Launched TUESDAY October 22, 2019 on zReportage.com Story #714: Amazonas Forgotten Victims: Brazil's Indigenous lands and protected areas have experienced a massive surge in fires this year. Environmental campaigners claim ongoing fires in both the Amazon and Cerrado regions of Brazil are being lit deliberately to clear land for raising animals and growing crops. Many blame the current Brazilian administration, which monitors indigenous populations, the 306,000 Amazonian indigenous people, whose 422 demarcated territories make up 23 percent of the Brazilian Amazon, according to the Instituto Socioambiental. The problem centers on deforestation through the systematic chopping down of trees, which are either logged or burned, mostly to convert the land for raising cattle and growing crops. Sometimes forest land is cleared by landowners, however with the current Amazonian fires, two-thirds were on private lands, and in August 2018 there were 3,500 fires in 148 indigenous territories. The Brazilian constitution offers protections to both the environment and indigenous peoples, but local agencies often fail to safeguard either. About 300 different indigenous groups exist in Brazil, and for decades many of them have fought for the demarcation of their lands. The Brazilian constitution describes indigenous territories as areas where indigenous people can live permanently, that is, where they can practice their cultures and traditions. The Amazon still generates the rain that sustains it, but the removal of trees prompts precipitation to decline and, combined with warmer temperatures that make the ground dryer, may trigger parts of the forest to start dying off. Scientists have warned that the world's largest rainforest - whose ability to absorb more than 20% of earth's carbon dioxide and release oxygen is a critical element of the fight against climate change - may be approaching a tipping point in which much of it turns to savanna. At that stage, it could start contributing to global warming by emitting instead of removing greenhouse gases.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Member of Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre and the burnt land which was reportedly set on fire by the farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Fires in the state of Amazonia in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Chief FRANCISCO APURINA walks around their burnt land with his brothers in the Boca do Acre municipality, in the Amazonas state Kaxuqui. Francisco is a humble local indigenous chief tirelessly fighting for his community's rights. Over the course of several years they have lost a total of 600 hectares of forest despite their area being officially recognized by the government as one of the 690 protected indigenous territories in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Fires in the state of Amazonia in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Member of the Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre look around their burnt land which was reportedly set on fire by the farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Members of Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre are walking through their burnt land. Their land was reportedly set on fire by the local farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
A member of the Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre look around their burnt land which was reportedly set on fire by the farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
A man walks around destroyed and burnt land in the Bujari municipality.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
A dog walks around Donna Jo's destroyed land. Dona Jo has lost everything except of her house in the Bujari municipality.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Children of Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre walk through their burnt land. Their land was reportedly set on fire by the local farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Chief FRANCISCO APURINA is a local indigenous chief tirelessly fighting for his land and for his community's rights in the Boca do Acre municipality in Amazonas state Kaxuqui. Over the course of several years they have lost a total of 600 hectares of forest despite their area being officially recognized by the government as one of the 690 protected indigenous territories in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Chief FRANCISCO APURINA walks around their burnt land with his brothers in the Boca do Acre municipality, in the Amazonas state Kaxuqui. Francisco is a humble local indigenous chief tirelessly fighting for his community's rights. Over the course of several years they have lost a total of 600 hectares of forest despite their area being officially recognized by the government as one of the 690 protected indigenous territories in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Chief FRANCISCO APURINA finds the gasoline that was hidden by the farmers that they intended to use to set the fire on the land that belongs to the Apurina tribe in the Boca do Acre municipality, Amazonas state of Kaxuqui. Francisco is a humble local indigenous chief tirelessly fighting for his community's rights. Over the course of several years they have lost a total of 600 hectares of forest despite their area being officially recognized by the government as one of the 690 protected indigenous territories in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
DONNA JO walks around her destroyed land. Dona Jo has lost everything except of her house in the Bujari municipality.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
People of Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre walk through their burnt land. Their land was reportedly set on fire by the local farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
CHIEF MAPU, of the Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre walks through his burnt land. His land was recently set on fire by the local farmers.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Members of Huni Kuni tribe in the state of Acre walk through their burnt land. Their land was recently set on fire by the local farmers. September, 2019
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
Chief FRANCISCO APURINA walks around their burnt land with his brothers in the Boca do Acre municipality, in the Amazonas state Kaxuqui. Francisco is a humble local indigenous chief tirelessly fighting for his community's rights. Over the course of several years they have lost a total of 600 hectares of forest despite their area being officially recognized by the government as one of the 690 protected indigenous territories in Brazil.
© David Tesinsky/ZUMA Wire
