Military campaign to remove illegal loggers launched in NE Brazil

06/08/2013

A military campaign to evict illegal loggers from an area of northeastern Brazil has begun, in a bid to protect the indigenous reserve home of the Awá people.

Illegal loggers have been felling trees around the edges of the reserve home, which is situated in the Amazon rainforest and is home to around 450 Awá, also known as Guajá, people. These are the only known Awá who still survive today, so protection of their natural environment is essential.

Soldiers, helicopters and tanks have been sent to the area by the Brazilian Army in an attempt to break up the illegal logging camps.

Eight sawmills located in the area have already been closed as a result of the campaign, according to Survival International. Brazil's military campaign comes as a result of calls from more than 50,000 people who urged the country's Minister of Justice to take action to protect the area from the logging.

A further boost to the Awá people were the orders of Brazilian judge, Jirair Aram Meguerian, who last year ordered that all outsiders must leave Awá territory by March 2013.

When a mine and railway was built near the territory in the 1960s, settlers arrived which had a negative impact on the indigenous people through disease and conflict. Despite the establishment in 2003 of an indigenous reserve for the Awá people, they continue to face endless problems as a result of illegal loggers, including the destruction of their surroundings and even violent crime and murder. The tribe has been dubbed "the world's most threatened” by Survival International.

The organisation is also calling for the Brazilian Army to enter the indigenous reserve in order to evict all loggers and ranchers from the area.