What the indigenous people have been able to avoid and efforts to protect them

Bogota, Colombia (AP) – From the depths of Brazil’s Amazon to the rainforests of Indonesia, some of the world’s hardest-sleeping peoples have been reduced by roads, miners and disaster to public visibility or effective state protection.

A new report by Survival International, a London-based indigenous rights organization, attempts at least the most extensive tallies yet, identifying at least 196 mysterious groups in 10 countries, mainly in South American nations that share the Amazon rainforest. Released Sunday, the report estimates that the threat to the surface is about 65% from installation, about 40% from mining and 20% from agricultural construction.

“This is what I would call racism – There are no TV reporters, there are no journalists. But they happened, and they are happening now, and they have been working on indigenous rights lies for more than thirty years.

This problem often gets the most importance from governments, critics say that they are disenfranchised people as a political marginal because they do not vote and their areas are often desired for logging, mining and oil. Public debate is also shaped by stereotypes – some love them as ‘lost tribes,’ while others see them as obstacles to progress.

Survival’s research concludes that half of these groups “could be wiped out within 10 years if governments and companies do nothing.”

Who are the unauthorized persons

The uneducated ‘lost’ people are not lost “frozen in time, says Watson. They are modern societies that deliberately avoided outsiders after generations of violence, slavery and disease.

“They don’t need anything from us,” Watson said. “They are happy in the forest. They have amazing knowledge and help to keep these very important forests standing – it is important for everyone in the fight against climate.”

Survival research shows that more than 95% of the population of the unavoidably united people lives in the Amazon, with small populations from South and Southeast Asia and the Pacific. These communities live by hunting, fishing and small-scale farming, maintaining the languages ​​and traditions that define the modern nation.

Why Contact Can Kill

Groups that remain voluntarily segregated “are less likely to communicate with those outside their group,” said Dr. Sufra Bhattacharjee, director general of the Bonn, Germany-based Human Rights Council. “A simple cold that you and I recover in a week … they can die from that cold.”

Besides disease, communication can destroy livelihoods and belief systems. International law requires free, prior and informed consent – known as FPIC – before any work in indigenous countries.

“But when you have groups that remain voluntarily separated, that you cannot approach without risking their lives, you cannot get FPIC,” Bhattacharjee said. “No FPIC means no approval.”

His organization follows a strict policy: “No contact,” he said, arguing that if consent is not secured, contact should not take place at all.

An associated publisher reported last year that they had been killed with a bow and arrow after entering the Mashco Piro Territory in Peru, with indigenous leaders warning that such conflicts were inevitable.

How prominent are the threats

Watson, who has worked across the Amazon for 35 years, said the early threats focused on colonization and infrastructure supporting the state. During Brazil’s civil war between 1964 and 1985, highways were filled with rainforest “without due consideration” for the people living there.

“The roads became a magnet for women,” he said, explaining how the loggers and cattle diseases followed, brought gunmen and diseases that defied all communities.

The rail line now planned in Brazil could affect three unauthorized people, he said, but the rise of organized crime poses a much greater risk.

In Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, drug traffickers and illegal gold miners have moved deep into indigenous territories. “Any combination of possibilities runs the risk of transmitting the flu, which can be easily wiped out by unauthorized people within a year of contact,” he said. “And bows and arrows are no match for guns.”

The missionary installation of the gospel has caused outbreaks. Watson recalled that, under the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, an evangelical minister was placed in charge of the government of the unruly people and gained access to their links. “Their mission was to force communication – ‘to save souls,'” he said. “It’s a big risk.”

Ways to Protect Unrestricted People

Protecting uneducated people, experts say, will require stronger laws and a reform of the world that views them — not as citizens of the past, but as citizens of a planet whose survival depends on everyone.

Lawyers have several recommendations.

First, governments must be aware of the legality and use of traditional lands, and reduce restrictions on emerging industries.

The map is important, says Bhattatacharjee, because it identifies limited areas of unauthorized people and allows governments to protect those areas from loggers or miners. But, he added, it must be done with great care and from a distance to avoid contact that could endanger the health of vulnerable groups.

Second, companies and consumers must help stop the flow of money destruction. Survival’s report calls for companies to track their supply chains to ensure that goods such as gold, timber and soy are not sourced from countries of origin.

“Public opinion and pressure are important,” Watson said. “It is a problem for citizens and the media that a lot has already been discovered to see unauthorized people and their rights.”

Finally, advocates say the world needs to realize why their protections. Beyond human rights, these communities play a role in strengthening the global climate.

“In a world under pressure from climate change, we will either sink or swim together,” Bhattacharjee said.

Unbalanced response

International agreements such as the 169 International Labor Organization Convention and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples guarantee the right to determine and remain unemployed. But enforcement is different.

In Peru, the Congress recently cut the proposal to create the Yavari-Mirim Viresous Reserve, it says the traditional power to move the leaves requested by the logles exposed to the traders and smugglers.

In Brazil, President Luiz inácio Lula da Silva has sought to rebuild weak defenses under Bolsonaro, increasing budgets and travel.

And in Ecuador, the Court of Human Rights ruled this year that the government failed to protect taromenane people living in voluntary isolation in Yasuni National Park.

Watson warned that political forces converging on agribusiness and Evangelical Blocs are now working to roll back previous gains.

“The achievements of the last 20 or 30 years are in danger of being dismantled,” he said.

That’s what the new report is looking for

The report of Survival International calls for a policy of no acquisition in the world: the legal recognition of unallocated lands, the suspension of mining, oil and agriculture projects in Agring or the prosecution of crimes against indigenous people.

Watson said logging is still the biggest, but mining is close behind. He pointed to Hongana MAXANACATEA: Halmahera Island in Indonesia where batteries for electric cars are mined.

“People think that electric cars are a green alternative, but mining companies are operating in the land of unauthorized people and are threatened by big ones.”

In South America, illegal gold miners in the YanoMami region of Brazil and Venezuela continue to use Mercury to extract gold – pollution with poisonous fish and poisonous fish.

“The impact is devastating — socially and physically,” Watson said.

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