Deforestation has many prices – not the least of which is the loss of an entire Amazonian tribe, which will inevitably die out now that there are only five members left. The once-vibrant, ancient Akuntsu tribe of Brazil lost almost all of their numbers to a massacre by loggers intent on stealing their land in the 1990s.
From The Independent:
Much of the Akuntsus’ story is – for obvious reasons – undocumented. For millennia, they lived in obscurity, deep in the rainforest of Rondonia state, a remote region of western Brazil near the Bolivian border. They hunted wild pig, agoutis and tapir, and had small gardens in their villages, where they would grow manioc (or cassava) and corn.
Then, in the 1980s, their death warrant was effectively signed: farmers and loggers were invited to begin exploring the region, cutting roads deep into the forest, and turning the once verdant wilderness into lucrative soya fields and cattle ranches.
Fiercely industrious, the new migrant workers knew that one thing might prevent them from creating profitable homesteads from the rainforest: the discovery of uncontacted tribes, whose land is protected from development under the Brazilian constitution.
As a result, frontiersmen who first came across the Akuntsu in the mid-1980s made a simple calculation. The only way to prevent the government finding out about this indigenous community was to wipe them off the map.
The seven members of the tribe who escaped the massacre retreated deep into the wilderness to survive, and were not formally “contacted” until 1995. They include Konibú, the tribe’s elderly chief and shaman, Pugapía, his wife, their two daughers Nãnoi and Enotéi and a cousin, Pupak. Konibú’s sister Ururú, the sixth last member pictured at front left, recently passed away. Tribal custom does not allow outsiders to marry in.
A documentary of their struggle called ‘Corumbiara: they shoot Indians, don’t they?’ which was filmed over a period of twenty years, is now showing in Brazil. Campaigners hope that the story of the Akuntsu tribe will persuade the Brazilian public to strengthen government protections for indigenous people.
The Akuntsu represent yet another reason why we must make protecting the rainforests of the Amazon, and elsewhere in the world, a top priority. Not only are these forests five times more effective than carbon capture at combating catastrophic climate change, they also harbor so many wonders of the human, animal, insect and plant worlds.
Link [The Independent]
