludwig
Brazilian authorities say they have pinpointed the location of a community of ancient and uncontacted tribespeople in one of the remotest corners of the Amazon rainforest.
Fabricio Amorim, a regional co-ordinator for Brazil's indigenous foundation, Funai, said the indigenous community had been found after three small forest clearings were detected on satellite images. Flyovers were carried out in April, confirming the community's existence.
Four straw-roofed huts, flanked by banana trees and encircled by thick jungle, can be seen in photographs taken during the flyover.
The community is likely to be home to about 200 people, probably from the Pano linguistic group which straddles the border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, according to Funai.
Amorim said the region — known as the Vale do Javari — contained "the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the Amazon and the world" but warned of growing threats to their survival.
"Among the main threats to the well-being of these groups are illegal fishing, hunting, logging, mining, cattle ranching, missionary actions… and drug trafficking," he said. Oil exploration over the border in Peru could also have a negative impact on indigenous tribes in region.
Officially, Funai recognises the existence of 14 uncontacted tribes in the Vale do Javari, making up a total of at least 2,000 people. But that number is likely to rise as expeditions to this region of the western Amazon continue.
Government officials currently seek to avoid direct contact with Brazil's uncontacted tribes, instead working to identify and protect their lands from afar. But many believe limited contact may become necessary in order to protect the groups from external threats.
José Carlos Meirelles, a veteran Funai official who has spent more than two decades working in the Javari region, said in 2009: "If this situation continues, contact will become inevitable, and it is better that it happens with us than with loggers or goldpanners."
publicado no The Guardian - 22.06.2011
Contact with Amazon tribes inevitable, says Brazilian protection agency
Illegal loggers have put the survival of the last isolated indigenous groups increasingly at risk
The last isolated indigenous tribes, located deep in the Amazon rainforest, may need to be contacted for the first time to protect them from illegal loggers, according to Brazil's agency, Fundação Nacional do Indio (Funai).The Funai official José Carlos Meirelles, who has been monitoring the groups along the border between Brazil and Peru for over 20 years, told the Guardian that he believes their survival is increasingly at risk.
The decision to make contact with the tribes is not one to be taken lightly. The last time isolated groups were contacted in the Amazon was in 1996, but the Korubo in the Javari valley have since suffered epidemics of malaria and hepatitis, resulting in many deaths.
Establishing contact, however, could be the only deterrent from the looming danger of loggers. If friendly contact were established, Funai would build a post inside their area to deter the loggers and offer healthcare, vaccinating tribe members against the many diseases that contact with the outside world inevitably brings.
The risk comes not only from the loggers, but gold prospectors and coca planters who have also invaded the region, bringing disease and violence.
Meirelles wants to see an international boycott of mahogany products: "Americans should know that with each mahogany coffin they use to bury a dead person, they are also burying two indians," he warned. He said 80% of the world's mahogany comes from the region where the isolated indians live, logged illegally, but sold to consumers in Europe, Asia and the USA through legal companies.
Meirelles, 60, spends most of his time almost as isolated as the tribes, living at a base deep in the forest, powered by solar energy, linked to Funai HQ in Brasilia by radio. He has acquired an intimate knowledge of the territory, trekking through the forest and travelling the rivers and inlets to record signs of their presence and map out the area they inhabit. This area is now officially recognised by the Brazilian government and designated as an indigenous area.
Over the years he has caught many glimpses of the tribes. At first, he says, they were hostile, but now they seem to realise that he does not wish them harm, but they never go near him: "They don't want contact." Meirelles said he has suffered over 30 bouts of malaria in the forest and last year survived a deep arrow wound when a tribesperson shot him, apparently mistaking him for a logger.
Another threat to survival is the increasing presence of international oil companies like Anglo-French Perenco, Canada's Petrolifera and Brazil's Petrobras, eager to drill in a huge oilfield located in the Peruvian Amazon. The Peruvian government at first denied there were any uncontacted tribes in the area, but has now admitted their existence.
Indigenous groups have already begun fleeing across the border, invading areas of isolated tribes on the Brazilian side, leading to conflicts and deaths.
"If this situation continues, contact will become inevitable, and it is better that it happens with us than with loggers or goldpanners," says Meirelles.
Before any contact is made, Funai is organising meetings with anthropologists, NGOs, and especially with the accultured tribes living in the same Amazon area, to build up a consensus about how and what should be done.
Meirelles estimates that there are approximately 600 indigenous people on the Brazilian side, divided among four groups, and an unknown number on the Peruvian side. Some groups are nomadic, hunting, fishing and collecting fruits and nuts from the forest. Others are sedentary, growing crops and living in settlements of straw-roofed huts, like the ones who were filmed last year firing arrows at a Funai helicopter which overflew their area.
The Brazilian indigenous population is at least 500,000. Most are in the Amazon, speaking over 180 languages and dialects, at different stages of acculturation, but until contact is made, nobody knows the origin of these particular isolated groups.
publicado no The Guardian - 27.04.2009
Fabricio Amorim, a regional co-ordinator for Brazil's indigenous foundation, Funai, said the indigenous community had been found after three small forest clearings were detected on satellite images. Flyovers were carried out in April, confirming the community's existence.
Four straw-roofed huts, flanked by banana trees and encircled by thick jungle, can be seen in photographs taken during the flyover.
The community is likely to be home to about 200 people, probably from the Pano linguistic group which straddles the border between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, according to Funai.
Amorim said the region — known as the Vale do Javari — contained "the greatest concentration of isolated groups in the Amazon and the world" but warned of growing threats to their survival.
"Among the main threats to the well-being of these groups are illegal fishing, hunting, logging, mining, cattle ranching, missionary actions… and drug trafficking," he said. Oil exploration over the border in Peru could also have a negative impact on indigenous tribes in region.
Officially, Funai recognises the existence of 14 uncontacted tribes in the Vale do Javari, making up a total of at least 2,000 people. But that number is likely to rise as expeditions to this region of the western Amazon continue.
Government officials currently seek to avoid direct contact with Brazil's uncontacted tribes, instead working to identify and protect their lands from afar. But many believe limited contact may become necessary in order to protect the groups from external threats.
José Carlos Meirelles, a veteran Funai official who has spent more than two decades working in the Javari region, said in 2009: "If this situation continues, contact will become inevitable, and it is better that it happens with us than with loggers or goldpanners."
publicado no The Guardian - 22.06.2011
(...)
Contact with Amazon tribes inevitable, says Brazilian protection agency
Illegal loggers have put the survival of the last isolated indigenous groups increasingly at risk
The decision to make contact with the tribes is not one to be taken lightly. The last time isolated groups were contacted in the Amazon was in 1996, but the Korubo in the Javari valley have since suffered epidemics of malaria and hepatitis, resulting in many deaths.
Establishing contact, however, could be the only deterrent from the looming danger of loggers. If friendly contact were established, Funai would build a post inside their area to deter the loggers and offer healthcare, vaccinating tribe members against the many diseases that contact with the outside world inevitably brings.
The risk comes not only from the loggers, but gold prospectors and coca planters who have also invaded the region, bringing disease and violence.
Meirelles wants to see an international boycott of mahogany products: "Americans should know that with each mahogany coffin they use to bury a dead person, they are also burying two indians," he warned. He said 80% of the world's mahogany comes from the region where the isolated indians live, logged illegally, but sold to consumers in Europe, Asia and the USA through legal companies.
Meirelles, 60, spends most of his time almost as isolated as the tribes, living at a base deep in the forest, powered by solar energy, linked to Funai HQ in Brasilia by radio. He has acquired an intimate knowledge of the territory, trekking through the forest and travelling the rivers and inlets to record signs of their presence and map out the area they inhabit. This area is now officially recognised by the Brazilian government and designated as an indigenous area.
Over the years he has caught many glimpses of the tribes. At first, he says, they were hostile, but now they seem to realise that he does not wish them harm, but they never go near him: "They don't want contact." Meirelles said he has suffered over 30 bouts of malaria in the forest and last year survived a deep arrow wound when a tribesperson shot him, apparently mistaking him for a logger.
Another threat to survival is the increasing presence of international oil companies like Anglo-French Perenco, Canada's Petrolifera and Brazil's Petrobras, eager to drill in a huge oilfield located in the Peruvian Amazon. The Peruvian government at first denied there were any uncontacted tribes in the area, but has now admitted their existence.
Indigenous groups have already begun fleeing across the border, invading areas of isolated tribes on the Brazilian side, leading to conflicts and deaths.
"If this situation continues, contact will become inevitable, and it is better that it happens with us than with loggers or goldpanners," says Meirelles.
Before any contact is made, Funai is organising meetings with anthropologists, NGOs, and especially with the accultured tribes living in the same Amazon area, to build up a consensus about how and what should be done.
Meirelles estimates that there are approximately 600 indigenous people on the Brazilian side, divided among four groups, and an unknown number on the Peruvian side. Some groups are nomadic, hunting, fishing and collecting fruits and nuts from the forest. Others are sedentary, growing crops and living in settlements of straw-roofed huts, like the ones who were filmed last year firing arrows at a Funai helicopter which overflew their area.
The Brazilian indigenous population is at least 500,000. Most are in the Amazon, speaking over 180 languages and dialects, at different stages of acculturation, but until contact is made, nobody knows the origin of these particular isolated groups.
publicado no The Guardian - 27.04.2009
via Aljazeera (17.Jun.2008)
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário