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

By: Chris Arsenault

Date: September 21st 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation


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.


"Illegal logging and fires are putting pressures on them by destroying the forests," she said.


Uncontacted tribes are particularly vulnerable when their land rights are threatened because they lack the natural immunity to diseases that are carried by outsiders.


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