The struggle for Survival of indigenous peoples in the Amazon rain forest is coming to a head. One reason is the spread of the Covid-19-disease in their villages, the other is to be the in this Situation more and more threatening proximity to illegal gold-diggers who take by the shut-down of the Brazilian government to keep the territories of the Indigenous, apparently, increasingly uninhibited and came at the same time, a source of infection of the forest dwellers.
Joachim Müller-Jung
editor in the features section, responsible for the area of “nature and science”.
F. A. Z. Twitter
The Yanomami and Ye’kwana have started a campaign #MinersOutCovidOut , with the help of the Brazilian government is “vehemently demand”, the estimated deporting 20.000 illegal gold miners.
In the Amazon live well 420 different indigenous peoples who speak at least 86 languages and 650 dialects. Three million people are that make up an estimated nine percent of the population in the South American Region, and in the past year, for the first time at a climate change summit as a decisive factor for the protection of the rain forest were recognized. 60 tribes life isolated in the woods, but the Covid-19 you are protected in any way.
“Xawara” is the word of the Yanomami for imported diseases. The next to you living Ye’kwana, with its 27000 people are distributed over one of the largest indigenous conservation areas in Brazil, which extends from Roraima to the Amazon States and the border with Venezuela spans. The entire Region is threatened by deforestation and, increasingly, illegal gold diggers, the introduction of the Sars-CoV-2 in the forests. 40 percent of the Yanomami communities are threatened by adjacent gold diggers directly. Overall, the Indigenous peoples of Brazil (APIB) have died, according to the coalition of 260 Indigenous to Covid-19. The mortality rate is twice as high as that of the rest of the population of Brazil. The disease has killed four Yanomami, in addition there are a further 95 cases confirmed in the case of the Yanomami and Ye’kwana.
With the a few days ago launched a campaign #MinersOutCovidOut want to urge the two indigenous peoples, the Brazilian government, the illegal gold miners to be shown. “We will fight and resist. But we need the support of the Brazilian people and the people all over the world,“ said Dario, son of Davi Kopenawa, one of the most famous shamans in the Amazon area.
In most of the municipalities of Amazonia, there is no lung ventilation devices. The average distance between indigenous villages and the nearest intensive care unit (ICU) in Brazil is 315 kilometers. And for 10 percent of the villages, this distance is seven hundred to a thousand kilometers. The Yanomami would almost have to three-hour flight to Boa Vista travel, if you are in need of an intensive care unit with a ventilator.
There are no country – or flow connections between the village and the capital of Roraima. The health items that provide the Yanomami, in Brazil, at the worst, since they have the least availability of beds and ventilators. In the present case, in the miner to penetrate into their territory, cut the health post at the worst.