Gold miners a threat to uncontacted tribe
NEW aerial photos taken recently show an uncontacted tribal community in the Amazon, estimated to be home to 100 people.
The area, located in the Yanomami indigenous territory in the north of Brazil, close to the Venezuelan border, has a population of approximately 22 000 with at least three groups having no contact with the outside world.
According to activists working with some of the Yanomami, the tribe is extremely vulnerable to violence and disease from outsiders.
“When their land is protected, uncontacted tribes can thrive. However, this area is currently being over-run by more than 1 000 illegal gold miners, raising serious fears that some of the most vulnerable people on the planet could be wiped out,” said spokesperson of Survival International Ghislain Pascal.
Survival International works to lobby for the protection of indigenous communities worldwide.
Pascal says miners entering the Yanomami indigenous territory have brought with them diseases such as malaria, and polluted the area’s food and water resources with mercury, leading to a health crisis.
Yanomami shaman and activist Davi Kopenawa Yanomami said: “The place where the uncontacted Indians live, fish, hunt and plant must be protected. The whole world must know they are there in their forest and that the authorities must respect their right to live there.” Davi is president of the Yanomami association Hutukara and has been called “The Dalai Lama of the Rainforest”.
Of the miners he said: “They are like termites – they keep coming back and they don’t leave us in peace.”
Brazilian government agents charged with protecting the Yanomami territory are currently facing severe budget cuts amid politicians’ plans to drastically weaken indigenous land protection and rights.
Without continued support, the team responsible for the Yanomami region will be unable to protect the territory from invaders, and might even be closed down completely.
This would leave the uncontacted Yanomami at risk of annihilation.