Kate Kelland, Oct 16, Reuters
Amazon Indian tribes have been infected and weakened by "white man's diseases" which they cannot fight off and which put one of the earth's vital life sources at risk, a leading tribal spokesman said on Tuesday.
Davi Kopenawa, a shaman of the Yanomami Indian tribe from Brazilian Amazonia, told Reuters in an interview in London that what non-indigenous people see as development or progress had brought nothing but death and destruction to his lands.
"If we just sit back and do nothing, the white people won't help us," he said. "We need a lot of courage and we need to go out and ask for help. We are battling to show our strength to the white man."
Davi, who will hand a letter about his people's plight to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to London, urged the global community to put pressure on the Brazilian government to make good on pledges to protect the Yanomami.
"The Brazilian government has a duty -- it promised to protect the Yanomami, to protect our environment and nature, and to preserve our culture and our language," he said. "This is important for everybody, for the white people, for the Indians and for future generations."
The Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, is the planet's most diverse terrestrial ecosystem and is thought to hold a quarter of all species.
The Yanomami are the largest isolated tribe in the Amazon, with a population of around 32,000. Their territory spans 9.6 million hectares and straddles the border of northern Brazil and Venezuela. The Indians live in communal houses of around 400 people and live by hunting, fishing and growing crops.
Davi said one of the worst times for the Yanomami was during the 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of gold miners invaded their land, destroyed their villages, shot tribespeople and prostituted indigenous women.
But in 1992, after a sustained and high-profile international campaign, the Yanomami persuaded the Brazilian government to demarcate their land and expel the miners.
"The biggest problem is that the diseases have stayed -- malaria, tuberculosis, dysentery, venereal disease -- these diseases entered at the time of the invasion of the gold miners, and we became infected, and now we have to fight for our health," said Davi.
The tribal spokesman, who is also due to travel to Germany to talk to politicians there later this week, hit out at what he said were "useless" schemes which offer people a chance to "buy" the rainforest to protect it.
One of the best known such schemes is offered by the London-based "Cool Earth" organisation set up by a British businessman and a member of parliament. It asks members of the public to pay 70 pounds ($143) to protect an acre of rainforest.
But Davi insisted: "The forest cannot be bought -- it is our life and we have always protected it. Without the forest, there is only sickness, and without us, it is dead land."
Cool Earth's director Matthew Owen told Reuters it was not buying rainforest land to keep, but returning it to local people and ensuring it is kept out of the hands of loggers.
Davi also warned that hundreds of illegal miners had also started to re-invade Yanomami areas and urged the Brazilian government not to pass planned legislation which would allow large-scale mining in Indian lands.
"Mining is not good for indigenous peoples or their land," he said. "It won't bring any benefits to the Indians. It will bring pollution of the water and kill all the fish, it will destroy our houses and destroy the forest.
"If all the indigenous people die, it is not good for the earth. The world needs indigenous peoples to survive. The world needs clean water and air, the world needs the rainforest."
Amazon Indian tribes have been infected and weakened by "white man's diseases" which they cannot fight off and which put one of the earth's vital life sources at risk, a leading tribal spokesman said on Tuesday.
Davi Kopenawa, a shaman of the Yanomami Indian tribe from Brazilian Amazonia, told Reuters in an interview in London that what non-indigenous people see as development or progress had brought nothing but death and destruction to his lands.
"If we just sit back and do nothing, the white people won't help us," he said. "We need a lot of courage and we need to go out and ask for help. We are battling to show our strength to the white man."
Davi, who will hand a letter about his people's plight to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to London, urged the global community to put pressure on the Brazilian government to make good on pledges to protect the Yanomami.
"The Brazilian government has a duty -- it promised to protect the Yanomami, to protect our environment and nature, and to preserve our culture and our language," he said. "This is important for everybody, for the white people, for the Indians and for future generations."
The Amazon, the world's largest tropical rainforest, is the planet's most diverse terrestrial ecosystem and is thought to hold a quarter of all species.
The Yanomami are the largest isolated tribe in the Amazon, with a population of around 32,000. Their territory spans 9.6 million hectares and straddles the border of northern Brazil and Venezuela. The Indians live in communal houses of around 400 people and live by hunting, fishing and growing crops.
Davi said one of the worst times for the Yanomami was during the 1980s, when hundreds of thousands of gold miners invaded their land, destroyed their villages, shot tribespeople and prostituted indigenous women.
But in 1992, after a sustained and high-profile international campaign, the Yanomami persuaded the Brazilian government to demarcate their land and expel the miners.
"The biggest problem is that the diseases have stayed -- malaria, tuberculosis, dysentery, venereal disease -- these diseases entered at the time of the invasion of the gold miners, and we became infected, and now we have to fight for our health," said Davi.
The tribal spokesman, who is also due to travel to Germany to talk to politicians there later this week, hit out at what he said were "useless" schemes which offer people a chance to "buy" the rainforest to protect it.
One of the best known such schemes is offered by the London-based "Cool Earth" organisation set up by a British businessman and a member of parliament. It asks members of the public to pay 70 pounds ($143) to protect an acre of rainforest.
But Davi insisted: "The forest cannot be bought -- it is our life and we have always protected it. Without the forest, there is only sickness, and without us, it is dead land."
Cool Earth's director Matthew Owen told Reuters it was not buying rainforest land to keep, but returning it to local people and ensuring it is kept out of the hands of loggers.
Davi also warned that hundreds of illegal miners had also started to re-invade Yanomami areas and urged the Brazilian government not to pass planned legislation which would allow large-scale mining in Indian lands.
"Mining is not good for indigenous peoples or their land," he said. "It won't bring any benefits to the Indians. It will bring pollution of the water and kill all the fish, it will destroy our houses and destroy the forest.
"If all the indigenous people die, it is not good for the earth. The world needs indigenous peoples to survive. The world needs clean water and air, the world needs the rainforest."
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