Isolated tribe members in Brazil spotted in drone footage

437

SAO PAULO, Aug 24, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – In the sprawling greenery of the
Brazilian Amazon, near the border with Peru, a group of people — small in
the distance — walk through a clearing.

These are isolated tribe members, and little do they know, they’re being
watched — drone footage revealing their existence to the world.

The video — recorded in 2017, but published this week — is just one
element of the material that Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI)
collected during missions to the Javari Valley.

The hard-to-access area of southwestern Amazonas state is home to the
majority of the more than 100 confirmed isolated tribes in the vast South
American nation.

FUNAI has made contact with eight in the Javari Valley — but says that
there are 11 more, detected via signs including a huge hut, handmade axes and
canoes crafted out of palm tree trunks.

To get to the region, FUNAI officials and police had to cover 180
kilometers (110 miles) by river and dirt road, and then another 120
kilometers on foot through the jungle, the agency said in a statement.

The project, which aims to protect isolated tribes, relied on the in-depth
local knowledge of the Kanamari tribe.

During the mission, they also encountered two groups of poachers, forcing
them to release wild animals.

“Vigilance and control must be stepped up in the region to… guarantee
total possession of the territory for indigenous peoples,” said coordinator
Vitor Gois.

Last month, FUNAI released video of what it believes to be the only
survivor of one Brazilian Amazon tribe.

The man lives in the state of Rondonia — which borders Bolivia — and it
is thought he has spent 22 years living along in the jungle, after his
village fell victim to landowners and loggers.

That footage was recorded in 2011, but only just released. Evidence
discovered this year suggests that he is still alive.

His situation, like that of other peoples, alarms specialists who warn of
pressures from the agricultural and mining industries, who seek to overtake
indigenous lands.

Over 800,000 indigenous people — who belong to 305 groups and speak 274
languages between them — live in Brazil, according to official data.