Acknowledgements
My special thanks to Survival International, Friends of the
Earth, the Conselho Indigenista Misionario, the Comissao Pastoral
Indigenista do Xingu, the Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e
Informacao, Sydney Possuelo, Jose Lutzenberger, Lucy Blue, Ginny
Hill and many Brazilians whose lives could be put at risk by a
citation.
Abstract
This report documents the extraction of mahogany (Swietenia
macrophylla) from Indian and biological reserves in the Brazilian
Amazon. It shows that a large part of the Brazilian mahogany
being bought by consumers in Britain and other industrialised
nations has been extracted illegally from areas set aside for
protection. It reveals that mahogany cutters are not only among
the major causes of ecological destruction in the southern
Amazon, but that they are also threatening the cultural integrity
and lives of many of the Indians whose reserves have been
invaded. It details the murders of indigenous people at the hands
of loggers, the cultural destruction many groups are suffering,
the political strength of the Brazilian timber industry and the
ways in which consumers in Britain have been misled about the
sources of the timber they buy.
Introduction
In 1992, according to FUNAI, the Brazilian government's Indian
Foundation, most of the Brazilian mahogany entering Britain will
come from Indian or biological reserves. As the richest legally
available sources of mahogany have been depleted, logging
companies have been moving into the areas set aside for the
protection of Indians and wildlife, where exploitation is
illegal@1.
Most of the reserves in which significant quantities of mahogany
grow have been invaded, and as a result the mahogany industry has
now become one of the greatest threats to the physical survival
of the Amazon's Indians. Not only are the forests sustaining them
and their traditions being damaged by the cutters, but the roads
they open allow colonists to flood into previously inaccessible
Indian lands@2,@3,@4. Many of the Indians coming into contact
with colonists and cutters have no resistance to the diseases
they introduce, and epidemics follow the timber frontier@5,@6,@7.
In some reserves loggers have sent gunmen ahead of them to kill
Indians threatening their operations@8,@9,@10. In others they
have struck deals with individual Indians, trading mahogany for
cheap merchandise. These are characteristically inequitable, and
have led to friction between the beneficiaries and other members
of the tribe.@11,@12,@13.
The Brazilian industry is, according to senior government
officials, out of control@14,@15,@16. The organisations formed by
the timber industry in the eastern Amazon are said to be more
powerful than any government agency, and many of the civil
servants charged with protecting the Indians and the forests have
been bribed or threatened into acquiesence with the illegal
trade. This problem extends to members of the judiciary. Some
officials are known to draw regular salaries from the loggers.
Jose Lutzenberger, the Brazilian Secretary of State for the
Environment, described the outstations of the government's
environment agency, IBAMA, as "one hundred per cent branch
offices of the logging companies"@17. In March 1992, when he
tried to do something about this situation, he was, for this
among other reasons, sacked (see Appendix 2).
Both he and Sydney Possuelo, the current president of FUNAI,
complain that little can be done to restrict the supply of
illegal mahogany: the cutters are simply too powerful. Great
Britain is the largest purchaser of Brazilian mahogany,
accounting for 52% of the trade. They call on British consumers
to stop the demand: it is the only hope, they say, for the
survival of many of the Amazon's Indians.
The Tree
Brazilian mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla) grew in a broad band
across the southern Amazon - from close to Brazil's eastern coast
to the Bolivian border - through the far western Amazon, then
narrowing through Ecuador and Colombia to central Venezuela,
crossing the Darien Peninsula and occurring on the eastern
seaboard of Central America@18. This study concentrates on
Brazil, where most of the mahogany Britain buys is extracted.
The mahogany belt coincides with the southern Amazon's greatest
density of Indian reserves. This is partly because the region in
which it grows is far from the channel of the River Amazon, up
which the first outsiders came. While the diseases, slavery and
warfare introduced by Europeans led within two centuries to the
complete extermination of many of the groups close to the River
Amazon itself, those in the southern forests were left largely
undisturbed until the second half of this century. It is in these
forests that mahogany grows.
Because of the heavy exploitation of the mahogany tree, Brazil
has listed the species as Vulnerable in the Annex of the
Convention on Nature Protection and Wildlife Preservation in the
Western Hemisphere. Swietenia macrophylla is classified as a high
priority species for genetic resource conservation by the
International Board for Plant Genetic Resources. The United
States' submission to the 1992 Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species noted "Extant natural populations of the
unlisted [Swietenia] species are depleted substantially by
extraction."@19
This is not to suggest, however, that the species is close to
biological extinction. A recent study by de Barros et al
estimates that 16 million cubic metres of mahogany exist outside
Indian reserves in the Brazilian Amazon.@20 If this estimate is
accurate (Verissimo et al note "it is extremely difficult to
estimate the regional stock of mahogany and all such estimates
should be regarded with scepticism at the present time."@21)
it would appear to suggest that mahogany remains abundant in the
Brazilian Amazon.
However, de Barros et al calculate an average density of these
remaining stocks in the regions in which mahogany is still known
to occur of only one tree per ten hectares. This is below the
density at which exploitation is commercially viable
(conversations with timber cutters suggest that regions in which
the trees occur at one per four hectares are just within the
range of commercial viability). Accounts from people involved in
the trade collected by this author and others@22 over the last
three years suggests that most of the viable stands of mahogany
outside reserves have already been exploited. The figures may
corroborate these accounts and uphold the claims of government
officials that mahogany is close to commercial extinction in the
accessible areas in which it is legally exploitable@15,@16.
The estimate of de Barros et al that the Indian reserves in the
mahogany belt, which cover 22.5% of its area, contain 13.7
million cubic metres of mahogany indicates, if accurate, that the
density of mahogany within these areas is much greater than the
density outside them: probably because exploitation of most
reserves is a recent phenomenon. This and the fact that cutters
have been able to avoid paying the Indians for their mahogany, or
to pay them at rates far lower than those charged by other
landowners, makes the exploitation of reserves commercially
viable.
In 1990 84% of the Amazon's mahogany exports came from the state
of Para, 13% from Rondonia and 2.9% from Acre.@23
The Environmental Effects of Cutting
Mahogany has been described as "a perfectly designed boardgame
for maximum environmental destruction"@24. As the trees are
highly valuable yet widely dispersed through the forest, mahogany
cutters are prepared to traverse large areas of forest to extract
them. Uhl et al note: "Mahogany logging is conducted by very
large companies, each constructing hundreds of kilometres of
logging road each dry season to reach ever more distant mahogany
trees. The present transport distance approaches 400km, but the
value of sawn mahogany, at US$600.00-800.00 m3 is
compensatory."@25
The damage the machinery inflicts on the forest in which the
mahogany is cut is out of proportion to the amount of wood taken.
A study in the south of Para found that for each mahogany tree
removed, 28 other trees were seriously damaged: most of them
toppled or uprooted. 1450 square metres of forest were affected
by the cutting of every mahogany tree.@21
While in theory the forest could recover from this disturbance,
the relationship between mahogany loggers and colonists in the
Brazilian Amazon (see "Cutters and Colonists" below) and the
cutters' concentration on protected areas of forest mean that in
practice the British timber industry must be ranked among the
world's most significant causes of tropical forest destruction.
Some Brazilian loggers claim to be operating in an
environmentally acceptable or even sustainable fashion. They
point to their establishment of mahogany plantations as evidence
of sustainable production. These, however, are characteristically
located far from the forest in which the mahogany is felled. The
establishment of plantations of just one or a few tree species
fails to restore the diversity of the forest destroyed. The land
area these plantings cover is small by comparison to the area
opened up by the cutters' activities. In the Indian and
biological reserves from which most mahogany is said to come, no
recorded attempts have been made to restore the damage inflicted.
To support their claims of extracting wood only from managed
forests, timber cutters produce management certificates issued by
the federal Environment Institute, IBAMA. These have long been an
object of ridicule among researchers in the Amazon. In 1992 Jose
Lutzenberger revealed that they were being handed out blank by
corrupt IBAMA officials for the cutters to fill in for
themselves.
Verissimo et al have shown that, for a number of reasons,
mahogany regeneration in the logged forest is weak. They suggest
"It is possible that the present mahogany population established
after widespread disturbances, such as fire, several hundred
years ago, and has not been able to effectively reproduce since
such disturbance events." As most mature mahogany trees are
removed by the cutters, and logging takes place before the tree's
fruiting season, little seed is left for regeneration. Mahogany
does not sprout from cut stumps. They note that in abundant
light, however, it would have a good regeneration capacity. As
intermediate-sized mahogany trees occur in the logged forest they
studied at densities of only 0.3 per hectare, they conclude:
"Considering natural mortality, it is unlikely that this stock
could produce a second harvest."@21
Much of the forest in which mahogany grows would likely remain
unexploited were it not for mahogany extraction. While trees of
the species are widely dispersed, few others among the forests in
which it grows have a commercial value@21,@26. This supports the
suggestion that the forest in this belt was established after
widespread disturbance.
While mahogany traders in Britain concentrate on where their wood
might be coming from in 30 or 40 years time - assuming the
plantations overcome pest problems and reach maturity - they
appear to have failed to determine where their timber is coming
from now. This author has yet to locate one sustainable
commercial timber operation in the Brazilian Amazon.
Cutters and Colonists
The immediate damage inflicted in the extraction of mahogany is
the least of the problems associated with the industry. Logging
is now among the principal means by which new agricultural
frontiers are being established in Amazonia: colonists and
ranchers make use of the roads cut through previously
inaccessible regions, and clear the forest the loggers
opened@27,@25,@21. In many cases the finance they need for forest
clearance comes from their sale to sawmills of the remaining
valuable timber on the lands they take@25.
As the mahogany cutters range further than any other loggers and
are characteristically the first invaders of reserves, they
provide the means by which settlers can reach the remotest parts
of the forest. In reserves such as the Guapore, Uru Eu Wau Wau
and Alto Turiacu the cutters have actively encouraged colonists
to follow them, as these people provide both cheap labour and
protection from Indians and authorities. Claiming that they are
just a small part of the wider invasion, the cutters shelter
behind the political difficulties involved in the removal of
colonists from reserves.
The damage inflicted by colonists making use of timber cutters'
roads has profound effects on the lives of the Indians. The Arara
living in the westernmost part of their reserve, for instance,
are entirely cut off from those in the east by a continuous belt
of deforestation following the road to a sawmill. There are fears
for the genetic viability of the small population stranded in the
west (see Case Studies).
The Human Consequences
1992 is a year of crisis for the Indians of the eastern Amazon.
While many of the existing reserve invasions continue, cutters
are now massing for what a Brazilian anthropologist describes as
"a huge offensive planned for the dry season."@28 In reserves of
Indians such as the Parakana, the Xikrin and the Kayapo', all of
whom have resisted some of the timber cutters' attempts at
exploitation, loggers are reported to be employing all possible
means to re-establish themselves, including bribery, threats and
political influence@29.
The invasions of reserves in the mahogany belt are systematic. In
many cases they are planned among powerful cartels of timber
cutters, with or without the involvement of corrupt government
officials (see below). It is common for one company to open the
roads into a reserve, a second to exploit the timber, and the two
to sell to a third@30. Their combined wealth and power mean that
there is little government or non-governmental institutions can
do to stop them.
As a result the cutters have been able to trample the basic
rights of the region's most vulnerable peoples. The Brazilian
Constitution determines that "The lands traditionally occupied by
the Indians are set aside for their permanent possession, leaving
to them the exclusive use of the riches from the soil, the rivers
and the lakes existing in them."@1. This provision - like others
in the Constitution; the Brazilian Statute of the Indian; the
Draft United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples; and the International Labour Organisation's conventions
107 and 169 - is offended in every reserve in which timber
cutters are operating.
The effects on the Indians range from social dismemberment and
cultural loss through epidemics of disease to straightforward
murder. FUNAI officials complain that there is little hope of
preventing the disintegration of indigenous societies in the
southern Amazon while the mahogany trade continues unchecked@14,
@32, @30.
The Case Studies and Appendix 1 catalogue the murders of people
of the Korubo, Flecheiros, Tikuna, Awa-Guaja, Zoro, Mura-Piraha,
Guapore and Uru Eu Wau Wau tribes. Indian rights groups in the
Amazon stress that the majority of killings of Indians go
unrecorded. Most at risk are the isolated groups of the Amazon,
which have resisted contact with the outside world. In some cases
the first whites they encounter are the timber cutters' gunmen.
Among those groups which have contact with the invaders, the most
evident of the troubles associated with logging is disease. The
Catholic Church's Indigenous Council reported last year that
almost the entire adult population of the Surui' people of the
Sete de Setembro Reserve had contracted one or other venereal
disease, and 20 per cent of the population was suffering from
tuberculosis.@5 The Uru Eu Wau Wau are believed to have lost half
their numbers since first contact in 1981, through diseases
introduced by both timber cutters and colonists.@33
Loggers, Indians and Government
The tactics of the loggers vary widely. In some cases, they move
into the reserve clandestinely, cutting until the Indians
discover them. At that point they either leave, threaten the
Indians or try to suborn them. In the territories of people such
as the Kayapo', renowned for their violent resistance to timber
cutting, loggers have been known to dash in, fell as many
mahogany trees as they can, then approach the Indians through
intermediaries, arguing that as the wood has already been felled,
the Indians can only gain by receiving a share of the profits
once the logs are hauled away and sawn@34.
In other instances, cutters have arrived in Indian villages to
distribute truckloads of cheap merchandise: torches, radios,
teeshirts, biscuits and tinned food. A few weeks later they
return, claiming that the goods had been sold to the Indians on
credit, and that they have come to collect their debts in the
form of timber.@29
Once inside the reserves the cutters characteristically single
out members of the group and attempt to persuade them of the
merits of trading their timber. If they succeed, contracts are
drawn up. These are both illegal and, characteristically, one-
sided. The Indians are paid in cash, services or merchandise, at
rates far below those charged by other landowners.@35,@36,@37
Even so, several Indian groups have complained that the cutters
with whom they deal steal more wood than they pay for.
When individuals receive merchandise or services in return for
their acquiesence in logging operations, these characteristically
prove ephemeral or harmful. In most reserves in which Indians are
regularly dealing with cutters, alcoholism is a problem, as white
rum is handed out or traded for mahogany@3,@36. Cutters bring the
Indians they trade with white prostitutes, and some people use
the money they make to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants,
abandoning their crops and families. Seldom is any of the money
invested: the Indians receive no instruction in finance or
arithmetic.
The contracts struck between individuals - in some cases young
men with no claim to authority@13 - and the cutters have led to
conflicts among the Indians, as those who do not want the forests
logged find there is little they can do to resist@12.
The difficulties the Indians have encountered in attempting to
improve the terms of these unconstitutional contracts have been
described by the Kayapo' spokesman Paulinho Paiakan: "At the
moment, very few of us can speak or read Portuguese. Fewer even
can count or check money deals. Numbers are not part of our
tradition. We were always cheated."@38
When the mahogany runs out - as is happening already in some
reserves - the Indians find themselves left with neither money
nor forests. Having used the forest to meet all their needs, they
become dependent on a cash economy without cash, and many are
tempted to sell other rights to their lands - such as mining
concessions - in order to keep themselves alive. As Linda
Greenbaum notes, the Indians lose their old skills without
gaining new ones.@35
Despite their illegality, many of the contracts have been
negotiated through FUNAI officials. This process began under the
disastrous administration of Romero Juca' Filho, in 1986. The
contracts he signed on behalf of the Indians resulted in huge
personal gains for himself@39, lower costs for FUNAI - as in some
reserves its administrative buildings were constructed by the
cutters - and few if any benefits to the Indians. These contracts
caused a national scandal and were cancelled by the federal
courts in 1988@40, but the cutters continued to use them in
attempts to legitimise their presence.
Juca was succeeded by FUNAI presidents of varying commitment to
Indian rights until, in 1991, Sydney Possuelo was appointed.
Though he is determined to stop the abuses, middle ranking
officials throughout the Foundation continue to preside over
contracts between cutters and Indians, taking a substantial cut
from the loggers in return for convincing the Indians that they
are not being treated unfairly.
Some Indian groups have lobbied local FUNAI offices or even
travelled to the federal capital, Brasilia, to petition the
government for an end to the cutting@8,@41, but typically without
success: Indians in the Amazon neither swing financial weight nor
are considered to be an important part of the electorate. As
their numbers have declined in the last five centuries from 5-10
million to 230,000 they are always likely to be outvoted by
colonists hoping to gain from the access afforded to new lands by
timber cutters' roads. Failing to find political solutions, some
Indians have resorted to confiscation of machinery@13,@42 hostage
taking@43,@44 and violence@45,@8 in their attempts to get rid of
timber cutters. Occasionally these desperate measures are
succesful.
Among other groups, some members have lobbied FUNAI or
environment agencies to allow the continuation of logging, as
they wish to continue receiving the merchandise or money the
loggers offer@46,@47. This has helped to exacerbate the conflicts
between those in favour of logging and those against it.
The scale of the logging in reserves can scarcely be overstated.
In 1987 the Brazilian export agency, CACEX, recorded that 69% of
all the mahogany leaving Brazil came from the Kayapo reserves@36.
This proportion has since declined due to depletion. The Comisao
Pro-Indio reports that from just 8 reserves it surveyed in the
state of Rondonia 905,000 cubic metres of fine hardwoods (largely
mahogany, followed by cedro and cerejeira) had been taken between
1982 and 1990, with most of the cutting taking place in the last
four years.@48. In 1991 30,000 cubic metres of mahogany were
recorded as having been cut from the Xikrin Indians' Catete
reserve, and this was considered to have been only a small part
of the total removed.@7 In 1988 the ex-director of FUNAI,
Ezequias Heringuer Filho, reported that a preliminary study in
Rondonia, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Para showed that at least $1
billion worth of timber had already been removed from indigenous
reserves.@49
Illegal mahogany logging is also taking place in biological and
extractive reserves.@50
Case Studies
1. The Korubo.
The Javari Park, which occupies the westernmost corner of the
state of Amazonas, is inhabited by three thousand indigenous
people of twelve groups, of which four have had no peaceful
contact with the outside world.@5 According to FUNAI, eight of
the twelve groups are threatened by illegal logging operations.
Of these the Korubo, who have chosen to avoid outsiders (FUNAI's
attempts to contact them between 1972 and 1975 were abandoned
because of the Korubo's hostility), are perhaps most at risk.
For at least six years invasions by both Brazilian and Peruvian
timber cutters in the Korubo's territory have been increasing,
and timber cutting in the Javari Park - according to the Catholic
Church's Indigenous Council - now accounts for "a good part of
the timber production of Amazonas."@51 (*chk quote). The
situation has become so desperate that some of the Korubo have
left their forests and fled into surrounding ranchlands@52. Since
the invasions began at least four Korubo have been murdered by
timber cutters' gunmen.
In 1986 one Indian was killed and another wounded when they were
caught by timber cutters on the Rio Branco.@53. In November 1989,
at the confluence of the Rivers Itui' and Itacoai', the federal
police recovered the bodies of three Korubo believed to have been
hunted down and murdered by timber cutters: possibly the first
whites these Korubo had encountered.@54,@55 The Catholic Church's
Indigenous Council, CIMI, reports that the killers of the three
are well-known, but that no serious attempts to prosecute them
have been made.@56
In May 1991 a film crew from the University of Brasilia
encountered a team of 11 timber cutters entering the forests of
the Korubo armed with shotguns, apparently at the beginning of an
Indian hunt.@56 In November 1991(*chk) two men working for a
timber company in Korubo lands went missing. The company
dispatched ten armed men to find them and - according to CIMI -
punish the Indians believed responsible for their deaths.@57. The
two men's corpses were later recovered@58 and it was ascertained
that they had been killed by the Korubo. Indian rights activists
fear that revenge raids will follow shortly. In October 1987 the
maloca (communal house) of a neighbouring isolated group, the so-
called Flecheiros, was razed after the Indians wounded a timber
worker. Several of the Indians were reported killed in the fire.
The timber cutters stayed in the area@53.
The ecological effects of the cutting in Korubo territory are
severe. The anthropologist Delvair Montagner, records: "The
timber cutters are the greatest predators in the Park, due to the
immense roads which they open in the forest to roll the logs to
the streams or the rivers. Of the Korubu he writes "the situation
of the isolated Indians is terrible. FUNAI must be prudent and
act rapidly, before the invaders and criminals decimate them".@53
Mahogany and cedro in the Javari park are now confined to a few
river valleys, while the timber sumau'ma is reported to have been
exhausted.@51 In the lands of the Korubo and Mati's people in the
catchment of the River Itui', FUNAI calculates that there are
700-1000 timber workers, removing 8-10,000 logs each dry season.
While many of these are small operators, a new invasion of Korubo
land by a large sawmill based in the town of Benjamin Constant
was sufficiently threatening to drive some of the Indians out of
their territory. FUNAI asked the police to expel these cutters,
but they refused to act without a formal request from the
courts.@59,@60
As the Korubo remain out of peaceful contact, it is impossible to
assess the effects of introduced disease among them. Some
indication of how they might be affected is offered by the
condition of two of the other peoples of the Javari Valley whose
lands have been invaded by timber cutters. In 1991 epidemics of
tuberculosis and leishmaniasis were reported among the Marubo,
while the Mati's were found to be suffering from widespread
measles and flu complicated by bronchial pneumonia.@6 All of
these diseases are potentially fatal among Amazonian Indians.
2. The Guapore.
The people inhabiting the Guapore Biological Reserve in the state
of Rondonia have resisted all contact with the outside world.
They have been seen only once by government officials, though
many abandoned camps have been found. The reserve is not only
this people's last place of refuge, it is also one of the most
important wildlife conservation areas in Brazil, whose 600,000
hectares contain highly diverse rainforest, cerrado (scrub
savannah) and wetland habitats.@4
In 1986 timber companies, with the encouragement of the federal
senator Olavo Pires@61 and corrupt officials in the federal
government's Environment Institute, IBDF, began building roads
into the eastern part of the reserve. In 1988 more cutters
arrived, having temporarily left Indian reserves while FUNAI was
being prosecuted by the Public Federal Ministry for having signed
illegal contracts.@49 By 1990 ten sawmills were cutting mahogany
in the reserve, and had taken an estimated 40,000 trees@62. Their
roads ran for up to 82 kilometres into the reserve@46.
A state senator associated with the loggers reportedly approached
President Sarney with a request for the reserve's boundaries to
be altered, rendering the cutting legal. In an attempt to
precipitate this change, he encouraged settlers to move in along
the logging roads, informing them that they could probably obtain
legal title for the lands they claimed in the reserve@46,@63. 50
families of colonists moved up the logging roads, and 400
speculators staked claims to land in the reserve, erecting signs
along the roads.@4
The Indians of the Guapore Reserve are said by FUNAI to be
threatened with extinction if timber cutting continues. A FUNAI
expedition in 1989 found more than twenty Guapore camps,
abandoned as the timber cutters came closer: the expedition
concluded that the Indians were in a state of near-constant
flight. When, for the first and only time, these officials
encountered them, the Indians fled in panic@62. This could be a
response to the widely reported killings of members of the
Guapore by timber cutters' gunmen.@64
By the middle of 1990 four expeditions had been mounted by FUNAI,
some with, some without the help of the Federal Police, to close
down the timber operations in the reserve. After every expedition
the cutters began operating again almost immediately, relying on
the widespread support of corrupt officials. But at the end of
1990 the senator Olavo Pires was murdered, and corrupt officials
were dismissed from both the local FUNAI offices and from the
state environment agency. In the dry season of 1991 a more
effective operation was launched, which stopped the cutting in
the reserve at least until the end of that year.@65 Indigenous
rights campaigners are anxiously awaiting the 1992 dry season,
concerned that the cutters will return and flush the Guapore out
of the last undisturbed forests in the part of the reserve they
inhabit.
3. The Arara.
The Arara Indians of the Xingu catchment in southern Para (not to
be confused with the Arara of Rondonia and Mato Grosso) were
first contacted by the Brazilian government in 1981. By that time
however, they had already suffered terribly from the division of
their lands by the TransAmazon Highway (built in 1970) and the
accompanying bombing of their villages, aerial drops of
contaminated clothing and erection of lethal electric fences by
the armed forces and an agricultural company. Their population is
believed to have fallen to around one quarter of the pre-contact
numbers.@32
In 1983 a major supplier of British mahogany importers was
granted permission by the government's colonisation agency to
build a ninety kilometre road from the TransAmazon Highway to the
banks of the River Iriri, traversing the territory of the
westernmost Arara, who were still out of contact. The Arara fled
from the lands the company entered, moving to the far west of
their territory. In 1987 they were contacted for the first time
by FUNAI, and settled in a permanent village in an effort to keep
them out of contact with the timber companies.
The company built a sawmill on the banks of the River Iriri and
began exploiting mahogany in the Arara's traditional lands. 1500
families of colonists followed the timber cutters, settling along
the main road and the smaller ones it built.
In 1985 the land the timber firm had entered was mapped as Arara
territory, and in 1991 FUNAI applied to the Federal Attorney-
General for a repossession order against the company. The
Attorney General applied to the courts in Para.@66 The judge
initially granted a preliminary measure against the company, but
withdrew it soon afterwards, and the logging firm remains inside
the Arara's reserve.
In 1991 it built a 95 kilometre logging road westwards, which
came to within 20 kilometres of the western Arara's new
village@14,@29. FUNAI reports that the company has destroyed much
of the forest the Indians there were using (they rely heavily on
hunting, gathering and fishing.) Already the game has fled from
the area. Officials believe that if the road goes any further the
Indians will lose their traditional livelihoods.
As the colonists following the timber company have clear-felled a
wide tract of forest which the Arara cannot cross, the 38 people
surviving in the western territories have no means of contacting
the larger populations in the east: FUNAI fears that their
population size is genetically inviable.@14
The easternmost Arara are also suffering severely from the
presence of timber cutters, and this year there are reports of
serous flu outbreaks following contacts between them and
employees of the several firms invading their lands. One of these
companies is owned by a government agency, INCRA, which is
cutting the mahogany for use by a timber company belonging to one
of its senior officials@67.
4. The Tikuna
On the 28th March 1988 over 100 Tikuna Indians came together for
a meeting in a riverside house in the settlement of Capacete,
western Amazonas, to discuss the illegal timber cutting taking
place in their lands with FUNAI representatives. A boat arrived
at the riverbank containing the timber cutter Oscar Castello
Branco and sixteen hired gunmen. The men disembarked, announced
that they had come to kill everyone, and opened fire@31. As the
Tikuna tried to flee in canoes, several were gunned down. By the
time the massacre was over, 14 Indians, children included, had
been killed and 22 wounded@8,@68.
Castello Branco was named as the instigator of the massacre by
Romeu Tuma, the director-general of the Federal Police in
Brazil@68. Eleven of the sixteen gunmen were identified. Yet,
four years later, no prosecutions have taken place@8,@69,@70. The
region is dominated by timber cutters: the authorities in seven
counties are allowing or encouraging illegal timber cutting in
Tikuna lands@8. Many of the region's officials are benefitting
directly from reserve invasions. The trial of Castello Branco and
his gunmen is politically impossible.
Far from investigating the 1988 massacre, the authorities have
done nothing to prevent another one occurring. The Tikuna have
repeatedly petitioned for protection, but have received none.
Death threats are now arriving regularly in Tikuna villages: one
leader has been told that fifteen boxes of cartridges have been
set aside for him and his people@71. As the pressure on Tikuna
reserves intensifies, the chances of more killings rise.
5. The Xikrin.
The Xikrin of the Catete reserve in Para forcibly expelled the
timber companies invading their lands in 1987. But in July 1989,
the anthropologists Lux Vidal and Isabelle Giannini report, two
young men of the community, who had no authority as
representatives, were persuaded to sign a contract with a major
timber company, one of the biggest supplying the British market.
The company was given the right to extract 20,000 cubic metres of
mahogany a year for five years@13.
Remarkably, half the wood extracted was, under the terms of the
contract, granted free to the timber cutter to compensate it for
the costs of extraction. The Regional Administrator of FUNAI,
Jose Ferreira Campos Junior commented "The cynicism of this
contract is such that 50% of the wood extracted goes to the
company to pay for its own extraction of the wood ... It's the
first time that I've seen a timber company being paid for
extracting timber." He pointed out several other serious
aberrations in the contract, making it clear that the Xikrin had
been thoroughly misled@72.
The Xikrin were supposed to be paid for the remainder of the
timber at the rate of $20 per tree. The market price in 1989 for
standing mahogany trees in the region was $80 per cubic metre: an
average of $320 per tree. The anthropologists working with the
Xikrin report however that even this money was not delivered. On
the contract a debt of $7900 appeared, owed by the Xikrin to the
timber company, purporting to have been spent by the company on
merchandise for the Indians.
By March 1990 the Xikrin were suffering from alcoholism,
prostitution, venereal disease and social breakdown@13. Finding
that they had received almost nothing in return for their wood,
the Indians sent warriors to the cutting zone to expel the timber
company. With the help of anthropologists they succeeded in
annulling the contract and started to look at sustainable
development alternatives.
By then however the environmental damage caused was serious. Lux
Vidal and Isabelle Giannini report "As the mahogany in the area
was widely dispersed, being calculated at one tree per four
hectares, its exploitation and extraction resulted in the
destruction of a large part of the surrounding forest. For the
extraction of 5999 mahogany trees, 130.5 km of primary roads and
173km of secondary roads ... were opened. ... We're dealing with
a pure and simple loss of the great richness of the forest. The
effects on the flora and fauna are disastrous, destroying the
food reserves of the Indians in a very short period of time."@13
However, in July 1990 the timber company persuaded individuals in
the Xikrin community to allow it to continue extracting wood from
their reserve in return for a twin motored aeroplane and a road
linking their village to the town of Tucuma. The majority of the
community was not involved in the contract. The company
subcontracted a further five firms in order to accelerate its
operations, including two supplying major timber importers in
Britain.
>From July to October, 40 lorries a day were leaving the reserve,
each carrying five or six trunks. The aeroplane is not registered
in the name of the Xikrin. They have no money either to buy
spares or to pay for a pilot.
Timber cutters now report that the Catete reserve is the last
place in which mahogany can be found in the Redencao-Tucuma
region, so the political and economic pressure to continue the
exploitation is intense. The Regional Administrator of FUNAI
reported that in September 1990 he was accosted at the airport in
Maraba by the owner of the timber company. He was told: "Money
pays for anything, and the federal police will not enter the
Xikrin area and you will never succeed in opening an enquiry
about me."@72
In January 1992 Isabelle Giannini wrote: "The deforestation in
the southern and western parts, from the headwaters of the Rivers
Seco and Catete, and the constant contact of the timber
companies' workers with the village, is carrying serious
consequences for the health of the Indians. In the first two
weeks of January 1992 six Xikrin children died of viral
dysentery."@7(*chk quote)
6. The Surui'
In 1991 almost the entire adult population of the Surui'
(otherwise known as the Paiter) of the Sete de Setembro Reserve
in Rondonia had contracted venereal disease. Twenty percent of
the people were suffering from tuberculosis.@5 While the 530
Surui have suffered from epidemics since first contact (their
numbers have dropped by 90% in twenty years), recent outbreaks
have been blamed by the Indians themselves on the presence of
loggers in their lands.@73(*chk)
The social ills associated with logging are just as serious.
Having made oral contracts with timber cutters in 1987 - which
paid them but not the rest of the people for the mahogany cut -
some of the Surui' men began to indulge in all the luxuries the
outside world could offer them. They left their villages and
started living in hotels in the nearest towns, where many of them
hired white prostitutes on a semi-permanent basis. Those who had
profited most from the timber cutting bought cars and hired
chauffeurs. They stopped planting crops and ate only in
restaurants@35.
Within three years most of the money these men had obtained had
dried up, and none had been invested. The Surui', whose society
had hitherto been unstratified, had divided into what they
describe as "chiefs" and "peasants".@35
The oral contracts were made initially because the Surui' could
see no means of stopping the uncontrolled logging that was taking
place in their lands. In 1987 they lost an estimated $2 million
of mahogany before any deals were struck. Some of the men decided
that if the trees were to go whether or not the Surui' were paid,
they might as well profit by them. FUNAI, then run by Romero
Juca, encouraged the Surui' to work with the cutters. Between
1988 and 1990, 30,000 cubic metres of mahogany were taken from
the Sete de Setembro Reserve.@48 In Rondonia timber cutters pay
Indians, on average, $20 per cubic metre of mahogany, and sell it
for $300-400.@3
Many of the Surui' are opposed to the logging. Iabadai Surui', in
1990, told the rest of his people: "My relatives ... no one can
authorize the timber cutters to enter. If an Indian lets them,
how can we succeed in fighting FUNAI to pull out the sawmills and
timber cutters? We shouldn't cut the trees. The trees give the
fruit we eat, without the trees the game comes to an end. We want
the honey from the trees, the fruits, all there is to be eaten in
the forest."@12 One of the Surui men opposed to the logging
disappeared, believed killed, in 1989.@74
Sometimes the protests of the Surui' opposed to timber cutting do
not stop at speeches. In October 1988 the Surui', Cinta Larga,
Arara, Gaviao and Zoro' tied up six timber workers they found on
the Surui' reserve and threatened to kill them.@44 In October
1991 the Surui helped organise a demonstration in the town of Ji-
Parana, in which 400 Indians blocked the main bridge, to protest
against dams, ranching, mining and timber cutting on indigenous
land.@3
Despite this some of the Surui are continuing to sell their
mahogany, even though stocks are now running low. They argue
that, as FUNAI has failed to provide medicines, the only way they
can afford to treat the epidemics they suffer is through timber
sales. Their situation is cruelly ironic: the timber cutters
introduce the diseases, and the Indians have to keep selling
their timber in order to treat them. As the Catholic Church in
Rondonia points out, the Surui, if the cutting continues, will
soon be left with neither forests nor finance.
The British Trade
The UK is the largest importer by value of tropical timber in
Europe@75. Brazil is only our third largest supplier of sawn
tropical hardwoods, yet we consume 74% of all the Brazilian
timber entering Europe@76. In 1990 62,000 tonnes of the 110,000
tonnes of mahogany Brazil exported went to Britain@119. We also
imported 3.1 million ready made doors and door parts(*chk: Tony:
from Brazil?)@78.
Brazilian mahogany imports to Britain, having risen sharply in
the 1980's, have, with other tropical timbers, begun to decline.
This is partly because of the recession and previous oversupply,
partly because of a growing preference for pale timbers, but
apparently not, as yet, because of environmental concerns@77. In
1990 mahogany accounted for 13% of our tropical sawn timber
imports.
Mahogany's popularity in Britain arises from its associations in
this country with luxury and tradition. Like "champagne",
"salmon" or "ivory", "mahogany" is a word which appears to
signify quality. Major uses include doors, window frames,
bannisters, coffins, furniture, bathroom fittings, cabinets and
fitted kitchens and bedrooms.
Many of the companies trading mahogany in this country are
members of Britain's Timber Trade Federation. In 1989 it launched
a public relations campaign, called Forests Forever. The stated
aims of the campaign are "to fight the increasing adverse
criticism directed at every sector of the timber industry by the
media and environmental groups"; to react to media comment; to
brief journalists and MPs; to promote wood use in the technical
press; to encourage members in their market place discussions
with customers; to produce videos and lecture kits for schools
and other groups@79. Claims the Forests Forever campaign makes
include:
"The timberman is wrongly accused of being the cause of
forest abuse and destruction" @80
"Wood is the world's most environmentally friendly material
and renewable resource." @80
"The timber industry does not destroy rain forests."@81
"The UK industry does not have the resources, in itself, to
study and judge human rights situations in every one of the
fifty or so forested countries supplying Britain. It asks
its commercial suppliers to look carefully at their
individual logging activities and impact on local
communities and voluntarily offer reassurances to those who
buy their wood that respect for human rights is
observed."@82
Many traders have incorporated Forests Forever's assurances into
their own publicity material. Others have made their own claims.
A survey commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature found
that 49% of the companies examined made claims about the
environmental acceptability of the tropical timber they sold.
However, of 81 companies contacted, "only three made any serious
attempt to answer the questions raised."@83. The WWF report
concluded: "The great majority of the many claims being made in
the UK with regard to the environmental acceptability of the
sources of tropical timbers and tropical wood products cannot be
considered verifiable."@83 A recent World Bank report observes:
"In practical terms, no commercial logging of tropical moist
forests has proven to be sustainable from the standpoint of the
forest ecosystem, and any such logging must be recognised as
mining, not sustaining, the basic forest resource."@120
The biggest beneficiary of the mahogany trade in Britain is the
government, which in 1990 was making an estimated $468 (#***) on
each cubic metre of mahogany sold in this country, by charging
VAT at every stage of processing@76. This is 142 times more than
the Xikrin make on the same mahogany, and 12 times more than the
highest recorded payments to Brazilian Indians for their timber.
Francesco Martone suggests that the VAT on Brazilian mahogany
alone may well exceed the British Overseas Development
Administration' spending in 1990/91 on all forestry projects@76.
Map Showing Reserves Invaded by Timber Cutters in the Southern
Amazon
APPENDIX 1
Below are brief details of other recorded reserve invasions by
timber cutters, in most cases seeking mahogany.
PARA STATE
PARAKANA AND ARAWETE INDIANS: the anthropologist Carlos Fausto
reports that their reserves - the Arawete and Apyterewa
Indigenous Areas - were entered in 1988 by two large timber
companies, both of which supply some of the biggest mahogany
importers in Britain. They extracted an estimated 7,500 cubic
metres of mahogany before some of their workers were caught by
the Indians and the companies were expelled.@84 In March 1992
representatives of one of the companies were reported to be back
in the reserve of the Parakana - who were first contacted in 1984
- apparently succeeding in their attempts to persuade the Indians
to part with their wood in return for merchandise.@85,@29
AWA-GUAJA, URUBU KAAPOR, TEMBE, TIMBIRA: The complex of reserves
inhabited by these Indians - the Alto-Turiacu, Alto Rio Guama,
Awa and Caru Indigenous Areas and the Gurupi Biological Reserve -
are suffering invasions of timber cutters, ranchers and
colonists.@86,@6,@87 The cutters are reported to employ large
numbers of gunmen@88. These have been used to threaten
representatives of the Kaapor, Timbira and Tembe@2 and FUNAI
officials@89 and, in September 1990, to murder two of the
isolated Awa-Guaja Indians in the Gurupi Biological Reserve@9.
These people are said by FUNAI to be at risk of extinction at the
hands of timber cutters and ranchers, who employ 80 armed men in
the Biological Reserve.@90 FUNAI reports the presence of dozens
of lorries commuting between these reserves and sawmills in
Paragominas and Imperatriz.@88 1100 colonists have followed the
timber cutters into the Alto-Turiacu Reserve.@9
KAYAPO: In 1987, according to the Brazilian government's Export
Agency, 69 per cent of all the mahogany leaving Brazil came from
the Kayapo reserves A-Ukre, Gorotire, Kikretum, Kokraimoro and
Kuben-Kran-Ken@36. This has declined in subsequent years, due to
the depletion of stocks, but there are still major loggers in
most of the Kayapo areas. In 1992 Kayapo leaders complained that
the remotest of their forests - the territory of the Pukanu
community - were invaded by a major supplier of the British
market, which cut the trees first then tried, unsuccessfully, to
negotiate their purchase.@91 Cutting has taken place both with
and without the consent of members of the Kayapo@92,@93, in some
cases with contracts encouraged and mediated by FUNAI
officials@38. The result has been lasting conflict between those
Kayapo profiting from the cutting and those opposed to it.@11,@94
Large areas of the Kayapo forests have been logged over, and
members of the Kayapo complain of critical shortages of game,
fish and forest products as a result. Some of the Kayapo have now
turned to Brazilian and foreign environment groups to help them
fight the loggers, or used force to try to remove them or obtain
compensation.@95
AMAZONAS STATE
APURINA, JARAWARA, AND PAUMARI: Five reserves belonging to these
peoples - the Jarawara, Jamamadi, Canamati, Maraha and Mariene
Indigenous Areas - have been suffering constant invasions by
timber cutters based in and near Manaus. In a meeting in October
1991, their leaders complained that armed employees of the
cutters had sacked their forests and were distributing alcohol to
the Indians.@3
KULINA AND KANAMARI: The Kulina of the Alto Purus complain that
the timber company working in their reserve has been extracting
wood in exchange for promised goods which never arrived. Instead
the Indians were paid in white rum.@96 In 1989 the Kanamari
Indians travelled to meet FUNAI representatives, to try to expel
the timber company cutting mahogany and cedro in their lands, but
FUNAI refused to attend to the problem.@97. In 1991 12 of the 188
Kulina of the River Jurua died of whooping cough and malaria
introduced by the invaders.@5.
PAUMARI: Local timber cutters have been active in the Paumari
Reserve since 1988, when 2000 trees were removed during the dry
season, followed by 800 in 1989. The ex-mayor of La'brea is
accused by the Indians of encouraging the invasion of the
territory by timber cutters.@98
MURA-PIRAHA: The Piraha Reserve is being systematically exploited
for itau'ba (for naval construction) and pau rosa, for the
cosmetics industry. The Piraha have been given sugar and alcohol
in exchange. Representatives of a neighbouring tribe, the
Tenharim, claim that the cutters are trying to exterminate the
Piraha by giving them alcohol laced with poison. In one incident
a timber cutter threw an Indian baby into the river, and the baby
drowned.@99
RONDONIA AND MATO GROSSO
SAKIRABIAR, MAKURAP AND TUPARI: Between 1982 and 1990 120,000
cubic metres of mahogany, cerejeira and cedro were taken from the
Rio Mequens Reserve, of the Sakirabiar and Makurap Indians, while
the Tupari and Makurap of the Rio Branco Reserve lost 70,000
cubic metres between 1986 and 1990.@48 In the Sakurap-Makurap
reserve much of the timber has already been exhausted@35. Many of
the Indians have tried to resist this cutting and have been met
with force: on Christmas Day 1991 26 armed men hired by a timber
cutter raided a Sakirabiar community to recover the logging
vehicles the Indians had confiscated. The gunmen took hostages
and shot one man in the head. FUNAI did nothing about the
incident until the Indians had occupied its local headquarters
for five days, leading to the sacking of its regional
administrator.@58
Nambikwara: 20% of the Hahaitesu-Nambikwara have died since 1987
through diseases introduced by timber cutters and colonists.@36.
The contracts purporting to allow extraction from their Vale do
Guapore Reserve were drawn up by FUNAI: 4 timber companies were
given permission to remove 109,000 cubic metres of timber,
principally mahogany and cerejeira, before the contracts were
annulled by the Public Federal Ministry. In return the companies
were obliged only to build roads and dirt airstrips and refurbish
the wooden houses used by FUNAI employees.@100,@101,@102 Another
Nambikwara reserve, the Sarare, has also been extensively invaded
by cutters, with the involvement of local FUNAI officials.@103.
The Nambikwara have confiscated timber cutters' machines@42,
occupied FUNAI buildings@104,@105, and attacked invaders with
arrows@45, but they have not been able to stop the illegal
cutting.
AIKANA AND LATUNDE: The ex-director of FUNAI, Ezequias Heringuer
Filho, reports that the Tubarao-Latunde reserve has lost 45,000
cubic metres of mahogany and 5000 cubic metres of cerejeira.@49
RIKBAKTSA: The Rikbaktsa of the Escondido Reserve in Mato Grosso,
are suffering the invasions of a timber company which, according
to the Indians "is practising illegal timber extraction on a
grand scale."@5
CINTA LARGA: In February 1991, after timber cutters had ignored
repeated requests by the Cinta Larga to leave their lands, 35
Indian men surrounded five of the workers and killed them. It
was, the Indians who opposed the cutting believed, the only
option left to them. They had spoken to the cutters, to local
politicians and even travelled to Brasilia to ask that the law be
upheld and the loggers removed, but the political support for the
invaders was such that nothing was done@8. Following illegal
contracts signed by FUNAI officials@39, 300,000 cubic metres of
timber had been taken from the Cinta Larga's Roosevelt Reserve
and Aripuana Park between 1985 and 1990@48. The Cinta Larga
involved in contracts have followed the course of some of the
Surui: drink, prostitution, hotels and the dissolution of
traditional social organisation. Many sawmills and 4000 colonists
have entered the Aripuana Park, which has the highest incidence
of tuberculosis in the country and in which some Indians still
remain uncontacted.@106,@107
URU EU WAU WAU: In 1981, when the Uru Eu Wau Wau were first
contacted, they numbered 1200. Ten years later the population had
been reduced to half, as timber cutters, colonists and miners had
introduced the Indians to flu, new strains of malaria and other
imported diseases.@33,@36,@108. Among those who survived the
diseases, several are reported to have been murdered by timber
cutters' gunmen@109 and many are suffering from alcoholism and
outbreaks of venereal disease, following the sexual abuse of
Indian women by the invaders. While many timber companies are now
taking mahogany from the reserve, large scale exploitation began
there following illegal contracts signed by Romero Juca. The
cutters, at least two of whom supply large British importers,
have opened an extensive road network (one road cuts 100
kilometres into the Indians' lands, entering the Pacaas Novas
Biological Reserve), and deliberately stimulated invasions by
colonists@36. When a local FUNAI official tried to stop wood
leaving along these roads in 1989, he was transferred by his
boss@110. In 1990, FUNAI was handing the cutters' confiscated
machinery back to them@111, and ignoring Indians' requests for
assistance@89, but since then there have been positive changes of
personnel at the local FUNAI office.@112 Between 1985 and 1990 an
estimated 150,000 cubic metres of timber was removed from the
reserve@48.
OMERE': The isolated Omere' lost an estimated 10,000 cubic metres
of timber in 1985.@48. Since then they are reported to have been
suffering from massacres and repeated occupations of their
land.@50
GAVIAO, ARARA AND ZORO: Members of these tribes, desperate for
medicines, a surgery and other necessities FUNAI was supposed to
have provided, started selling mahogany and cerejeira from their
reserves (Igarape Lourdes and Zoro) in 1987@113. Since then there
have been several serious conflicts between the cutters and the
Indians, and members of all these groups have been protesting
about the environmental damage caused. In October 1988 the 70-
year old Zoro chief Yaminer was kidnapped by timber cutters and
shot dead. His body was burnt and left beside a road. Four
illegal timber cutters were later charged with his
murder.@114,@115,@10.
PARECI: With the involvement of FUNAI, more than 5000 cubic
metres of wood have been taken from the Pareci reserve by one
timber cutter, who has been trying to pay the Indians to leave
their villages and take part in the cutting. Several others have
invaded and are supplying sawmills in the town of Ca'ceres@116.
ENAUENE: The Enauene-naue reserve was invaded by timber cutters
in 1987. The cutters managed to persuade FUNAI to exclude the
areas they had taken from a subsequent reserve demarcation.@117
ACRE
KAMPA: Following pressure from Indian rights organisations, in
1990 the federal police finally moved into the Kampa do Rio
Amonea Reserve to confiscate mahogany and cedar being cut by a
timber cutter which had first invaded in 1983. Another company,
run by the brother of a senior FUNAI official, has been inside
the reserve since 1985.@118 The cutting continues, mostly by
small companies working for larger ones. In September 1991 two
Kampa Indians travelled to Brasilia, to warn that timber cutting
was putting their lives at risk.@41
Appendix 2
Open letter from Jose Lutzenberger to British Consumers, 30.4.92
"The trade in Brazilian mahogany and other tropical woods is out
of control. In 1992 most of the timber leaving this country for
Britain will come, illegally, from Indian and Biological
reserves. By buying Brazilian timber you in Britain are
threatening many of the Amazon's indigenous with extinction.
The cutters are not only ransacking the forests in these
protected areas to supply you with kitchens and lavatory seats:
in many places they are also killing the Indians. Indigenous
people such as Korubo, Tikuna and Awa-Guaja and others have been
murdered by the timber cutters' gunmen. The diseases lumbermen
introduce have turned into epidemics. While the logging continues
there is little Brazil is doing to protect its forest reserves.
Though timber cutting inside reserves is illegal, timber traders
in many parts of the Amazon wield more money and power than most
government departments. They have succeeded in corrupting many of
the people charged with the protection of Indians and Forests. My
attempts to stop their illegal activities were partly responsible
for my sacking.
As there is little we can do to stop the supply, it is up to the
people of Britain and other First World countries to stop the
demand. Britain uses 52% of the mahogany Brazil produces. Please
stop this trade: you are dealing with Human Lives."
Signed
JOSE A. LUTZENBERGER
Porto Alegre April 30, 1992
References
@1 Senado Federal, 1988. Constituicao, Republica Federativa do
Brasil. Article 231.
@2 Letter from the Timbira, Kaapor and Tembe' to the Indigenous
People of Brazil, Caninde' 26.12.90
@3 Porantim November 1991, Conselho Indigenista Misionario,
Brasilia.
@4 Rasmusson, U. 20.12.89 Comments vis-a-vis the World Bank loan
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@5 Porantim, September 1991. Conselho Indiginista Misionario.
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@7 Aconteceu 24.1.92 Centro Ecumenico de Documentacao e
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@8 Porantim April 1991
@9 Mensageiro No 67, January/February 1991
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@15 Jose Lutzenberger, pers comm
@16: FUNAI officials, Para, pers comm.
@17 *What is this? Ask Gaia
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@28 Viveiros de Castro, E., pers comm.
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@30 FUNAI Belem, pers comm
@31 Jornal Maguta no 32 3.4.88. Benjamin Constant, Brazil.
@32 FUNAI Altamira, pers comm
@33 Survival International, 1991. Urgent Action Bulletin: Uru Eu
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@34 Testimony of Kayapo leaders visiting Britain, 1992.
@35 Greenbaum, L, 1989. Plundering the Timber on Brazilian Indian
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@36 CEDI 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil 1987/88/89/90. Aconteceu
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@37 Apoena Meirelles, Jornal do Brasil, 26.10.88
@38 Paulinho Paiakan 19.3.92. Letter to the Bodyshop.
@39 Senhor 20.10.87
@40 Correio Braziliense 6.8.88
@41 Aconteceu 20.9.91
@42 O Estado de Sao Paulo, 9.9.88
@43 Fausto, C. 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil 1987/88/89/90.
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@44 O Globo, 24.10.88.
@45 Diario Popular, 12.10.89
@46 Rasmusson, U 1989. Travel report from visits to the state of
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@47 Gurupi. *What is this?
@48 Informe Juri'dico No 17 August 91. Comissao Pro Indio de Sao
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@49 Diario do Grande ABC 8.9.88
@50 Ecopore' 1991. Simposio: Madeiras e mine'rios em areas de
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@51 Porantim June 91
@52 Aconteceu 13.12.91.
@53 Delvair Montagner, 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil
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@54 Correio Braziliense 23.11.89
@55 Noticias Populares 5.11.89:
@57 Porantim December 1991
@58 Porantim January/February 1992
@59 Jornal do Brasil, 19.11.91
@60 Correio Braziliense, 20.11.91
@61 Jornal da Tarde, 12.9.90
@62 Folha de Sao Paulo, 19.8.90
@63 Porantim December 1989
@64 Conselho Indigenista Misionario, Rondonia, 1990, pers comm
@65 Rasmusson, U, 1992 pers comm.
@66 Potiguar, J.A.T. 1991 Application to Federal Judge Daniel
Paes Ribeiro, 4th Federal Judiciary District, Para.
@67 O Liberal, 10.11.88
@68 Jornal do Brasil 8.4.88
@69 Jornal do Comercio, Rio de Janeiro, 30.1.92
@70 Aconteceu 27.3.92
@71 Porantim March 1991
@72 Jose Ferreira Campos Junior, cited in Vidal, L. and Giannini,
I. 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil 1987/88/89/90. Aconteceu
Especial 18. CEDI
@73 Halting the Fires *what?
@74 Correio Braziliense 1.2.89
@75 (*what? Mike Read talk)
@76 Martone, F. 1991. Tropical Timber Imports from Brazil into
the European Community. Greenpeace International tropical Forests
Campaign.
@77 The Public Ledger 22.2.92. London.
@78 (*what?: ask Tony)
@79 Timber Trade Federation, 7.12.89. Letter to All Members of
the Timber Trade.
@80 Forests Forever, a Campaign for Wood: leaflet for customers.
@81 Timber Trade Federation, 1990. Forests Forever: Correcting
some Wrong Impressions about Timber Production and the Rain
Forest.
@82 Timber Trade Federation 1990. Forests Forever: A Guide to
Wood and Forests
@83 Read, M 1991. Truth or Trickery? A Report to the World Wide
Fund for Nature UK.
@84 Carlos Fausto, 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil 1987/88/89/90.
Aconteceu Especial 18, CEDI.
@85 Viveiros de Castro, E. and Fausto, C. pers comm 1992
@86 O Liberal, 16.1.91
@87 Diario Popular 10.3.88
@88 Aconteceu 21.2.92
@89 Porantim September 1990
@90 Porantim July/August 1991
@91 Two Kayapo leaders in Britain, April 1992.
@92 Correio Braziliense, 4.5.89
@93 O Liberal 16.6.89
@94 O Globo 9.5.89
@95 O Estado de Sao Paulo 13.12.90
@96 Gazeta do Acre, 3.4.87
@97 Neves L.J.de O., 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil
1987/88/89/90. Aconteceu Especial 18, CEDI.
@98 Jornal do Dia 8.8.89
@99 Almeida, S., 1992. Povos indigenas no Brasil 1987/88/89/90.
Aconteceu Especial 18, CEDI.
@100 Diario de Cuiaba', 14.7.89:
@101 Jornal do Brasil, 5.11.87
@102 Diario de Cuiaba', 13.7.89
@103 Gazeta Mercantil, 16.2.90
@104 Gazeta do Povo, 26.2.89
@105 Jornal do Dia, 23.6.89
@106 Jornal do Brasil 13.4.87
@107 Correio Braziliense, 6.8.88.
@108 Diario Popular, 17.3.88
@109 CIMI Rondonia, pers comm
@110 FUNAI official, name withheld, letter of July 1989
@111 Jornal de Santa Catarina, 17.6.90
@112 Rasmusson U, 1992. Trip report, WWF Sweden.
@113 Jornal do Brasil 25.2.87
@114 Jornal do Brasil 26.10.88
@115 Correio Braziliense 4.11.88
@116 Jornal do Brasil 28.9.90
@117 Porantim July/August 1987
@118 Nucleo de Direitos Indigenas, Brasilia April 1990
@119 Tropical Timbers, February 1991, cited in Martone, F. 1991.
Tropical Timber Imports from Brazil into the European Community.
Greenpeace International tropical Forests Campaign.
@120 Talbot, L. 1990. A Proposal for the World Bank's Policy and
Strategy for Tropical Moist Forests in Africa. World Bank,
Washington.
George Monbiot
Copyright Friends of the Earth
1992