Section:GDN 1N PaGe:31 Edition Date:190829 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 28/8/2019 19:22 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 29 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •World^31
BrazilThursday 29 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •World^31
BrazilThursday 29 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •31
▼ Xikrin warriors returning from
an expedition to expel invaders
from their territory in Pará state
PHOTOGRAPH: LALO DE ALMEIDA/FOLHAPRESSFabiano Maisonnave
Trincheira Bacajá indigenous territoryT
hreatened by fi re,
deforestation and
invasion, the Xikrin
people of the northern
Amazon are fi ghting
back. While the
authorities stand idle and Brazil’s
far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro,
tries to undermine their territorial
rights, the indigenous community
have taken matters into their own
hands by expelling the loggers and
ranchers who illegally occupied their
land and set fi re to the forest.
Armed with rifl es and wooden
batons , groups of Xikrin warriors
have swept through their extensive
territory in the state of Pará over
the past week. Whenever they
encountered fi re-scarred land,
illegal clearances and habitations,
they went from hut to hut, ejecting
the invaders and confi scating
chainsaws and other tools.
“Why are we protecting our land?
So we can hunt. So our sons and
grandsons can live well on this land,”
said Tikiri Xikrin, one of the oldest
warriors, during a ceremony to mark
the group’s safe return to Rapkôvillage. “Only if I die will the kuben
[white people] occupy the land.”
This ought to be the task of the
federal police. The 16,500 sq km
( 6,370 sq mile) Trincheira Bacajá
indigenous territory was offi cially
recognised by the government in- Only the 1,100 members of the
Xikrin community have the right to
live on it. But the elders know there
is scant hope the government will
enforce their rights.
The land-grabbers started to creep
into the area in June last year, using a
rough road that had been cut into the
forest by illegal loggers. The Xikrin
fi led complaints to offi cial agencies
several times, but to no avail.
Last month, deforestation began
racing across the Amazon, with a
278% increase over the same period
last year. One of the worst-aff ected
areas was the supposedly protected
land of the Xikrin. In July, land-
grabbers razed an area of forest there
the size of 1,500 football pitches ,
according to the independent
monitoring group Imazon.
Bekara Xikrin, the chief of Rapkô
village, said the invaders had
been encouraged by the Brazilian
president. “One guy told us the land
is freely accessible, that Bolsonaro
granted access to it, that this is
involves widescale negligence by the
government,” Santi said. “The Xikrin
registered a complaint against the
occupation of their land. Because
the police failed to act in time, the
invasion spread.”
Many other indigenous lands in
the Xingu river region are under
similar pressure. The neighbouring
Apyterewa indigenous territory of
the Parakanã people has suff ered
a huge invasion by cattle ranchers.
In July, 28 sq km were deforested
inside this area – the largest area
inside an indigenous territory over
that month , according to Imazon.
The problems have a long history,
but Bolsonaro has made things
worse , undermin ing indigenous
residents in his speeches and
through his policies. At a meeting
with Amazon region state governors
on 27 August, the president claimed
foreign interests had used native
communities to limit Brazil’s growth.
Pressure against the Xikrin comes
mostly from the cattle-ranching
industry, which staunchly supports
Bolsonaro. Not far from their
territory is São Félix do Xingu, the
municipality with the largest cattle
herd in the country, numbering
2.24 m in 2017. There is nowhere in
the Amazon with more degraded
pasture – 2,86 0 sq km, according to
2014 fi gures from the Agricultural
and Livestock Research Agency.
“This indicates that a large area
has been deforested and is now
misused,” says Paulo Barreto, an
Imazon researcher.
The Xikrin are fi ghting to prevent
their territory suff ering the same
fate. Tikiri Xikrin said: “I am not
afraid of the white invaders. We have
courage. If the kuben start a confl ict,
we will fi ght.”not indigenous land.” The invader
claimed he wanted to help the
Xikrin to work their land. Bekara
gave him short shrift. “I told him:
this indigenous person doesn’t want
help, the old warriors don’t want
help,” he said. “Deforestation is not
allowed here .”
The Xikrin’s actions have failed to
deter the land-grabbers. In an audio
message circulated by Whats App,
one of them warned that close to 300
people were preparing an attack on a
nearby indigenous village.
To prevent violence, the federal
prosecutor for the region, Thais
Santi , formally called in federal
police on 26 August. She said they
needed to act within 24 hours but
two days on nothing had happened.
“The Trincheira Bacajá caseAmazon
Worst of fi res
still to come,
says expert on
de forestation
Tom Phillips
Latin America correspondentThe fi res raging in the Brazilian Ama-
zon are likely to intensify over the
coming weeks, a leading environ-
mental expert has warned, despite
government claims that the situation
had been brought under control.
About 80,000 blazes have been
detected in Brazil this year – more than
half in the Amazon region – although
on Saturday the far-right president,
Jair Bolsonaro, claimed the situation
was “returning to normal”.
But in an article for Brazil’s O Globo
newspaper yesterday, one prominent
forestry expert warned that the coun-
try’s annual burning season had yet to
fully play out. “The worst of the fi re is
still to come,” wrote Tasso Azevedo,
an environmentalist who coordinates
the deforestation monitoring group
MapBiomas and was the fi rst head of
Brazil’s National Forest Service.
The Brazilian Amazon lost 1,115
sq km (430 sq miles) – an area equiv-
alent to Hong Kong – so far in August,
according to preliminary data from
government satellite monitoring.
“What we are experiencing is a gen-
uine crisis,” Azevedo wrote. He called
for urgent measures such as a crack-
down on deforestation in indigenous
territories and conservation areas and
outlawing deliberate burning in the
Amazon until at least the end of Octo-
ber, when the dry season ends.
That warning came after more than
400 members of Brazil’s environ-
mental agency, Ibama, published a
damning open letter about the state of
environmental protection under Bol-
sonaro, a far-right populist who took
power in January vowing to open up
the Amazon to development.
In the letter to Ibama’s president,
Eduardo Bim , staff said they felt it
was their duty to publicly voice their
“immense concern” about the direc-
tion that environmental protection
was taking. “The rates of Amazon
forest destruction will not be reduced
unless a fi rm stand is taken against
environmental crimes,” they wrote.
Campaigners accuse Bolsonaro’s
administration of hamstringing the
very agency that should be fi ghting
illegal deforestation and giving a green
light to environmental criminals with
his pro-development rhetoric.
At a summit of governors of Ama-
zon states on Tuesday – supposedly
convened to discuss responses to the
fi res – Bolsonaro repeatedly attacked
environmentalists and indigenous
activists, who he claimed were hold-
ing back Brazil’s economy.
Many, though not all, of the Amazon
governors backed Bolsonaro’s vision
for the region.
Eighteen global fashion brands
including Timb erland, Vans and North
Face were reported yesterday to have
suspended leather purchases from
Brazil over the crisis.Saving the rainforest
Indigenous warriors take on
invading loggers and ranchers
▲ Area deforested by land-grabbers
in the Trincheira Bacajá territoryRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws