Brazil expels loggers in rare operation to protect threatened tribe
DECEMBER 19, 2018 / 2:57 PM / UPDATED 12 HOURS AGO
Brazil expels loggers in rare operation to protect threatened tribe
Karla Mendes
3 MIN READ
RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Brazilian authorities have expelled a group of illegal loggers and ranchers from a remote area of the Amazon in a risky and rare operation to protect a threatened indigenous tribe.
The Kawahiva are nomadic hunter-gatherers who live in one of Brazil’s most lawless areas and have no contact with mainstream society. Campaigners say their survival is threatened by intruders seeking to profit from the forest’s vast resources.
On Tuesday Funai, the government agency that represents indigenous people’s interests, said it had evicted five “non-indigenous” people from the area in a joint operation with the environmental protection agency.
Defending the territory was “fundamental for the survival of isolated indigenous peoples,” Funai official Geovanio Pantoja Katukina said in a statement.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-landrights-environment/brazil-expels-loggers-in-rare-operation-to-protect-threatened-tribe-idUSKCN1OI2J6