Ashaninka-Indians from Brazil declare: "Peru is to blame for the threat to our livelihood”

Timber companies from Peru are stirring up trouble with the Ashaninka-Indians living in the border area between Peru and Brazil. Illegal timber-fellers on the Peruvian side are always encroaching on their land and destroying the forest, with the result that the native people living there cannot find enough animals for their needs. For this reason they have started fishing and hunting in the area of their Brazilian neighbours. "Peru is to blame for the threat to the livelihood of all of us”, say the two Ashaninka spokespersons Benki and Moises Piyako from the north-west of Brazil , who have been invited to Germany by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV). They want to draw attention to the role of Peru in the tragedy of their people and seek support for the protection of the rain-forest. The Ashaninka in Brazil have set up with the school of primeval forestry "Yoreka Atame” in Brazil a unique project to make publicity for the sustainable use of the rain-forest.

The GfbV has already arranged meetings for the two Ashaninka spokespersons with the Human Rights Commissioner of the German government, Günter Nooke, representatives of the Committee for Human Rights and Humanitarian aid and of the Committee for Economic Cooperation and Development.

"We Ashaninka from the village of Apiwtxa on the Amonia River in Brazil have established protected areas for game and fish and set up bee-keeping colonies. We have also built dams so that the fish in the rivers and lakes can find spawning-grounds. We are also planting food crops, fruit-trees and hardwood to increase the biological variety”, reported Benki Piyako. He is convinced that this sustainable way of using the rain-forest could also be a model for his impoverished neighbours in Peru if their land is better protected from illegal encroachment.

The Yoreka Atame school of primeval forestry in the Brazilian federal state of Acre has since 2007 trained altogether 2000 Ashaninka and non-Indian young people from the town of Mareshal Taumaturgo in the sustainable use of the land. The surroundings of the training centre have been planted with 50,000 fruit-trees and hardwood cuttings. The Ashaninka have offered to train the young people of their Peruvian relatives also in matters concerning the protection of the environment. The GfbV has been supporting the project since 2004.

"”Our country is in my opinion the richest country in the world”, says Benki Piyako. "We must make sure that our natural resources are not destroyed in the struggle for survival. There are tens of thousands of Indians who live in the forests without destroying them!”

The visit of the two spokespersons of the Ashaninka has prompted the GfbV to publish today an up-to-date memorandum on the situation of the Indian ethnic groups living in voluntary isolation which are also being threatened by illegal timber-fellers. We will gladly send you this memorandum (in german).