Nukak 'face extinction', indigenous leaders tell UN

2009-07-31T01:00:00+01:00

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Colombia’s national indigenous organisation, <a href="http://www.onic.org.co/nuevo/index.shtml" target="_blank">ONIC</a>, has warned the United Nations that the <a href="../../../../../tribes/nukak">Nukak</a>, the country’s last hunter-gatherers, are in danger of extinction. The warning was made in a report to the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya, who has recently visited Colombia. The Nukak are one of twenty-eight Colombian tribes considered by ONIC to face extinction. ONIC’s report estimates the number of Nukak alive today to be 490, 40% of whom are living displaced from their traditional territories on the outskirts of a town called San Jose del Guaviare in Colombia’s south-east rainforest. In the twenty years since the Nukak’s first sustained contact with outsiders, half of the population has died. ‘The Nukak’s history demonstrates how indigenous people can very quickly see their numbers reduced and their culture eroded,’ says ONIC’s report. Mr Anaya’s visit to Colombia was carried out between 23-27 July. ‘The situation of indigenous peoples’ rights in Colombia is serious, critical and deeply concerning,’ Mr Anaya said. ‘That was what the former Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, said after his visit to Colombia in 2004. The same can be said today, notwithstanding a number of important initiatives taken by Colombia’s government in the last few years.’

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Nukak mother and child having fled Colombia's civil war.

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Colombia’s national indigenous organisation, ONIC, has warned the United Nations that the Nukak, the country’s last hunter-gatherers, are in danger of extinction.

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Borneo tribe mounts new blockades

2009-07-30T01:00:00+01:00

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Dozens of <a href="../../../../../tribes/penan">Penan</a> tribespeople armed with blowpipes and spears have erected blockades across the roads cut by logging companies deep into their forest in Borneo. The blockaders are calling for an end to logging on their land. Survival International is calling for recognition of the hunter-gatherer Penan tribe’s land rights and a halt to all development on their land without their consent. Malaysian police are at the blockades, but no arrests have been reported. One Penan man told Survival, ‘This piece of forest is the only place left for us to hunt and find food. But there’s only a little bit left. Last night I went hunting and came back with nothing. If we can’t save this bit of forest, we will have nothing to eat.’ The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. They have been struggling for more than twenty years to stop the companies clearing their forests. Some have been successful, but many have seen their forests devastated, their rivers polluted and the animals and plants they rely on for food disappear. Now, where the valuable trees have all been taken, the companies are starting to clear the land completely for oil palm plantations. Palm oil is used in many foods and cosmetics, and increasingly for biofuels. Survival sent action bulletins to thousands of supporters worldwide last week, asking them to write to the Malaysian government in support of the Penan. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The logging and oil palm companies are robbing the Penan not just of their forests but of their food and water. It is essential that the Malaysian government recognizes the Penan’s rights to their land and stops allowing the companies to take everything in sight.’ The notorious Malaysian company Samling is logging in the Long Daloh area, and a subsidiary of the company KTS is logging in the Ba Marong area. Survival researcher Miriam Ross visited the Penan earlier this year, and is available for interview. <a href="../../../../../penan">Visit Survival’s webpage about the Penan </a>For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross: T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367 E <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org</a>

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A logger handles trees felled in the Penan's region.

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Dozens of Penan tribespeople armed with blowpipes and spears have erected blockades across the roads cut by logging companies deep into their forest in Borneo. The blockaders are calling for an end to logging on their land.

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Borneo tribe mounts new blockades against rainforest destruction

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2009-09-08T14:44:37+01:00

Botswana: Six Kalahari Bushmen imprisoned for hunting

2009-07-29T01:00:00+01:00

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Six Kalahari <a href="../../../../../tribes/bushmen">Bushmen</a> in Botswana have been arrested and jailed, charged with hunting inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. The Molepolole court is expected to rule on the charges on Monday. The case relates to two incidents, one earlier this year and the other in 2007. Botswana High Court Judge Justice Phumaphi ruled in 2006 that forbidding the Bushmen from hunting for food was ‘tantamount to condemning [them] to death’. The historic ruling recognized the Bushmen’s right to live on their ancestral land, and condemned the government’s repeated evictions of Bushmen, its ban on hunting and its destruction of their water source. The Botswana government has not granted a single hunting license for the reserve since 2001, despite the <a href="../../../../../news/2128">High Court ruling</a> that its hunting ban was unlawful and unconstitutional. At least 75 Bushmen have requested licenses. Many Bushmen have returned home since the 2006 ruling, but many are still trapped in relocation camps which they call ‘places of death.’ The government has largely ignored the High Court ruling, continuing to deny the Bushmen access to water and refusing them permission to hunt. Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said today, ‘Jailing six Bushmen for hunting is an outrageous act of hypocrisy by the Botswana government, which is still refusing to respect the ruling of the country’s own High Court that the Bushmen must be allowed to live freely on their land. Forbidding them from hunting for food is illegal.’ For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:   T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367 E <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org</a>

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Bushman elder, CKGR, Botswana 2004

2009-07-29T01:00:00+01:00

Six Kalahari Bushmen in Botswana have been arrested and jailed, charged with hunting inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

http://bit.ly/4q7DPt

Six Kalahari Bushmen imprisoned for hunting

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Tribe brings warning to London with help of celebrities

2009-07-27T01:00:00+01:00

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Human rights campaigner, Bianca Jagger, and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy lent their support for a protest today outside the AGM of British mining company Vedanta Resources. Bianca Jagger joined <a href="../../../../../tribes/dongria">Dongria Kondh</a> tribal representative Sitaram Kulisika, and eighty others, at the protest at Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London. The protestors demanded that the company withdraw its plans to construct a massive bauxite mine on the top of a mountain sacred to the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, India. Jagger said, ‘The mine will damage the cultural and economic rights of the Kondh people as well as the fight against climate change. There is plenty of proof that the best protectors of the forests and other vital eco-systems are local people themselves.’ Arundhati Roy sent a message of solidarity saying, ‘If Vedanta is allowed to go ahead with its plans for mining the <a href="../../../../../about/niyamgiri">Niyamgiri Hills</a> in Orissa for bauxite it will lead to the devastation of a whole ecosystem, and the destruction of not just the Dongria Kondh tribal community, but eventually all those whose livelihoods depend on that ecosystem.’ The Dongria Kondh are actively resisting Vedanta’s plans, building road blockades and human chains to prevent bulldozers from passing, in protests over many months. Dodi Pusika, a Dongria Kondh elder, said, ‘Niyamgiri [the mountain] is our God and he is guiding us all the time, he has kept us alive. Our God has been looking after us for thousands of years. We must make sure that we keep our mountain safe.’ Stephen Corry, director of Survival International said, ‘The days of British companies taking tribal peoples’ lands with impunity are over. The court of public opinion will ensure the Dongria Kondh don’t face this threat alone: it will ensure that the damage to the company’s reputation will, in the long run, outweigh its profits. As well as being a gross human rights violation, it’s just economic madness for Vedanta to mine Dongria land.’ <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zCQMGIrRpA"></a><a href="http://www.minefilm.com">Watch 'Mine' Survival's short film about the Dongria Kondh and Vedanta</a>For an exposé of Vedanta’s PR offensive, please visit <a href="../../../../../behindthelies">www.survival-international.org/behindthelies</a>   For more information and images please contact Miriam Ross:   T (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504543367 E <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org</a>   <div><h2>Click to download hi-res images</h2><table><tr><td><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/345/UK-DON-AGM-155_original.jpg"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/345/UK-DON-AGM-155_news_medium.jpg" alt="" /></a> Bianca Jagger spoke out against Vedanta Resources at the company's AGM. © Survival/Marc Cowan</td><td><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/346/UK-DON-AGM-56_original.jpg"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/346/UK-DON-AGM-56_news_medium.jpg" alt="" /></a> Sitaram Kulisika, from India's Dongria Kondh tribe, protests against Vedanta's mine. © Survival/Marc Cowan</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://assets.survival-international.org/pictures/341/UK-DON-AGM-138_original.jpg"><img src="http://assets.survival-international.org/pictures/341/UK-DON-AGM-138_news_medium.jpg" alt="" /></a> Eighty people joined the demonstration at Vedanta Resources' AGM. © Survival</td><td><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/342/UK-DON-AGM-20_original.jpg"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/342/UK-DON-AGM-20_news_medium.jpg" alt="" /></a> A protestor outside the Vedanta 2009 AGM. © Survival/Marc Cowan</td></tr><tr><td><a href="http://assets.survival-international.org/pictures/343/UK-DON-AGM-44_original.jpg"><img src="http://assets.survival-international.org/pictures/343/UK-DON-AGM-44_news_medium.jpg" alt="" width="240px" /></a> Protestors outside the Vedanta 2009 AGM in London. © Survival/Marc Cowan</td><td><a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/344/UK-DON-AGM-118_original.jpg"><img src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets-production.survival-international.org/pictures/344/UK-DON-AGM-118_news_medium.jpg" alt="" width="240px" /></a> Musician Nitin Sawhney joined Dongria Kondh man Sitaram Kulisika at the demonstration against Vedanta Resources. © Survival/Marc Cowan</td></tr></table></div> <div class="clearer"> </div>

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Human rights campaigner, Bianca Jagger, and Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy lent their support for a protest today outside the AGM of British mining company Vedanta Resources.

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2009-09-08T14:47:49+01:00

Brazil: Victory for Awá nomads

2009-07-27T01:00:00+01:00

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A Brazilian federal judge has ruled that ranchers and colonists illegally occupying the <a href="../../../../../tribes/awa">Awá</a> Indian reserve must leave the territory within 180 days.This is a major victory for the tiny nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe of 300 people in Maranhão state.  During the last two decades the Awá have suffered from the rapid and frequently violent invasion and destruction of their forest home by cattle ranchers and colonists. Outsiders have shot at Awá with guns and spread diseases against which they little or no immunity.More recently, loggers bulldozed a large road through the heart of their land, only three kilometres from the community where the most recently contacted Awá live.  This group is particularly susceptible to common diseases like flu.The ruling, delivered on 30 June, states that anyone who does not leave the territory within the time limit will be fined. The authorities are charged with removing people, dismantling buildings and closing roads. Survival has lobbied for many years for Awá land rights, and this year launched a new campaign calling for the judiciary to order the removal of all outsiders from the tribe’s land.  It is crucial that this ruling is upheld. The Awá, also known as Guajá, are one of the few nomadic tribes in Brazil. In the 1980s their lands were opened up by the massive ‘Great Carajás Project’. Brazil opened the world’s largest iron ore mine and built a railway line through Awá land to transport the ore.Many Awá were contacted during this period and settled in communities by FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department. Dozens died from disease or were killed in violent massacres at the hands of cattle ranchers and land grabbers. For years the Awá have spoken of the impact of outsiders on their land and way of life. The late To’o told Survival, ‘I see the karai [white  people] hunting everything and setting fire to everything. Why do they do this? They will finish this place off and it’s my place. This is our area and we are the owners.’Today there are around 60 uncontacted Awá, most of whom live in the Arariboiá reserve, also the home of the Guajajara Indians. The reserve has been heavily invaded by illegal loggers and there are fears for the future of the isolated Awá here.

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Karapiru Awá, Posto tiracambu, Caru, April 2000

2009-07-27T01:00:00+01:00

A Brazilian federal judge has ruled that ranchers and colonists illegally occupying the Awá Indian reserve must leave the territory within 180 days.

http://bit.ly/1gKtVf

Victory for Awá nomads

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2009-09-08T14:49:54+01:00

Brazil: Guarani land rights – ‘a question of honour’

2009-07-24T01:00:00+01:00

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The president of the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI, has declared that resolving <a href="../../../../../tribes/guarani">Guarani</a> land rights in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul is ‘a question of honour’ and one of the main challenges facing the organization today.FUNAI president Marcio Meira added that Brazil is being observed internationally regarding the situation of the Guarani and that it is unacceptable that the tribe live in such ‘precarious conditions’.For decades the Guarani have been evicted from their lands and confined to overcrowded reservations where violence and malnutrition are rife. The tribe has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.  According to the Catholic  indigenous rights organization CIMI, last year the homicide rate among the Guarani-Kaiowá was 20 times more that of São Paulo state, and at least 32 Guarani-Kaiowá committed suicide. Many Guarani say suicides and violence are a result of lack of land and loss of hope for a viable future.According to Anastacio Peralta, a Guarani Kaiowá spokesman, in Brazilian society ‘a cow is worth more than an indigenous child and a soya plant more than a ipê tree’.Last year the Attorney General’s office, which is responsible for ensuring indigenous rights are upheld, ordered FUNAI to implement a programme to recognise Guarani land rights. It duly established six working groups to survey Guarani lands with the aim of demarcating adequate territories for the tribe.The working groups started work last August but an alliance of landowners, colonists and local politicians mounted a campaign against the Indians and many land owners refused to cooperate. Faced with escalating intimidation, the working groups halted the surveys.Last week Brazil’s President Lula sent the minister in charge of institutional security, General Jorge Armando Félix, to the region to meet with politicians, landowners and the Indians and to report back on the situation.  The working groups are due to start work again this week.

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Guarani man

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The president of the Brazilian government’s Indian affairs department, FUNAI, has declared that resolving Guarani land rights in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul is ‘a question of honour’.

http://bit.ly/hceFl

Guarani land rights – ‘a question of honour’

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Vedanta blocked by tribal protests

2009-07-24T01:00:00+01:00

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Repeated protests by tribal people in Orissa, India, have blocked the mining plans of one of Britain’s biggest companies, leading to a costly delay. Anil Agarwal, billionaire chairman (and majority owner) of Vedanta Resources, announced in January that its massive bauxite mine in the Niyamgiri Hills would start ‘in a month or two’, but men and women of the <a href="../../../../../tribes/dongria">Dongria Kondh</a> tribe, furious at the planned destruction of their mountain top, have blocked roads and refused to allow the company’s diggers to pass. Besides repeated protests by hundreds of Dongria Kondh and other Kondh tribespeople, Survival, Amnesty International, Action Aid, War on Want and numerous Indian activists have all condemned Vedanta’s planned mine. Survival has submitted an urgent appeal to the UN, and prompted an investigation by the British government. Next week, for the first time, a Dongria Kondh representative will come to London to demand that Vedanta Resources leaves his homeland. He will join demonstrators outside Vedanta’s AGM in London on Monday: Where:   18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3ED When:    Monday 27 July 2009. Demonstration 1.30pm, AGM 3pm The Dongria Kondh’s demonstrations are the latest in a wave of tribal protests against large-scale industrial projects which are destroying their homelands. In <a href="../../../../../news/countries/peru">Peru</a>, tribal people have blockaded rivers with canoes to stop oil companies entering their territories. In Malaysia, <a href="../../../../../tribes/penan">Penan</a> nomads are defying arrest to block logging roads and halt the destruction of their rainforest for oil palm plantations. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Tribal people find themselves in the frontline of a global battle against the wholesale destruction of the planet. While world leaders talk about stopping climate change, tribal people around the world are literally sitting in front of bulldozers – not just for them, but for all our sakes.’For more information please contact Miriam Ross on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org</a>

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Repeated protests by tribal people in Orissa, India, have blocked the mining plans of one of Britain’s biggest companies, leading to a costly delay.

Vedanta blocked by tribal protests as indigenous resistance spreads worldwide

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'We Are One: A celebration of tribal peoples'

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<ul><li>Unique collection of indigenous wisdom, stunning photos and writing from international authors, poets, journalists and others.</li></ul><ul><li>All photographs, articles and extracts have been donated in recognition of Survival International's 40th Anniversary. All royalties go to Survival. </li></ul>The new book We Are One is a unique collection of statements from the world's tribal peoples, from the <a href="../../../../../tribes/yanomami">Yanomami</a> of Brazil to the <a href="../../../../../tribes/penan">Penan</a> of Malaysia and the <a href="../../../../../tribes/innu">Innu</a> of Canada, which is supported by powerful essays and photographs from international authors, campaigners, politicians, philosophers, poets, artists, journalists, academics, anthropologists, environmentalists and photojournalists.In a unique display of solidarity that celebrates the 40th Anniversary of Survival International, We Are One’s collective voice celebrates the lives, homelands and values of tribal peoples and explores the relevance of their beliefs and wisdom to the present time. It also highlights the oppression tribespeople are experiencing today, promoting the message that tribal peoples are equal to us: just as modern, just as much part of the 21st century and with just as much right to live in peace. We are One is both a portrait of the beauty and diversity of tribal peoples, and a call to arms that raises many of the contemporary humanitarian and environmental issues inherent in their fight for survival: the growing universal need to place human values over economic ones; climate change and the destruction of rainforests; why western notions of 'progress' and 'development' should be redefined and why the tribal values of balance, humility and reciprocity are more important than ever in today's world.Highlights include: <ul><li><a href="../../../../../news/kits/davi">Davi Kopenawa Yanomami</a>, known as the 'Dalai Lama of the Amazon Rainforest' on consumerism, climate change and the health of the Amazon.</li><li>Laurens van der Post on the euphoria of the <a href="../../../../../tribes/bushmen">Bushmen</a>’s fire dance </li><li>Bruce Parry on the grace and generosity of the Penan people of Sarawak, Malaysia</li><li>Gana Bushman Roy Sesana on hunting and tracking in the Kalahari Desert </li><li>Richard Gere on the persecution of the Buddhist <a href="../../../../../tribes/jummas">Chakma</a> peoples of Bangladesh, and why the world needs to fight tribal repression</li><li>Jane Goodall on the mystery of Africa's rainforests and the fate of the '<a href="../../../../../tribes/pygmies">Pygmy</a>' peoples </li><li>Piers Vitebsky on the loyalty of <a href="../../../../../tribes/siberian">Siberian herders</a> to their reindeer</li><li>Damien Hirst on the mystery of <a href="../../../../../tribes/aborigines">Aboriginal</a> art</li><li>Wade Davis on respect for cultural diversity and why the timeless wisdom of tribal peoples is deeply relevant to the world today</li><li>Joanna Lumley on the destruction of the sacred mountain of the <a href="../../../../../tribes/dongria">Dongria Kondh</a> people in India</li><li>Noam Chomsky on the 'discovery' of America</li><li>Claude Levi-Strauss on the philosophy of shamans </li></ul>We are One includes previously unpublished contributions from Richard Gere, Zac Goldsmith, Colin Firth, Bruce Parry, Jane Goodall, Joanna Lumley, Damien Hirst, Satish Kumar, Tony Juniper, Jonathan Porritt, Vandana Shiva, Sydney Possuelo, Carlo Petrini, Wade Davis, Arundhati Roy, A.C. Grayling, Robin Hanbury-Tenison and many others. The foreword is written by Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, and the introduction by Stephen Corry, director of Survival. Literary extracts include: Laurens van der Post, Peter Matthiessen, Colin Thubron.Contributing photojournalists include: Sebastião Salgado, Kate Eshelby, Mike Goldwater, Steve McCurry, Mirella Ricciardi, Carol Beckwith. We are one is edited by Joanna Eede Publication: 16 October 2009 Price: £30.00 Hardback For further information: please contact Miriam Ross at Survival on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org </a> About the Editor: Joanna Eede writes, edits and develops ecological media projects and books, and has a particular interest in the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Her previous books include Portrait of England (Think Publishing Ltd, 2006). She contributes articles to newspapers and travel publications on subjects ranging from the wild Przewalski horses of the Mongolian steppe, the whales of the Alboran sea, tracking chimpanzees in the Tanzanian rainforests and the sacred sites of tribal peoples

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Unique collection of indigenous wisdom, stunning photos and writing from international authors, poets, journalists and others.

http://bit.ly/12T280

'We Are One: A celebration of tribal peoples' - new book published this autumn

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Control post to protect uncontacted tribes

2009-07-16T01:00:00+01:00

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Peru’s government has announced that a control post protecting <a href="../../../../../tribes/isolatedperu">uncontacted tribes</a> will start operating next month. The post has been built on the remote Las Piedras river in south-east Peru. Twenty-one uncontacted Indians were photographed on the banks of the Las Piedras in September 2007. The aim of the post is to stop loggers and other outsiders from entering the Madre de Dios Reserve, which was created specially for uncontacted tribes in 2002. The Las Piedras Rivers is one of the main access routes into the reserve. The post will be manned by local indigenous people and will be equipped with radios connecting them to police in Puerto Maldonado, the biggest town in that part of the Peruvian Amazon. It is the result of a collaboration between Peru’s indigenous affairs department, INDEPA, and the Frankfurt Zoological Society. ‘Local indigenous people have been trained to sound the alert if illegal loggers or other people performing illicit activities enter the reserve,’ said INDEPA’s president, Mayta Cápac Alatrista. ‘The aim is to build a total of four posts between the Acre, Las Piedras and Tahuamanu Rivers, which act as ‘highways’ into and out of the reserve.’ The reserve is 850,000 hectares and is inhabited by at least two uncontacted tribes, one of them known as the Mashco-Piro.

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The uncontacted Indians photographed along the Las Piedras river in 2007.

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Peru’s government has announced that a control post protecting uncontacted tribes will start operating next month.

Control post to protect uncontacted tribes

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Urgent appeal to UN to stop mine

2009-07-15T01:00:00+01:00

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Survival International lodged two urgent appeals today to stop a controversial bauxite mine in India. Survival has called on both the UN and India’s National Human Rights Committee to stop <a href="../../../../../about/vedanta">Vedanta Resources</a>’ mine in the Niyamgiri Hills, Orissa. The mine will destroy the <a href="../../../../../tribes/dongria/sacredmountain">sacred mountain</a> of the <a href="../../../../../tribes/dongria">Dongria Kondh</a> tribe, and threatens the abundant forests in which they live. But the tribe have never been consulted about the project, jointly run by the Orissa state government and Vedanta. The Orissa government appears to have decided to violate the rights of the Dongria Kondh in the name of ‘development’. Survival has asked the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to investigate the case urgently and to invoke interim measures to stop the mine before the Dongria Kondh are irreparably harmed. The appeals join a raft of complaints, investigations, and condemnations surrounding the project. Activists in India have been protesting against the mine for years and Survival, Amnesty International, ActionAid, and War on Want have all condemned it. The British government is investigating a complaint that Vedanta Resources’ treatment of the Dongria Kondh breaches guidelines set by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Last year Martin Currie Investments sold their shares in the company over concerns about the project, and last month an environmental award for Vedanta was withheld at the last minute after demonstrators highlighted the company’s appalling track record in Orissa. The Dongria Kondh are also actively opposing the mine, holding regular protests and blocking the roads being built into their forests. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘The Orissa government and Vedanta Resources have been shirking their basic responsibilities toward the Dongria Kondh for too long. It’s time the international community took a stand – government has a duty to protect its citizens, not to strip them of their land and religion.’ For more information please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org</a>

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The Dongria Kondh forming a human chain to express their opposition to Vedanta\'s mine.

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Survival International lodged two urgent appeals today to stop a controversial bauxite mine in India. Survival has called on both the UN and India’s National Human Rights Committee to stop Vedanta Resources’ mine in the Niyamgiri Hills, Orissa.

Urgent appeal to UN to stop mine

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Loggers arrested after invading uncontacted tribes' land

2009-07-13T01:00:00+01:00

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Eighteen illegal loggers have been arrested on land inhabited by uncontacted Indians in Ecuador, according to the El Comercio newspaper. The arrests were made over the last few weeks, after the loggers were found by patrols cutting valuable cedar trees. The most recent arrest took place on July 6 when at least five people were found at a makeshift camp near the border with Peru. On another occasion thirteen people, all Peruvians, were arrested. According to El Comercio, the loggers were in radio communication with Iquitos, the biggest town in the northern Peruvian Amazon. Five hundred boards of wood, three chainsaws and three machetes were also found. A spokesperson for Ecuador’s government said that the loggers posed a huge threat to the rainforest and to the uncontacted Indians living there. The loggers were all arrested within the Yasuni National park, part of the traditional territory of the Waorani Indians. The uncontacted people living there are known as the Taromenane and Tagaeri, believed to be sub-groups of the Waorani.

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Eighteen illegal loggers have been arrested on land inhabited by uncontacted Indians in Ecuador, according to the El Comercio newspaper.

Loggers arrested after invading uncontacted tribes' land

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Two more indigenous leaders seek asylum

2009-07-10T01:00:00+01:00

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Two more of Peru’s most prominent indigenous leaders have been forced to seek asylum after orders for their arrest were issued by a judge following violent clashes in the Peruvian Amazon last month. Saul Puerta Pena and Cervando Puerta Pena, two brothers, have sought asylum in the Nicaraguan embassy in Peru’s capital city, Lima. Saul, the subject of a feature article in the UK’s Guardian newspaper last year, is the secretary of Peru’s leading Amazon indigenous organisation, <a href="http://www.aidesep.org.pe/" target="_blank">AIDESEP</a>, while Cervando is president of regional indigenous organisation ORPIAN. AIDESEP has responded by declaring the brothers' innocence and threatening to withdraw from talks with the government. ‘They’ve left us without any representatives at the talks,’ said AIDESEP’s lawyer, Marco Barreto. The clashes, in which more than thirty indigenous people and policemen died, are currently being investigated. Peru’s Ombudsman recently published a report saying it could find no evidence of ‘disappearances’ of indigenous people, as initial reports had claimed, but AIDESEP pointed out that the Ombudsman’s researchers visited fewer than a quarter of the indigenous communities in the region. ‘We can’t say if the Ombudsman’s report is accurate or not, but because of the difficulties accessing the area they only visited 22% of the communities. What we can say is that there are more than 300 indigenous people who have still not returned to their communities,’ said Mr Barreto. AIDESEP has expressed particular concern about the whereabouts of a man called Nelvin Wasum Kasen, who has been reported missing by his son. The Ombudsman has promised an immediate investigation. AIDESEP’s president, Alberto Pizango, has already been granted political asylum in Nicaragua. Warrants for the arrests for another two indigenous leaders, believed to be in the Amazon, have also been issued. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_yDD8GRSg" target="_blank">Watch Survival's film with eyewitnesses to the recent violence.</a><a href="../../../../../news/4687">Read Survival's eyewitness report on the recent violence.</a>

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Indigenous people protest near Bagua a week before the violence.

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Two more of Peru’s most prominent indigenous leaders have been forced to seek asylum after orders for their arrest were issued by a judge following violent clashes in the Peruvian Amazon last month.

Two more indigenous leaders seek asylum

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India: Tourism threat to recently-contacted tribe

2009-07-10T01:00:00+01:00

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A court ruling in India has put one of the world’s most recently-contacted tribes at greater risk of the swine flu pandemic, according to campaigners. The court in the Andaman Islands, India, has ruled that a buffer zone around a reserve created to protect the <a href="../../../../../tribes/jarawa">Jarawa</a> tribe is invalid. The decision gives the green light to a tourism resort owned by <a href="../../../../../about/barefoot">Barefoot India</a> inside the buffer zone, close to the edge of the reserve. The Jarawa, who number about 320, have only had peaceful contact with outsiders since 1998, and are expected to have little immunity to outside infections. The ruling may also allow other tourism companies to open resorts near the reserve, and a number of small-scale businesses are operating there already. Survival believes that Barefoot’s resort poses a serious risk to the Jarawa’s health, as its clients could bring the risk of a potentially fatal contagion. Several studies have shown that even indigenous peoples with a long history of contact are particularly at risk from the swine flu pandemic. The Jarawa, due to their long isolation, are especially vulnerable, and have already suffered measles epidemics. Many of Barefoot’s visitors will have recently stepped off long-haul flights. Research indicates that about 20% of airline passengers develop colds or other viral infections within a few days of their flight. In response to Survival’s campaign against Barefoot’s plans, the company’s head has accused Survival of among other things defamation, racism, and publishing material ‘bordering on pornography and promotion of paedophilia’. Barefoot denies its resort poses any threat to the Jarawa. Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘This ruling is disastrous for the Jarawa. By challenging the plan for a buffer zone protecting the Jarawa’s land, Barefoot has opened the floodgates for tourism on the edge of the Jarawa’s reserve. This is a tribe who have only had friendly contact with outsiders for 10 years. The effects of a flu outbreak could well be devastating, and many of Barefoot’s clients will just have flown in from all corners of the world. Barefoot’s actions in pushing ahead with this resort now, and in challenging the buffer zone, are incredibly irresponsible.’ For more information please contact Miriam Ross at Survival International on (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email <a href="mailto:mr@survival-international.org">mr@survival-international.org</a>

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Jarawa, Andaman Islands

2009-07-10T01:00:00+01:00

A court ruling in India has put one of the world’s most recently-contacted tribes at greater risk of the swine flu pandemic, according to campaigners.

Tourism threat to recently-contacted tribe – Fears of swine flu contagion

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Malaysia: Government ignores land rights ruling

2009-07-08T01:00:00+01:00

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The government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak is ignoring a recent court ruling recognizing the rights of the <a href="../../../../../tribes/penan">Penan</a> and other tribes to their land, according to a leading Sarawak indigenous rights lawyer. The Malaysian Federal Court <a href="../../../../../news/4533">ruled in May</a> that indigenous people in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of Borneo, have rights to land they use for hunting and gathering as well as land they use for growing food. The ruling gave hope to the Penan tribe, whose land the government has so far refused to recognize because they cannot provide evidence that they have used it over many years to cultivate food crops. Unlike the other indigenous peoples of Sarawak, the Penan are hunter-gatherers. Lawyer Baru Bian claims that the Sarawak government is refusing to accept the Federal Court’s ruling, which has implications for the indigenous rights cases his firm is handling. Baru Bian, responding to claims by the Malaysian Prime Minister that his government has ‘no intention of grabbing anybody’s land’, said in a statement, ‘the fact and the truth is that the people’s land, in particular, the natives’ customary lands had already been taken.’ <a href="http://hornbillunleashed.wordpress.com/2009/06/22/1989/" target="_blank">Read Baru Bian’s statement in full on the Sarawak blog ‘Hornbill Unleashed’</a>

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Penan, Sarawak, Malaysia.

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The government of the Malaysian state of Sarawak is ignoring a recent court ruling recognizing the rights of the Penan and other tribes to their land, according to a leading Sarawak indigenous rights lawyer.

Government ignores land rights ruling

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Indian organisation says Ombudsman's report not 'definitive'

2009-07-07T01:00:00+01:00

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Peru’s leading Amazon indigenous organisation has stated that <a href="http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/" target="_blank">the report by Peru’s Ombudsman on the recent violence in the rainforest</a> is not ‘definitive’. ‘The Ombudsman only visited 22% of the Awajún and Wampis communities,’ said a statement from <a href="http://www.aidesep.org.pe/" target="_blank">AIDESEP</a>. ‘In total there are 181 communities, but the Ombudsman visited 39.’ The Ombudsman’s report concluded that twenty-three policemen, five ‘civilians’, and five ‘indigenous people’ were killed, and that no one has ‘disappeared’, as initial reports had claimed. Peru’s government has seized on the Ombudsman’s report as conclusive evidence that there were no disappearances. AIDESEP’s acting leader, Daysi Zapata Fasabi, said that the definitive investigation into the number of indigenous people who have disappeared will be carried out by a Truth Commission, established in the aftermath of the recent violence. Meanwhile, AIDESEP has threatened to withdraw from talks with the government if it continues with its political persecution of Peru’s indigenous peoples and fails to fulfil its promises. <a href="../../../../../news/4687">Read Survival's eyewitness report of the violence. </a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_yDD8GRSg">Watch Survival's film featuring interviews with the eyewitnesses. </a>

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Armed police attack indigenous protesters in northern Peru, June 5 2009.

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Peru’s leading Amazon indigenous organisation has stated that the report by Peru’s Ombudsman on the recent violence in the rainforest is not ‘definitive’.

Indigenous organisation says Ombudsman's report not 'definitive'

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Ombudsman's report says 33 people died in Amazon violence

2009-07-06T01:00:00+01:00

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A <a href="http://www.defensoria.gob.pe/" target="_blank">report just published by Peru’s Ombudsman </a>states that thirty-three people died in the recent violence in the Peruvian Amazon. According to the report, twenty-three of the deceased were policemen, five ‘civilians’, and five ‘indigenous’. Two hundred people were wounded and eighty-three were arrested.    Although doubts remain about the whereabouts of twelve people, the report states that it cannot find evidence of anyone who has ‘disappeared’. Every indigenous community visited by the Ombudsman’s researchers had all persons accounted for. The report names all thirty-three people who died. It also includes a list of how people were wounded: eighty-two from firearms, forty-one from ‘contusion and multi-contusion injuries’, twenty-two from ‘poisoning, abrasions and burns caused by teargas’, nineteen from ‘injuries caused by sharp objects’, sixteen from ‘injuries by shots of heat’, and twenty from other causes.<a href="../../../../../news/4687">Read Survival's eyewitness report on the violence.</a><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_yDD8GRSg">Watch Survival's film featuring interviews with the eyewitnesses.</a>

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Police break up indigenous protests in northern Peru, June 5.

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A report just published by Peru’s Ombudsman states that thirty-three people died in the recent violence in the Peruvian Amazon.

Ombudsman's report says 33 people died in Amazon violence

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'Cover-up' storm over uncontacted tribes

2009-07-04T01:00:00+01:00

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An article in today’s Guardian newspaper alleges that a consultancy firm working for Anglo-French oil company Perenco ‘edited out’ evidence showing that uncontacted Indians are living in the area of the company’s project. The company has claimed that the tribes do not exist. ‘Certain nomadic groups are there,’ said one of the lead authors of the report. ‘There is no doubt in my mind that there are uncontacted groups there,’ said another consultant. ‘I was really upset when I saw the final report.’ The Guardian also quotes a forestry engineer who has investigated the impacts of seismic tests for oil exploration in the region where Perenco is working. ‘They said there were no uncontacted groups. But there were footprints, signs of dwellings.’ <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/04/peru-amazon-rainforest-conservation">The Guardian article is available here</a>.There is also a <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jul/03/peru-rainforest">Guardian film</a>. Survival has also published <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU_yDD8GRSg">a video in which eyewitnesses to the recent violence in Peru’s Amazon give a dramatic account</a> of what happened. A <a href="http://assets-production.survival-international.org/documents/41/devils_bend_report.pdf">PDF report of the eyewitness account</a> is also available. The massive boom in oil exploration in the Amazon was one of the key concerns of the indigenous protests.<a name="video"><object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/SU_yDD8GRSg&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/SU_yDD8GRSg&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="340" width="560"></embed></object></a>

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Uncontacted Mashco-Piro Indians spotted from the air, S.E. Peru, 2007.

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An article in today’s Guardian newspaper alleges that a consultancy firm working for Anglo-French oil company Perenco ‘edited out’ evidence showing that uncontacted Indians are living in the area of the company’s project. The company has claimed that the

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‘Cover-up’ storm over uncontacted tribes

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