Indigenous // Current TV

Melting Away In The Andes

Climate change is all too real in the Peruvian Andes.

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Amazon defenders and environmentalists murdered

A prominent anti-logging activist was murdered along with his wife in Brazil on Tuesday, just hours before the country's Chamber of Deputies overwhelmingly voted to let farmers destroy more of the Amazon.

The 410-63 vote defangs the 75-year-old Código Florestal (Forest Code), which has long required that farmers who own a piece of the Amazon preserve 80% of the land they own and farm only on the remainder. The new bill exempts small-scale farmers from the Forest Code and opens environmentally sensitive patches of land – such as hilltops, slopes, and watersides – to cultivation. It also grants amnesty to small-scale farmers who violated the law before July, 2008.

The bill has not yet passed to the Senate, and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has vowed to veto it if the amnesty provision remains, but that hasn’t stopped farmers from preemptively chopping and burning forested portions of their property, leading to a sixfold surge in deforestation, with the greatest increase coming in Mato Grosso.

Death of an Activist

Also on Tuesday, anti-logging activist José Claudio Ribeiro "Ze Claudio" da Silva was gunned down along with his wife, Maria do Espírito Santo da Silva, in rural Para inside the Praialta-Piranheira, a nature reserve where they had spent the last two decades as rubber-tappers.

Environmental Fallout

First passed in 1934 and strengthened intermittently thereafter, the Forest Code is considered one of the world’s most progressive forest policies. Supporters of the Forest Code say it has played a major role in the rapid deceleration of deforestation rates in the Amazon over the last decade.

Before surging this past year, deforestation rates had fallen dramatically in Brazil. From a ten-year high of 2.7 million hectares in 2004, the rate dropped to 0.70 million hectares by 2009.

In a letter in the July 16, 2010, issue of Science, six Brazilian scientists wrote that the new rules “will benefit sectors that depend on expanding frontiers by clear-cutting forests and savannas and will reduce mandatory restoration of native vegetation illegally cleared since 1965.”

The scientists warn that CO2 emissions “may increase substantially”, and as many as 100,000 species might be put at risk of extinction if the proposal becomes law. “Under the new Forest Act,” the scientists said, “Brazil risks suffering its worst environmental setback in half a century, with critical and irreversible consequences beyond its borders.”
cont.A prominent anti-logging activist was murdered along with his wife in Brazil on... more

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Brazil: Amazon deforestation rising sharply due to soy production

Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has increased almost sixfold, new... more

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Sustainable forestry grows in Bolivia

Deep in the Chiquitana tropical dry forest in southeast Bolivia, Noine Picanerai stands on a dirt road that cuts through lush woods. The 50,000-acre plot looks like a protected reserve. But, notes Picanerai, a woodsman in his 70s, "My people live off selling these trees." Indeed, despite the forest's pristine appearance, it's a logging concession run by an indigenous Ayoreo community. The project, along with dozens of similar forest management programs across the Amazon region north of Bolivia, are making sustainable logging a reality instead of an oxymoron. "We aren't like the other guys," Picanerai says with a toothless grin. "We make sure the forest stays standing."

Each year more than 30 million acres (12 million hectares) of the world's natural forest are cut to satisfy global demand for wood and paper products. That deforestation, which reduces the planet's carbon dioxide-absorbing foliage, causes at least a fifth of all greenhouse gas emissions today. South American forest management projects — logging that assures tree regeneration — are quietly growing into key conservation strategies in the fight against climate change. "These programs are about making the standing forest worth something to governments and communities," says Meg Symington, managing director for the Amazon for the World Wildlife Fund-USA, which supports sustainable forestry.

Bolivia, specifically its indigenous communities and their NGO advocates, has been a pioneer of this effort, and communities in Brazil, Peru and the Guyanas have jumped on board as well. The Chiquitana venture, established in 2001 in the town of Zapoco by the Ayoreos and an NGO called APCOB, with government approval and monitoring, was Bolivia's first indigenous-run forestry business. Its goal is to help save the dry forest — which is South America's second-largest eco-system behind the Amazon rain forest, but whose trees are being felled at a faster rate than others on the continent — while giving the rural poor a shot at a living wage.

Each year for 20 years, the Zapoco cooperative has license to log 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) filled with rosewood, tigerwood, caviuna and other exotic tree species for export to the U.S. and Europe. (On average about 6,000 trees are felled each year.) A tree census plots out the logging before it begins, and only mature trunks of a certain diameter are marked for chopping, while younger trees are left to grow and the healthiest of the lot are spared so their seeds can spread. "That one wasn't cut because it's got a parrot's nest," says Pedro Charupas, another Zapoco resident, motioning to a fully mature ironwood.

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Such efforts are still the exception: billions of dollars worth of illegally harvested wood is estimated to enter the U.S. every year, despite 2008 legislation meant to thwart it. But as nations like the U.S. increase efforts to buy legally sourced wood, countries like Bolivia benefit due to projects like Zapoco's. Half of Bolivia's surface area, about 1.3 million acres (500,000 hectares) is forest, home to rare wood species whose value will grow as rain and dry forests alike disappear in other parts of the world. Picanerai says Zapoco often hosts visits from other indigenous communities eager to establish cooperatives. And that's why, says the elder, he's confident the seeds of sustainable logging will keep spreading.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2071694,00.html#ixzz1MjWaaHBfDeep in the Chiquitana tropical dry forest in southeast Bolivia, Noine Picanerai... more

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Brazilian judge blocks plans for construction of Belo Monte Dam

Plans for the construction of the controversial Belo Monte hydroelectric plant in the... more

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Uncontacted Amazon Tribe: First ever aerial footage

New film footage released today shows uncontacted Indians on the Brazil-Peru border in... more

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Sustainable agriculture: Year-end Monsanto Roundup

My final video for 2010 from the Sustainable Agriculture Group on GMO news. We need to... more

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Al Qaeda Attacks Another Church in Baghdad! Targeting the Indigenous Christians! Please HELP US!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=791008698#!/album.php?aid=319674&id=74777305... more

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Uranium Rush Prompts Grand Canyon Fears

A new "gold rush" is under way in the American West, but this time the... more

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The Five Cockrings Died

1. Torch Cock Block 2. Take Back our City 3. Heart Attack 4. The Motherfuckin NLG... more

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The Olympigs are here!

1. Colombian attack on the indigenous 2. Blocking the flows of carbon 3. Mending the... more

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Story on Drew Nelson song about Sacred Eagle Rock, Yellow Dog Plains in Michigan's Upper Peninsula that's being destroyed by Kennecott Minerals

Story/photo about Drew Nelson song about sacred Eagle Rock came out in this... more

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A Zuni Indian perspective on gender

Here, the author provides the Zuni view on gender’s fluidity. To read more,... more

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Bolivian 'Coca Colla'

A Bolivian soda brand with a read label has launched calling itself 'Coca... more

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A celebration of trans-life

If wishing to celebrate trans-life, please click here! Being trans is a gift, and... more

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Save the Amazon Forest today

For all those curious on how they can save the Amazon forest and its people, a visit... more

transreporter
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Following in Bigfoot's footsteps: destination Tule River

Indigenous culture enthusiasts, nature lovers and Bigfoot fans alike are sure to find... more

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Travels through Indian Country: destination Zuni

Unbeknownst to the majority, Zuni Pueblo is a tourist's dream. To find out more,... more

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No Spam and Bologna: Tribes Oppose Tar Sands Pipeline, Raising Investment Risk

The Coastal First Nations, a coalition of aboriginal communities in Canada’s... more

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Dr. Vandana Shiva: Relying on GM Crops to Battle Climate Change 'Suicidal'

Faced with growing demand for food and increasingly unpredictable weather, many... more

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