The most endangered tribe in the world is now also at risk with the fires that’s been going on since August in the Amazon rainforest.
Survival International, a non-government organization, said in a report from The Guardian that blazes were already seen on the Araribóia indigenous reserve in Maranhão state. This is the home of about 80 people from the isolated group of Awá indigenous people.
Antenor Vaz, a former employee at Brazil’s indigenous agency Funai and consultant on isolated indigenous peoples, said Nasa images showed that fire broke out in 131 indigenous reserves from August 15-20.
Fifteen of those reserves were home to indigenous groups who were isolated or in stages of initial contact.
Fires have also broken out inside and around the home of three groups of other indigenous people in Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau reserve in Rondônia state.
On Thursday, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro issued a decree banning fires in the Amazon for 60 days.
Fires there are usually used to clear pasture and deforested areas in the Amazon during dry winter months. However, records show that there have been 28,000 recorded this month. This is reportedly more than the reported fires in August 2010.
Despite offers of help by the Group of Seven Nations (G7), the Brazilian government has rejected them accusing the foreign powers of wanting control of the Amazon.
Photo credit: Survival International website
