There are only 355 remaining Awa and they are being marked for genocide. They are an uncontacted tribe who fight intruders with bows and arrows. In late 2011 illegal loggers burned an 8 year old Awa girl alive when she wandered away from her home.
The Awa are one of only two nomadic hunter-gathering tribes left in the Amazon. According to Survival International, they are now the world's most threatened tribe, assailed by gunmen, loggers and hostile ranchers.
Luis Carlos Guajajaras, a leader from another people, said that the girl had been killed as a warning to other native peoples living in the protected area.[3] According to the Indigenous Missionary Council about 450 indigenous people were murdered between 2003 and 2010.[4] An investigation discovered the Awá camp in question had been destroyed by loggers.[1]
This is the very first aerial footage of an uncontacted community[...]
"It's important for humanity these people exist. They remind us it's possible to live in a different way. They're the last free people on the planet"
The rain forests of the world
are under siege. They are cradles of biodiversity and are the greatest carbon sink we have remaining on Earth. Their destruction presents an even more rapid march to climate change. First the illegal loggers come in. Then with cleared land the ranchers arrive with their herds of cattle for meat production. The corporate farmers arrive to plant corn and soybeans to feed the cattle.
During the past 40 years, close to 20 percent of the Amazon rain forest has been cut down—more than in all the previous 450 years since European colonization began. The percentage could well be far higher; the figure fails to account for selective logging, which causes significant damage but is less easily observable than clear-cuts. Scientists fear that an additional 20 percent of the trees will be lost over the next two decades. If that happens, the forest's ecology will begin to unravel.
There is a solution. We are trying to wake up the world to rally to save the Awas. A
campaign to prevent illegal deforestation driving the world's most endangered tribe to extinction was launched on Wednesday with a short film featuring an appeal by the Oscar-winning actor
Colin Firth.
One man can stop this. Brazil's Minister of Justice. He can send in the federal police to capture the illegal loggers and keep them out for good.
Act now to help the Awá
Your support is vital if the Awá are to survive. There are many ways you can help.
Writing a letter to the Brazilian governement is a quick and simple way to let them know of your concern.
Donate to the Awá campaign (and other Survival campaigns).
Write to your MP or MEP (UK) or Senators and members of Congress (US).
Write to your local Brazilian high commission or embassy.
If you want to get more involved, contact Survival...
10:20 AM PT: have to go to a OFA meeting close by..will be back to check on comments in about 1 hour