Resgatando uma matéria publicada no começo deste mês sobre o risco que correm alguns índios isolados da etnia Ayoreo, cuja existência foi negada até muito pouco tempo, diante do avanço descontrolado da exploração daquelas que sempre foram as suas terras.
De quebra, clicando no link para expansão do texto no final do artigo, o Conexão deixa um dossier sobre a situação do Ayoreo, bem como alguns vídeos e documentários produzidos a seu respeito.
Em um comunicado oficial, o departamento para assuntos indígenas do governo paraguaio, INDI, confirmou que uma tribo isolada está vivendo em terras de posse de uma controversa empresa de pecuária, na região do norte do Chaco.
Sinais dos índios Ayoreo isolados foram encontrados nas terras da empresa brasileira River Plate. A investigação mostra sinais claros da presença da chamada "tribo escondida", detalhando pegadas, buracos confeccionados para a captura de tartarugas e galhos quebrados.
O INDI alertou: "Os indígenas da área são forçados a fugirem para outras zonas de forma a evitarem serem descobertos... ignorar o conhecimento possuído pelos donos originais da floresta do Chaco seria um erro tolo."
A evidência terá consequências para as controversas empresas de pecuária River Plate e BBC S.A., as quais já foram acusadas de colocarem a vida dos Ayoreo em risco.
Imagens de satélite de 2011 revelaram a destruição de quase 4,000 hectares de floresta habitada por índios isolados, fazendo com que as empresas fossem acusadas por desmatamento ilegal.
A organização Ayoreo, OPIT, apelou para que se faça mais pela proteção dos Ayoreo isolados que estão sendo deslocados para fora de suas florestas pela empresa River Plate.
Em fevereiro, um líder Ayoreo, Porai Picanerai, disse ao procurador-geral do Paraguai: "Nós lhe pedimos para que pare com o desmatamento no Chaco, e que punam aqueles que estão matando a floresta, da qual nós dependemos para sobreviver."
O diretor da Survival International, Stephen Corry, disse hoje: "É encorajador o fato de o governo ter atendido os apelos dos Ayoreos para que se investigasse a presença de seus familiares isolados. Contudo, ações falam mais alto que discursos. O governo agora deve reprimir o desmatamento ilegal e garantir os direitos dos Ayoreo à terra, os quais eles têm demandado por mais de 20 anos. É imperativo para que a sobrevivência de seus familiares isolados seja salvaguardada."
publicado no MS Notícias em 01/03/2012
Reportagem: Contacto com o Povo Ayoreo:
Reportagem: "Los Ayoreo en Paraguay"
Liderança Ayoreo fala sobre a luta pelas terras:
Ayoreo - Agonía y resistencia en el Chaco Paraguayo:
Para ver ainda:
- Viaje al Chaco paraguayo (setiembre 2010): entre éden y purgatorio
- Chaco Paraguayo: Reserva de la Biosfera
- Deflorestacion del Chaco
- "Garay y Degüi " ser Ayoreo en la ciudad
Sobre a situação dos Ayoreo
Bulldozers move in on isolated Indians' heartland
The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians live in the Chaco, a vast expanse of dense, scrubby forest stretching from Paraguay to Bolivia and Argentina.
Their territory has been bought by land speculators and ranchers and is now being rapidly cleared.
Other Totobiegosode groups came out of the forest in 1998 and 2004 as continual invasions of their land meant they constantly had to abandon their homes, making life very hard. An unknown number still live a nomadic life in the forest.
The greatest current threat to the Totobiegosode is a Brazilian firm, Yaguarete Porá. It owns a 78,000 hectare plot in the heart of their territory, very near where uncontacted Ayoreo were recently sighted.
Yaguarete plans to bulldoze most of it to create a cattle ranch – this will have a devastating effect on the Indians’ ability to continue living there.
Of the several different sub-groups of Ayoreo, the most isolated are the Totobiegosode (‘people from the place of the wild pigs’).
Since 1969 many have been forced out of the forest, but some still avoid all contact with outsiders.
Their first sustained contact with white people came in the 1940s and 1950s, when Mennonite farmers established colonies on their land.
The Ayoreo resisted this invasion, and there were killings on both sides.
In 1979 and 1986 the American fundamentalist New Tribes Mission helped organise ‘manhunts’ in which large groups of Totobiegosode were forcibly brought out of the forest.
Several Ayoreo died in these encounters, and others succumbed later to disease.
Crysis point
Almost all Ayoreo land is now owned by private landowners, who hire work-teams to clear the forest of valuable timber and then introduce cattle. Many of these new landowners are Mennonites, but much of the Ayoreo land has now been bought up by wealthy Paraguayan and, especially, Brazilian cattle-ranching businesses.
The Indians are claiming title to just a fraction of their territory. Without their forest they cannot feed or support themselves, and they are also greatly concerned about their uncontacted relatives still living there.
Under Paraguayan law, this claim area should have been titled to the Indians years ago, as both Paraguayan law, and the country’s Constitution, recognize the Indians’ right to the ownership of their traditional lands.
But the powerful landowners have blocked the law at every turn, and have illegally bulldozed some of the forest already.
In the heart of the Indians’ territory is a 78,000 hectare plot owned by a Brazilian firm, Yaguarete Porá. It has already cleared a large area of forest very close to where isolated Ayoreo were recently seen.
In response to public anger it has announced plans to create a ‘nature reserve’ on its land, but actually intends to destroy around two thirds of the forest.
It is for this latest act that Yaguarete was awarded Survival’s 2010 Greenwashing Award.
With the bulldozing of this vast area of forest, the isolated Totobiegosode will have nowhere left to hide. The settled Totobiegosode are desperate to protect it.
How do they live?
The Totobiegosode live in small communities. They grow squashes, beans and melons in the sandy soil, and hunt in the forest. Large tortoises and wild pig are particularly prized, as is the abundant wild honey.
In the forest four or five families will live together in a communal house. A central wooden pillar supports a dome-shaped structure of smaller branches, topped with dried mud.
Each family will have its own hearth around the outside; people will only sleep inside if it rains.
The most important Ayoreo ritual was named after asojna, the nightjar: when the bird’s call was first heard it heralded the arrival of the rainy season, and a month of celebrations and festivities.
The Ayoreo who now live in settled communities live in individual family huts. Those who have lost their land now have little choice but to work as exploited labourers on the cattle ranches that have taken over much of their territory.
The evangelical New Tribes Mission has a base near their communities, and exerts a powerful influence on their daily lives. Under the missionaries, the asojna ritual—and many others—have been suppressed.
fonte: Survival
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