Brazil's raging forest fires threaten indigenous land, uncontacted tribes

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Brazil's raging forest fires threaten indigenous land, uncontacted tribes
Wed Sep 21, 2016 | 1:20pm EDT


RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Forest fires raging in northeast Brazil are forcing indigenous people out of their traditional territories and threatening uncontacted tribes, an indigenous leader said on Wednesday.

Fire season in the Amazon and surrounding savannah normally lasts from July to November, but burning has become more intense due to climate change and illegal logging, said Sonia Guajajara, National Coordinator of the Association of Indigenous Peoples.

Uncontacted members of the Awa tribe live in areas affected by fires, and some have been forced out of the jungle, Guajajara told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"The Awa people live in isolation but they are coming out of the forests much more frequently," said Guajajara, who hails from the fire-hit region in northeastern Maranhao state.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-landrights-environment-idUSKCN11R2B5

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(Sounds as if the agricultural/industrial interests have decided to burn them out of their ancestral home.)

[forest444]

1. Fires almost certainly set by gold prospectors, loggers, or land grabbers.

Many of them originally slum dwellers lured by the government or unscrupulous businessmen deeper and deeper into the jungle.

I remember reading a good National Geographic article on the subject (before NatGeo went neocon) in which a group of squatters (garimpeiros) were being ordered to leave after settling in designated indigenous lands; a con man had apparently "sold" the land to them (sounds like Trump).

"How can you do this to us!" their delegate yelled. "The indians have so much land, and they're so lazy! We're working hard to make something out of this place!"

The squatters and the indians, both victims in their own way. Beyond the gross environmental and ecological tragedy, Amazon deforestation has so much human tragedy as well.

Thank you, Judi, for always keeping us abreast of the latest developments in the Amazon - the lungs of the earth.