Space at a premium?

After my short introduction, I felt it was time for a more detailed insight into the lives of ingenious tribe people and the challenges they face. The focus of this blog will look closely at the changes experienced by forest tribes throughout the world, with a particular interest in the people of the Amazon Rainforest. One of the biggest challenges currently facing the Amazionians is a fight solely for space.

Nearly 400 separate indigenous groups live in the Amazon Rainforest alone. These people rely solely on the land they call their home, with little to no contact with the outside world. But this is changing. As the world continues to expand, society looks more and more to the vast resources the Amazon has to offer and this is threatening the way of life of the people who are now fighting to keep their physical and cultural traditions alive.

One of the greatest problems facing the people of the Amazon today is space and the threat from large companies, but also the sheer scale of smaller agricultural activities. Activities such as logging, cattle grazing, oil use, farming (particularly of Soybeans) are just some of the major uses of the Amazon rainforest. From 1991 to 2000 the area of deforested Amazon Rainforest rose from 415,000 to 587,000 km² - to put this in a comprehendible context, an area comparable to the size of Spain. This rapid deforestation continues to occur throughout the heartland of the Rainforest, as highlighted below.

Taken from Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest

This had led to a rapid decrease in number of indigenous tribe people. Park (1992), estimates that there may have been as many as 5 million people living in the Amazon basin in 1500, a number which rapidly decreased to 1 million by 1900, and to a lowly 250,000 by the 1980s. While many of these people may have migrated due to the sheer lure of a better metropolis life as contact with the outside world increased, an article in the Guardian highlights just some of the dangers facing indigenous tribes as the modern world looks to expand.

To summarise this article (for those who don’t have time to read it!!) the current situation in the Amazon and the fight for space more closely resembles a war. Large logging corporations have been seen to have little problem with fighting those protecting their land – in this case the only 355 people strong  Awá tribe. The Awá are now a rarity in that it is estimated nearly 100 of them have had no contact with the outside world. However, they are now facing extinction. Illegal logging and farming industries are pouring onto their land and has led to a situation of which a Brazilian judge labelled ‘genocide’.

- Hired gunmen – known as pistoleros– are reported to be hunting Awá who have stood in the way of land-grabbers. 

The fears for this tribe and the level of their plight has led to a worldwide campaign. Details on how to get involved in Survival International can be found here.

Clearly the issue of space and the fight against corporations is a truly major issue facing the people of the Amazon, but for now I will say goodbye without a shadow of a doubt that this blog entry will become merely an introduction to this problem and will be one I will revisit time and time again. 

Park, C., 1993. Tropical Rainforests. New York: Routledge.