Survival launches global boycott of
India's tiger reserves
Baiga woman evicted
from Kanha. The Baiga have struggled to find land
since their eviction and now face poverty and
misery.
© Survival Survival
International has launched a worldwide
tourist boycott of India’s
tiger reserves until the rights of tribal
peoples living within them are fully restored and
respected.
Indian
conservation authorities have banned the
recognition of tribal
rights in tiger reserves, a move that has
provoked widespread condemnation.
Tens
of thousands of Indian tribal people have been illegally
evicted from villages inside tiger reserves,
and forced into lives of poverty and misery on the
fringes of mainstream society.
India’s
Forest
Rights Act guarantees tribal people the right
to live on and protect their ancestral land.
Big
conservation organizations such as the Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS)
support the evictions. For decades WCS has led the call for the
“relocation” of tribal people from tiger
reserves.
Hunting by the Raj
elite endangered India’s tigers – but tribal
people are paying the price of conservation
efforts.
© Wikimedia Many
tribal peoples are not aware that they have the
right to stay on their land, because forest
authorities do not tell them.
Background
briefing
- The National Tiger
Conservation Authority (NTCA) has issued an order
stating that tribal peoples’ rights should not be
recognized in critical tiger habitats. The NTCA has no legal authority to
issue this order, which is a gross violation of
the Forest Rights Act.
- In the first tiger
reserve where tribal people had their right to
stay recognized, tiger numbers have increased
at well above the national average.
A Chenchu woman from
Pecheru village, which was evicted from
Nagarjunsagar Srisailam Tiger Reserve. The Chenchu
report that of the 750 families that used to live
in the village, only 160 families survived after
the eviction.
© Survival Madegowda,
a tribal rights activist from the Soliga tribe in
southern India, condemned the ban, calling it a
violation of “human rights and tribal rights in
the name of tiger conservation. Tribal people,
tigers and wildlife can live together,
co-existence is possible because tribal
peoples have a depth of knowledge on biodiversity
and they know how to protect the forest and
wildlife.”
Members
of the Jenu Kuruba tribe, many of whom have been
evicted from Nagarhole National Park, protested
against the ban, threatening to block the road to
the park if it wasn’t withdrawn. A Jenu Kuruba man
said: "They evicted us on the pretext that we made
noise, that we disturbed the forest, but now there
are a lot of jeeps and tourism vehicles – isn’t
that a disturbance for the animals?”
Conservationist
Brajesh Dubey said: “We are going to see more
people displaced because the government wants to
show they care about tigers… But it has been
proven that tribal communities help prevent
poaching and also help
in conservation efforts.”
The Soliga have an
extraordinary knowledge of their environment, and
a deep reverence for the tiger.
© Survival Meanwhile,
thousands of tourists enter tiger reserves each
year, and industrial projects such as dam-building
and uranium
exploration have been approved inside
them.
The
boycott can be joined here
Survival’s
Director Stephen Corry said: “More and more
tourists are aware that India’s tiger reserves
hide a deep injustice – the illegal eviction of
tribes in the name of conservation. Now the
government has compounded this injustice by
banning the recognition of tribal rights in the
reserves for those who still remain. That’s why
we’re calling for a boycott of all tiger reserves.
The authorities need to realize that only by
complying with the law and recognizing tribes’
rights can the tiger be saved – and that
tourists won’t want to visit tiger reserves that
have been emptied of their rightful owners.”
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11751
Uganda: Batwa “Pygmy” imprisoned for
hunting now released
Kafukuzi Valence in his
cell in Kisoro, Uganda, in February 2017
© Alex Ahimbisibwe/Batwa
Development Organisation A
Batwa
“Pygmy” man has been released from prison,
after spending over seven months behind bars for
killing a small antelope inside a protected area
from which his people were illegally evicted.
Kafukuzi Valence, who has no
birth certificate but reports his age as 72,
claims the animal strayed from Uganda’s Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park into a neighboring
field.
“They
imprisoned me because I caught an animal from the
forest and ate it,” Mr Kafukuzi told Survival.
“I
was so ill and helpless, and I had no medical
care,” said Mr Kafukuzi, describing his time in
prison. “I had such bad pain in my chest and my
legs, and there were so many bedbugs biting
me.”
“Even
now I am very weak. I have nothing to eat, I just
sit here. That is my life now.”
Bwindi Impenetrable
National Park was established on the ancestral
homelands of the Batwa hunter-gatherers in 1991,
with the support of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
and without the Batwa’s consent.
© Emilie Giles/Survival
International Mr
Kafukuzi alleges that rangers from the Uganda
Wildife Authority also stole possessions from his
house at the time of his arrest.
Bwindi
Impenetrable National Park was established on the
ancestral homelands of the Batwa hunter-gatherers
in 1991, with the support of the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) and without the
Batwa’s consent. Now the Batwa are accused of
“poaching” when they hunt to feed their
families.
“The
wildlife rangers announced in the region that
everyone should leave the forest, but we stayed,”
recounted Mr Kafukuzi. “They came to hunt us down
and shoot at us.”
But
targeting tribal hunters diverts action away from
tackling the true poachers – criminals conspiring
with corrupt officials. Last week it
was reported that a Uganda Wildlife Authority
ranger was caught trafficking hippo teeth.
Survival
is campaigning to stop the violation of tribal
peoples’ rights in the name
of conservation.
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11863
COP 23: Survival calls for stronger
tribal voice at global climate
conference
The Guajajara Guardians
are a group of Brazilian Indians who protect their
forest in the Amazon, and the uncontacted people
who live in it.
© Survival Survival
International is calling for greater recognition
from world leaders for tribal peoples’ crucial
role in protecting
the environment, ahead of the COP 23 conference in Bonn,
Germany.
The
conference, which takes place between November 6
and November 17, is a follow up to the
groundbreaking Paris climate talks in 2015, and
brings together government representatives and
activists from around the world, including some
indigenous people, to discuss environmental
issues.
Survival
has been leading
the global call for a conservation model that
respects tribal peoples’ rights. This has been
increasingly acknowledged by key international
figures, including the United Nations Special
Rapporteur for Indigenous Peoples, Victoria
Tauli-Corpuz.
Satellite images show
that large areas of the Amazon are protected by
indigenous territories.
© Google
Earth Davi
Kopenawa, a Yanomami shaman known as the
Dalai Lama of the rainforest, said: “The rains
come late. The sun behaves in a strange way. The
world is ill. The lungs of the sky are polluted.
We know it is happening. You cannot go on
destroying nature.”
Evidence
proves that tribal territories are the best
barrier to deforestation. Robust land protection
measures and recognition of tribal land rights
protect vast areas of forest, aiding biodiversity
and reducing global CO2 levels.
But
despite this, some of the big conservation
organizations are partnering with industry and
tourism and destroying the environment’s best
allies. The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and The Wildlife
Conservation Society (WCS)
have both partnered
with logging companies in the Congo
Basin, none of which is logging at sustainable
rates, and both have contributed to gross
violations of the rights of tribal peoples like
the Baka and Bayaka.
Brazilian Indian leader
Sonia Guajajara, who will be attending the Bonn
climate conference.
© Survival
International Although
some indigenous
activists like Sonia Guajajara from Brazil
will be present at the talks, tribal peoples’
voices will not be at the center of the
conference. This is despite the fact that tribal
peoples are the best
conservationists and guardians of the natural
world, and should be at the forefront of the
environmental movement.
Survival’s
Director Stephen Corry said: “It’s dangerous to
sideline tribal people in discussions on how best
to protect our planet. They have far greater
insight into how to look after the environment
than anyone and we ignore their knowledge at our
peril. For decades, industrialized society has
ravaged the planet and destroyed indigenous
peoples along the way. It’s time we started
listening to them before it’s too late.”
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11858
Brazil: Tribe defy miners – “Our life
depends on the life of the earth and the
forest”
The Waiãpi have
organized protests against projects on their
land
© Survival The
Waiãpi tribe in Brazil have defied a hostile
government to defend their land rights.
The
tribe has circulated a powerful open letter in
which they state: “We’re against mining because we
want to defend our land and forest. We believe the
land is a person”.
The
letter was written in response to the Brazilian
government’s attempt to open up the Amazon forest
around the tribe’s land to large-scale
mining. Following a global outcry by
indigenous peoples and campaigners, the government
backed down.
However,
given the power of Brazil’s notorious agribusiness
lobby, the Waiãpi are on the alert. In the letter
they vow to defend their territory at all costs
against mining interests.
The
tribe say mining will not bring benefits to them.
They are concerned about conflict and disease
brought by an influx of outsiders, and the opening
up of their land to destructive economic interests
such as hydro-electric dams, ranching and gold
mining.
This
small Amazon tribe knows the devastating impacts
of highways and mining. Sporadic contacts with
outsiders hunting wild cats for their pelts and
groups of gold prospectors in the latter part of
last century introduced fatal diseases like
measles to which the isolated Waiãpi had no
resistance. Many died as a result.
In
1973 FUNAI, the
government’s indigenous affairs department decided
to contact the Waiãpi because the country’s
military dictatorship wanted to build a highway
through their land.
At
the time of contact, the Waiãpi numbered a mere
150 individuals and seemed on the brink of
extinction. However, they have proved
extraordinarily resilient and today number over
1,200 people.
They
have set up their
own organizations, expelled the gold miners
working illegally on their land, and trained their
own health agents and teachers who work in the
communities.
Some
members of the tribe have made innovative films
documenting their campaign for land rights. Some
toured abroad for international support, and their
communities physically mapped out their land,
which was finally recognized by the government in
1996. Since then, they have occupied all the
regions within the territory to protect it from
invasion.
The
letter underlines their strong sense of cohesion:
“We Wajãpi have a very strong culture, which we
continue to value and transmit to our future
generations”.
Important
events in the natural calendar such as fish
spawning and honey gathering are celebrated with
ceremonies where all generations join in the
dancing, accompanied by flute music and the
consumption of caxiri, a drink made from fermented
manioc. Like most tribal peoples, their botanical
knowledge is immense – they cultivate over 15
types of wild manioc and 5 types of corn.
In
2008 UNESCO recognized the
Waiãpi’s graphic art, which they call kusiwa, as
the “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”. It
is based on the use of natural paints from plants,
like the red anatto paste, which is used to paint
intricate designs on the body and to decorate objects
like baskets
However
national and international pressure is fundamental
to support the Waiãpi in their continuing struggle
to assert their rights as they face increasing
threats to their land, a hostile congress and a
government intent on weakening indigenous rights
in Brazil.
Their
letter ends with a call to all who are concerned
about the destruction of the Amazon to support
them. Readers can take action by participating in
Survival’s
campaign here
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11856
Brazil: Uncontacted people threatened by
forest fire in Amazon
Fires are threatening
the lives and lands of tribal people in the
Amazon.
© Survival
International Forest
fires are raging in an indigenous territory on the
edge of the Brazilian Amazon, threatening to wipe
out uncontacted
members of the Awá tribe.
Neighboring
Guajajara Indians are attempting to contain
the blaze and demanding greater support from
government.
Campaigners
are concerned that the current wave of fires could
wipe out the uncontacted Awá and are calling
for urgent action.
The
Awá are already under great pressure as illegal
loggers are devastating their territory, which is
an island of green amid a sea of
deforestation.
Uncontacted
tribes are the most vulnerable
peoples the planet. Tribes like the Awá
are being wiped out by violence from
outsiders, and by diseases like flu and measles to
which they have no resistance. Unless their land
is protected, they face catastrophe.
Among
those fighting the fires are indigenous
fire-fighters of the Environment Ministry’s fire
prevention scheme “Prevfogo,” and members of the
“Guajajara Guardians,” who live in and frequently
patrol
the area in an attempt to crack down on
illegal logging, and protect their uncontacted
neighbors who are living on the run.
Indigenous firefighters
in Arariboia Indigenous territory, Brazil.
© Guajajara Kaw
Guajajara, one of their leaders, said: “Our
uncontacted relatives can’t survive without their
forest… As long as we live we will fight for our
forest and the uncontacted Indians.”
The
Guardians’ role in protecting their forest
highlights the vital
role tribal peoples play in conservation,
ahead of the COP23 conference in Bonn, Germany
next month.
Tribal
peoples like the Guajajara and Awá have been
dependent
on and managed their environments for
millennia. Evidence proves that tribal peoples
are better at looking after their
environment than anyone else. They are the
best conservationists and guardians of the natural
world.
Survival
International, the global movement for tribal
peoples’ rights, is lobbying the Brazilian
government to ensure the Arariboia fires are
extinguished as a matter of urgency, and that all
invaders are evicted from the territory.
Read
this online: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11850
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