In the Amazon rainforest, an indigenous tribe fights for survival

Deep in the Amazon rainforest, an indigenous tribe that has remained relatively isolated from the outside world is waging a battle for its survival.

For centuries, the Yanomami have inhabited a vast area of pristine forest and large, meandering rivers on the border between Brazil and Venezuela, living off fishing, hunting and fruit gathering.

Today, the Yanomami – who number about 29,000 – say they are at serious risk of losing their lands, culture and traditional way of life. The lust for gold and other valuable minerals that lay beneath their ancestral territory has in recent years attracted a wave of illegal prospectors who have cut down forests, poisoned rivers and brought deadly diseases to the tribe.

“Our land is again being invaded. Our rivers are again being polluted by mercury,” said Davi Kopenawa, a Yanomami leader who has dedicated his life to protecting Yanomami rights and lands in the Amazon.

Lust for gold brings death to the Amazon

Yanomami and local officials estimate there are more than 20,000 illegal gold miners, known locally as garimpeiros, on their homeland, even though the Yanomami territory is a nationally protected area where mining is banned.

Joenia Wapichana, the only indigenous woman elected to the Brazilian Congress, said the devastation caused by the garimpeiros and the powerful economic interests bent on exploiting the rainforest is posing a threat to both biodiversity and the very existence of indigenous life.

“The number of invaders has increased, both loggers and miners, who are at the service of people who have strong economic power, and organised crime is beginning to enter the territory. The environmental and health issue is getting worse and is putting the indigenous people at risk of extinction,” Wapichana warned.