quote:
PORTO VELHO, Brazil (Reuters) -- A Brazilian Indian tribe armed with bows and arrows and unseen for years has been spotted in a remote Amazon region where clashes with illegal loggers are threatening its existence.Amazon loggers clash with lost tribe
Thursday, May 26, 2005
PORTO VELHO, Brazil (Reuters) -- A Brazilian Indian tribe armed with bows and arrows and unseen for years has been spotted in a remote Amazon region where clashes with illegal loggers are threatening its existence.
The tiny Jururei tribe numbers only eight to 10 members, and is the second "uncontacted" group to be threatened by loggers this month, after a judge approved cutting in an area of the jungle called Rio Pardo.
Accelerating rainforest destruction threatens the tribes. Deforestation in 2003-04 totaled 10,088 square miles (26,130 sq km), the most in nearly a decade, official figures show.
"The Indians have had conflict with loggers, who are cutting toward them from two different directions," Rogerio Vargas Motta, director of the Pacaas Novos national park, told Reuters.
He photographed Jururei huts on a recent helicopter flyover of the remote park to catch land grabbers.
One Jururei shot three arrows at the helicopter as it flew overhead, Vargas Motta said.
The tribe's wood huts have roofs of black plastic tarps found in abandoned logging camps.
Indian rights activists are alarmed.
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posted 27 May 2005 01:48 PM
