Remarkable footage of what is an?uncontacted, indigenous?Brazilian tribe recently emerged. Aside from being rare, it also sparked a raging debate on the threat to their survival.?
According to reports, the footage has been released by an indigenous media group that wants to spread the word about the threat they're facing from?illegal loggers, miners and drug traffickers.
The Awa tribe in the Amazon rainforest has been described as the world¡¯s most threatened tribe by the NGO Survival International.?
Many researchers up until now thought that the tribe members were completely obliterated due to excessive deforestation. However, that assumption now stands invalid and proves they're still around.
The viral footage shows a man belonging to the Awa tribe sniffing a machete that he finds lying on ground. He suddenly grows suspicious about someone watching him from a distance, looks almost straight into the camera. Not a second later, he and a fellow hunter flee the scene as fast as possible.?
That just goes to show the fear these tribes people feel from encroachers.?
According to a Guardian report, the members of the Awa community have been forced to abandon the forest, but some remain in self-imposed isolation.
The now-viral footage is said to have been recorded by a member of a neighbouring tribe, the Guajajara.?
Olimpio Guajajara, coordinator of the Guardians of the Amazon, told the NGO, ¡°We Guardians are defending our people¡¯s rights, defending the uncontacted Indians, and defending nature for all of us. Three of our Guardians have been assassinated. We need the land to be protected for good.¡±
According to reports, Survival International the NGO says that the tribe has been frequently attacked by loggers who have been encroaching in the forest for indiscriminate deforestation.?
For the uninitiated, Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has accelerated the deforestation of the world's largest forest cover and also given a push to illegal loggers.?
According to a Human Rights Watch report, Bolsonaro, a pro-torture, openly bigoted member of Congress, won a run-off election on October 28, 2018 and he took office in January 2019.?
Since then he has been freely sanctioning illegal logging, farming and mining.
Earlier this year, there were reports that said that Bolsonaro plans to lift Brazil out of the Paris agreement. Reports allege that new ministers of environment and foreign affairs headed by him have abolished the sections within their ministries that dealt with climate change.
The Amazon is the single most important ecosystem for fighting climate change. The forest has shown it's capability to combat extreme temperatures, and to see it suffer the consequences of mindless human greed is deeply saddening for humanity as a whole.
According to CFR, there are 300 indigenous groups currently living in the Amazon, including 80 of the world's last uncontacted tribes.