Major operation to save Earth’s most threatened tribe makes progress

After months of campaigning by Survival International, Brazil’s government is finally acting to evict illegal invaders from the Awá tribe’s land. © Mário Vilela/FUNAI

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The Brazilian government’s operation to remove all invaders from land of the Awá tribe is now in its fourth week.

The large-scale operation involves several ministries, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs department FUNAI, the army, federal police and the President’s office, with a ground squad of at least 200 agents.

It follows Survival’s global campaign to save Earth’s most threatened tribe from extinction.

The Awá are Earth's most threatened tribe; without their forest, they will not survive. © Survival International

At least 369 evictions orders have now been served, notifying 90% of the territory’s illegal occupants that they must leave.

Settler families have 40 days to leave from the day they receive the notice, and will be given alternative land and access to a range of benefits.

Overflights are currently underway to identify ranches and settlements which have not yet been registered.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazon Indian in London, said, ‘After so many years fighting, my Awá brothers and sisters are finally seeing a light of hope and a sign that they’ll be able to live in harmony with their forest’.

Last week Padre Ton, a Brazilian Deputy and President of the Parliamentary Group on Indigenous Peoples, denounced the dangers facing the Awá at a conference entitled ‘Awá on the brink of extinction’, convened by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization at the European Parliament. A Survival researcher also spoke.

Last week on TV Globo News in Brazil, Judge Carlos Madeira who ruled that all outsiders must leave the area highlighted the huge international concern for the Awá, revealing he had received 10,000 letters from around the world urging him to act.

Speaking on the government’s television channel, the President of FUNAI said, ‘The organizations will certainly remain in the area … to monitor the Indigenous areas so that illegal occupations don’t occur again’.

Over 34% of the Awá Indigenous territory has been deforested.

The Awá are one of the last remaining nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes in the Amazon. They will not survive unless their forest is protected.

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