Men of the Tembe tribe in the Amazon rainforest are bracing up to fight the invasion on their land due to the raging annual forest fires through jungle patrols. The conflict started escalating when the fires set to clear land, devastated large areas of Brazil’s Amazon region since August 27. The tribe daubs themselves in traditional war paint and patrol the forest. They carry bows and arrows but feel increasingly vulnerable in their fight with illegal loggers. 

“Every day that passes, the invasion comes closer to our village. We don’t want to be killed by bullets. We want the federal government to assume its responsibility and guarantee the right that we have to live in our lands, to live in peace,” said chieftain, Sergio Muxi Tembé. 

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The plight of tribes in Amazon

With time and advancement, technology has become part of many tribes. They now fish for piranhas, hunt for birds, and pick fruits and take materials for traditional medicine from jungle trees, while some watch television or log on to the internet on phones inside thatched-roof huts. Yet they still have to fight for the land which was allocated to them years ago. Women worry that the fight with loggers will make them lose their husbands.

Their 1,080-square-mile Alto Rio Guama homeland is officially protected. The government said that about 14% of Brazil is indigenous territory which is a huge area for a relatively small population. Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo said that the opening of the Amazon to development is “the only way to protect the forest.” The plight of the Tembe people is the direct outcome of government policy which in the name of development, invades and disturbs them.

“This leads to a situation where the lawlessness of the Amazon region ... becomes such that the livelihood of the indigenous people is under a real threat. And they don’t have a lot of capacity to defend themselves. These are the people who live off the land, who do substance farming. They are very much aware of the environment around it and how to maintain it because that’s how they sustain their livelihood,” said Monica de Bolle, a Brazil expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics who recently testified before U.S. Congress about the Amazon.

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Human Rights Watch and lawyers stand for the tribe

Deforestation in the Amazon “is driven largely by criminal networks that use violence and intimidation against those who try to stop them, said a report by Human Rights Watch based on interviews with indigenous people and others in the Brazilian states of Para, Maranhao, and Rondonia. The report further blamed Brazil’s government for failing to protect the rainforest and people trying to protect it. Edmilson Rodrigo, a lawmaker from Para state, also defended Amazon's indigenous people. He accused that land grabbers, miners, loggers have taken their lands and the tribes are only trying to protect it.

(With inputs from Associated Press)

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