Siegfried
04-27-2012, 12:40 AM
One of the last remaining nomadic tribes of the Amazon faces extinction unless urgent action is taken to protect them from violent invaders intent on throwing them off their land, a leading human rights organisation has warned.
The rarely glimpsed Awa of the Brazilian Amazon are now considered to be the globe’s ‘most threatened tribe’ as land grabs from illegal loggers, ranchers and settlers displace a people who have lived in the Brazilian rainforests for centuries.
First discovered in the mid-1970s, 360 surviving members of the Awa tribe are currently in contact with the outside world, with a further 60-100 believed to be taking refuge in the forests.
The Awa are one of the world’s last fully nomadic groups. They are hunter-gatherers, relying solely on the Amazon as a food source. The tribe utilises products of the forest in their day-to-day life, using palm leaves to make shelters, clothing and baby carriers, resin from trees to make fires and plants to cure a number of ailments.
Campaign group Survival International has been working to protect the Awa since their territory in Maranhao state was opened up to the outside world in 1982 when rich deposits iron ore in the Carajas mountains were first exploited. Indigenous peoples constitutionally hold first rights to land in Brazil, but a programme of rail and road building in the Awa’s territory connecting the mines to the coast ran roughshod over their liberties.
According to Survival International’s research director Fiona Watson a third of the rainforest traditionally populated only by the Awa has been wiped out since development first began. New settlers have committed atrocities and brought with them diseases against which the Awa have no immunity.
“I have spoken to Awa who have told me that they have seen their relatives being shot in front of their eyes when they were living remote and uncontacted in the forest,” she told Yahoo! News. “Lots of the cattle ranchers and loggers are heavily armed and operate like gangs. These kinds of attacks are happening all the time.
“Clearly if you wipe people out then the land is up for grabs for anyone to exploit. Land speculation is a big problem in parts of the Amazon as people are going in thinking if they clear Indians off the land they can lay a stake to it”.
Source (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/save-them-before-it’s-too-late--why-the-world’s-most-threatened-tribe-faces-extinction-.html)
Awa People:
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/l43P9zrw.hX3mdjo8_P2VQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2012/04/25/Awa1-jpg_105528.jpg
Awa Man in Front of Forest Burnt by Loggers:
http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2012/04/25/Awa2-jpg_105831.jpg
The rarely glimpsed Awa of the Brazilian Amazon are now considered to be the globe’s ‘most threatened tribe’ as land grabs from illegal loggers, ranchers and settlers displace a people who have lived in the Brazilian rainforests for centuries.
First discovered in the mid-1970s, 360 surviving members of the Awa tribe are currently in contact with the outside world, with a further 60-100 believed to be taking refuge in the forests.
The Awa are one of the world’s last fully nomadic groups. They are hunter-gatherers, relying solely on the Amazon as a food source. The tribe utilises products of the forest in their day-to-day life, using palm leaves to make shelters, clothing and baby carriers, resin from trees to make fires and plants to cure a number of ailments.
Campaign group Survival International has been working to protect the Awa since their territory in Maranhao state was opened up to the outside world in 1982 when rich deposits iron ore in the Carajas mountains were first exploited. Indigenous peoples constitutionally hold first rights to land in Brazil, but a programme of rail and road building in the Awa’s territory connecting the mines to the coast ran roughshod over their liberties.
According to Survival International’s research director Fiona Watson a third of the rainforest traditionally populated only by the Awa has been wiped out since development first began. New settlers have committed atrocities and brought with them diseases against which the Awa have no immunity.
“I have spoken to Awa who have told me that they have seen their relatives being shot in front of their eyes when they were living remote and uncontacted in the forest,” she told Yahoo! News. “Lots of the cattle ranchers and loggers are heavily armed and operate like gangs. These kinds of attacks are happening all the time.
“Clearly if you wipe people out then the land is up for grabs for anyone to exploit. Land speculation is a big problem in parts of the Amazon as people are going in thinking if they clear Indians off the land they can lay a stake to it”.
Source (http://uk.news.yahoo.com/save-them-before-it’s-too-late--why-the-world’s-most-threatened-tribe-faces-extinction-.html)
Awa People:
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/l43P9zrw.hX3mdjo8_P2VQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2012/04/25/Awa1-jpg_105528.jpg
Awa Man in Front of Forest Burnt by Loggers:
http://l.yimg.com/os/251/2012/04/25/Awa2-jpg_105831.jpg