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The SPA present at “Bending the Curve” Workshop
From September 9-12, 2024, in Belém, Brazil, the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) participated in the pivotal workshop “Bending the Curve of Biodiversity Loss and Positive Tipping Points”. The event was organized by Wageningen University & Research and WWF, and...
The SPA Youth Advisory Committee Has Officially Launched!
On September 20, 2024, the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) proudly launched its inaugural Youth Advisory Committee (YAC) on occasion of the UN Summit of the Future Action Day 1 themed “#YouthLead for the Future” in New York City. The event brought together a...
Public Consultation: Pathways for implementing forest restoration in the Amazon
ENG: We invite stakeholders and the general public to review and provide feedback on SPA's latest policy brief. Your input is crucial to ensure it reflects diverse perspectives and addresses key issues. Contributions will be acknowledged, recognizing your role in...
The Future of the Amazon: Science Panel for the Amazon Launches Youth Advisory Committee
[New York, USA, September 10, 2024] — The Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA), convened under the auspices of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), is proud to announce the launch of its inaugural Youth Advisory Committee (YAC). The YAC will be...
A new way of thinking about the economy could help protect the Amazon, and help its people thrive
To protect the Amazon and support the wellbeing of its people, its economy needs to shift from environmentally harmful production to a model built around the diversity of indigenous and rural communities, and standing forests. A group of conservationists from...
Science Panel for the Amazon at the 76th SBPC: Highlights and Insights
From July 8 to 13, 2024, the Science Panel for the Amazon (SPA) actively participated in the 76th Annual Meeting of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (SBPC) at the Federal University of Pará in Belém, Brazil. This event, with the theme "Science for...
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A global authority providing state-of-the-art, policy-relevant science and knowledge about the Amazon.
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To synthesize and communicate scientific knowledge about the Amazon, integrated with Indigenous and local knowledge, to accelerate solutions for sustainable and equitable development.
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#AMAZONREPORT
Gallery
A view from within
Gallery
Embracing a territory
Gallery
The diverse amazon
Gallery
The tropical forest under fire
Gallery
An unsustainable intervention
Gallery
An indigenous communication network
Amazon Basin
An Extraordinary Diversity
An Extraordinary Diversity
The Amazon is a place of immense natural and cultural wealth, values and diversity. It is the greatest repository of biodiversity in the world, holding more than 10% of all named vascular plants and vertebrate on Earth. It holds the largest tropical wetland on Earth and a vast number of rivers, comprising the world’s largest store of freshwater. It is also home to 47 million people and cultural diversity, including nearly 2,2 million Indigenous peoples, with their own identities, territorial effective management practices, and at least 300 different languages.
SPECIES RICHNESS: AMPHIBIANS, MAMMALS, BIRDS AND PLANTS
AMAZONIAN FLUVIAL NETWORK
LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY OF THE AMAZON
The Amazon Under Threat
The Amazon Under Threat
Approximately 17% of Pan-Amazon have been deforested and converted to other land uses, and at least an additional 17% have been degraded within the biome. Agricultural expansion, particularly cattle ranching, remains the most important driver of Amazonian deforestation. Although road construction and mining cause direct deforestation when forest area is lost to these activities, their indirect impact is also very significant. Both activities stimulate migration, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, urbanization, and new settlements.
Several anthropogenic disturbances can lead to forest degradation in the Amazon, including forest fires, illegal selective logging, edge effects, and hunting. Experts estimate that 366,300 km2 of forests were degraded between 1995 and 2017. It is estimated that the total degraded forest over time until 2017 amounts to around 1MKm². Forest fires may have the greatest effect on carbon loss.
Land-use changes--deforestation, forest degradation and wildfires--reinforce global climate change, leading to positive feedback mechanisms that reduce forest resilience. They also increase drought stress and fire risk, turn the Amazon into a carbon source, cause higher tree mortality, and ultimately could reach a tipping point where continuous forests can no longer exist and are replaced by open canopy degraded ecosystems. These cascading effects would have tremendous impacts on climate and in turn agriculture, hydropower generation, and human health and well-being.
FORESTS DEGRADATION AND DEFORESTATION IN THE AMAZON BASIN (1995-2017)
Drivers of Deforestation and Degradation
Drivers of Deforestation and Degradation
Human actions are the direct drivers of deforestation, including the expansion of pastures and croplands, the opening of new roads, the construction of hydroelectric dams, and mineral, oil and natural gas exploitation. Indirect drivers influence human actions, such as poor governance, institutional structures, policies, environmental crime increase, or commodity market conditions. Because multiple drivers simultaneously affect deforestation and forest degradation rates, it is challenging to estimate their isolated impacts.
MINING: OFFICIAL CONCESSIONS AND ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
OIL AND GAS LEASES ACROSS AMAZON
EXISTING AND PLANNED DAMS IN THE AMAZON
Seeking a Sustainable Future for the Amazon
Seeking a Sustainable Future for the Amazon
A network of more than 6,000 Indigenous territories (ITs) and protected areas (PAs) across eight countries and one national territory cover around 50% of the Amazon basin. They are one of the cornerstones of conservation and the self-determination and land rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs). ITs and PAs show lower deforestation and forest degradation rates relative to unprotected forests; however, they are under continuous threat from the expansion of the agricultural frontier, infrastructure development, overlapping extractive concessions, and policies aiming to change their limits and level of protection. Despite the pressures PAs and ITs face, they are unquestionably essential for conserving the Amazon rainforest and freshwater ecosystems. Between 2000 and 2018, only 13% of the total deforested area in the Amazon basin was located inside ITs and PAs, even though they collectively cover more than half of the region’s forests.
In addition to strengthening territorial rights, other solutions for the Amazon include: 1) Measures to conserve, restore, and remediate terrestrial and aquatic systems upon a urgent action plan to zero deforestation, forest degradation and wildfire in the whole Amazon; 2) Developing innovative bioeconomy policies and institutional frameworks for human-environmental well-being, standing forests and flowing rivers, which includes investment in research, marketing, and production of Amazonian socio-biodiversity products. This must be supported with investment in science and education, the creation of hubs and centers of excellence in technology in the Amazon, and integration between western scientific and Indigenous and Local Knowledge (ILK); 3) Strengthening Amazonian citizenship and governance, which includes the implementation of bio-regional and bio-diplomatic governance systems (environmental diplomacy) to promote better management of natural resources and strengthen human rights.
INDIGENOUS TERRITORIES AND NATURAL PROTECTED AREAS
For more information on the geographic scope utilized by the SPA, see:
The multiple viewpoints for the Amazon: geographic limits and meanings.
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Amazonia
Real
A view from within
The independent investigative journalism agency Amazonia Real was founded in 2013 in Manaus, northern Brazil. Its mission is to prepare reports that are of interest to the populations of the Amazon based on two principles: social transformation and environmental justice. Indigenous and traditional peoples, Quilombolas, women, vulnerable human groups (such as refugees and immigrants) and defenders of the environment and forests are prioritized in its coverage. Content production is ideated and developed from the perspective of the local population to give voice to traditional peoples.
Today, the network of professionals in the Amazon involves around 40 people, including photographers, journalists and scientists from the most diverse areas, who contribute not only with journalistic content but also with the promotion of activities that bring together ancestral knowledge and scientific knowledge on topics relevant to the region, such as the climate and water crises; deforestation, fires, the impact of major projects in the Amazon, and the challenges of science and mining on indigenous lands.
Amazonia Real also develops training workshops for students and young indigenous leaders. Amazonia Real organized a festival of documentary shorts, called 'Cine Real' and two exhibitions titled 'Amazonas, los extremos' and 'Mirando desde el bosque.'
The images are a selection from the two exhibitions and from recent documentation on the pandemic, which mainly affects the most vulnerable populations in the Amazon.
Gallery participants: Alberto César Araújo, Ana Mendes, Bruno Kelly, Cícero Pedrosa Neto, Emily Costa, Fernando Crispim, Juliana Pesqueira, Lilo Clareto, Marcela Bonfim, Raphael Alves, Yanahin Waurá and Yolanda Mêne.
Curator: Alberto César Araújo
01. In the Pesqueiro II community in Manacapuru, Amazonas, a woman carries the water she took from the Solimões riverbed in October 2012, during the drought of the Amazon rivers.
(Photo: Raphael Alves / Amazonia Real)
02. Digital image with intervention in ink and charcoal from the funeral of the 23-year-old indigenous health agent Clodiodi Aquileu Rodrigues de Souza, murdered in June 2016 by a group of peasants in the episode known as the 'Caarapó Massacre', where another five guarani and kaiowás were killed and another six wounded. The place of the massacre - Toro Paso - was renamed Kunumi Poty Verá, the indigenous name of Clodiodi.
(Photo: Ana Mendes / Human Images / Amazonia Real)
03. The children of the Quilombolas play in front of the Real Príncipe da Beira Fort in the Guaporé Valley in Costa Marques, Rondônia, in October 2015. This community settled around the Fort in 1942 and faces a land conflict with the Brazilian Army, which has restricted the population's access to the territory.
(Photo: Marcela Bonfim / Amazonia Real)
04. A child carries a tucunaré in the village of Cacau Pirêra, on the banks of the Río Negro, in September 2012, during the drought of the Amazon rivers in Iranduba.
(Photo: Raphael Alves / Amazônia Real)
05. Maria do Socorro Silva, leader of the Quilombola Community of Burajuba in Barcarena, Pará, in March 2018. After having reported Norwegian company Hydro Alunorte for water contamination in the communities, Socorro is currently among those most threatened in the Amazon.
(Photo: Cícero Pedrosa Neto / Amazonia Real)
06. A boy from the Katxuyana village jumps over the Cachorro river in western Pará. The Katxuyana were removed from their territory in 1968 by the French Mission with the support of the Brazilian Air Force. Since 2003, Katxuyana families have started to return to the site in a process they called 'resumption.' Today they claim property of the land.
(Photo: Ana Mendes - Agência Pública / Amazônia Real)
07. Girl from the Juruá river, in the south-west of the Amazon, during the flooding season in the city of Eirunepé, in January 2013. The increasingly drastic changes in the waters regime of the Negro and Solimões river basins have increased hunger, thirst, disease and animal mortality.
(Photo: Alberto César Araújo / Amazonia Real)
08. The indigenous people march in protest around the Esplanade of the Ministries in April 2018, in Brasilia, during the Acampamento Terra Livre, an indigenous mobilization that has gathered thousands of people during the past 17 years.
(Photo: Yanahin Matala Waurá / Amazonia Real)
09. Children of the Cinta-Larga village in the Roosevelt Indigenous Land in Espigão D'Oeste, Rondônia, during the 'Caravan of Hope,' carried out by the Clamo Group to bring 300 authorities from the three state powers to Roosevelt, so they may learn the reality of the indigenous people caused by diamond mining and the absence of public power.
(Photo: Marcela Bonfim / Amazonia Real)
10. The cacique Adílio Arabonã Kanamari, in November 2018 in the Indigenous Land of the Javari Valley, in the Amazon, where most of the uncontacted and recently contacted peoples live. Lack of medical care causes ethnic groups to suffer from infectious diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS. Currently, they are greatly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
(Photo: Bruno Kelly / Amazônia Real)
11. Munduruku women in July 2017 in front of the dam of the São Manoel Hydroelectric Power Plant. They travelled up the rivers to the power station on the border of the Mato Grosso and Pará states so that their shamans could calm the spirits of their ancestors. The project was built on the sacred setting of the Munduruku people.
(Photo: Juliana Pesqueira / FTP / Amazonia Real)
12. Protest by the Indigenous Peoples of Roraima at the Legislative Assembly of Roraima, in Boa Vista, in October 2016, to demand the repeal of Ordinance 1.907, which took away the budgetary and financial management of the public health policy of the indigenous peoples from the Special Secretariat of Indigenous Health. They also protested against the Constitutional Amendment Project which froze public expenditure in Brazil for 20 years
(Photo: Yolanda Mêne / Amazonia Real)
13. Group of men from Munduruku in July 2017 at the São Manoel Hydroelectric Power Plant. They travelled up the rivers to the power station on the border of the Mato Grosso and Pará states so that their shamans could calm the spirits of their ancestors. The project was built on the sacred setting of the Munduruku people.
(Photo: Juliana Pesqueira / FTP / Amazonia Real)
14. 'El paliteiro.' This is what local inhabitants call the trees killed by the damming of the waters of the Xingú river in Altamira, Pará, the city which suffered the greatest impact from the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant. Image from November 2018.
(Photo: Lilo Clareto / Amazônia Real)
15. Inhabitants from the Jardim Independente I neighborhood, known as Lagoa, in Altamira, which was affected by the Xingu river damming during the construction of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant. Image from November 2018.
(Photo: Lilo Clareto / Amazônia Real)
16. Activity in the port area of Manacapuru, Amazon, during the Covid-19 pandemic. At the time of the photo, Manacapuru was the city with the highest death rate in Brazil.
(Photo: Raphael Alves / Amazônia Real)
17. Gravedigger prepares graves during a collective burial in the Nossa Senhora Aparecida public cemetery, Manaus, Amazon, during the Covid-19 pandemic. The city council adopted the trench system to respond to the high demand for burials.
(Photo: Raphael Alves / Amazônia Real)
18. People walk down Marechal Deodoro street during the reopening of businesses in Manaus during the coronavirus pandemic. Manaus was one of the most affected cities, but even during the health crisis, public officials did not enforce the use of masks or decree a lockdown.
(Foto: Bruno Kelly / Amazônia Real)
19. Employee of the Parque da Saudade cemetery in Boa Vista, walks near the graves where the Yanomami children that were killed by Covid-19, were buried without being identified.
(Photo: Emily Costa / Amazônia Real)
20. Collective burial in which Aldenor Basques Félix Gutchicü, vice-president of the Wotchimaucu Community of the Tikuna People, in Manaus, was buried
(Photo: Fernando Crispim / La Xunga / Amazônia Real)
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MUSUK NOLTE:
PERU
Embracing a territory
'Every day I am more and more disappointed with the human race, so much so that sometimes I want to become a naturalized snake.'
The three halves of INO Moxo, César Calvo
When the territorial invasion reached the American continent, more than 150 existing indigenous languages were recorded in the Peruvian Amazon. Nowadays, just over 40 of them survive, many of them at risk of extinction.
Just imagining the dimension of the knowledge that has been lost implies thinking about the process of language construction. How do we name the things around us? How do we generate a system that develops in a dialogue with the knowledge of the environment?
Many times I’ve heard that Peru lives and has lived with its back turned to the Amazon. This idea of turning away shows the way in which society and the state have shaped their idea of a nation: from a center where the way of understanding development is far from the needs and rights of many of the native communities that inhabit the Amazon.
This group of images represents an approximation of the Amazon from the confines of the stranger who seeks to understand and recognize a territory. Images that address different issues such as deforestation, wildlife trafficking and river pollution, clashing with images of native communities such as the Ashaninka and Shawi. And they also propose a more sensory approach to what cannot be seen, but can be sensed by way of fascination when approaching the multiple dimensions that the Amazon offers.
The fact that 100 different ways to name a jaguar have disappeared is as hopeless a situation as knowing that the animal itself is on the edge of extinction. At this rate, we will have no words nor jaguars to name.
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LUCIANO CANDISIANI:
BRAZIL
The Diverse Amazon
Photographer Luciano Candisani shows Amazonian biodiversity with portraits of iconic forest species in their natural habitat. This short essay is complemented with photographs of traditional communities who sustainably use the plants and animals of the tropical forest.
Thus, he travels between the underwater world of porpoises, the trees frequented by jaguars, the collection of acai and chestnuts and the permissible fishing of Pirarucu. It is an interpretation of biodiversity that does not exclude the human species in a possible equilibrium with the environment.
Photographer Luciano Candisani has been portraying traditional cultures and ecosystems around the world for more than two decades. He has received some of the top international photography awards and was a two-time judge at the Netherlands' prestigious World Press Photo. His photographs appear in exhibitions, art galleries and museums in Brazil and abroad.
01. Red dolphin in Rio Negro, Amazon.
02. Red dolphin in Rio Negro, Amazon.
03. Oiapoque river, Amapá.
04. Xeruini river, Roraima.
05. Anavilhanas Archipelago, Rio Negro, Amazon.
06. Igapó in Rio Negro, Amazon.
07. Jaguar, Mamirauá, Amazon.
08. Açaí collection, Cajari extractive reserve, Amapá
09. Collection of Brazil nuts, extractive reserve of Cajari, Amapá.
10. Rubber tapper, Tapajós extraction reserve -Arapiuns, Pará.
11. Pirarucu fishing, Mamirauá sustainable development reserve, Amazon.
12. Pirarucu fishing, Mamirauá sustainable development reserve, Amazon.
13. Amazonian manatee, Alter do ground, Pará.
14. Amazon Turtle, Oiapoque river, Amapá.
15. Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve, Amazon.
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VICTOR
MORIYAMA BRAZIL
The tropical forest under fire
2019 was the year in which more Brazilian tropical forests were lost during the last decade. The destruction of the forest is proof of the terrible state of the Amazon. The opening up of the tropical forest to industry, along with cuts in funding and personnel, which weakened the environmental laws, are among the main causes. Without federal control, waves of loggers, ranchers, and miners arrived eager to meet a global demand.
Around 2014 Brazil began to slide into a deep economic recession, and deforestation increased as ranchers and loggers searched for new land to exploit. The Amazon, from which rubber trees, minerals and fertile land had been obtained for centuries, was the obvious place to go.
Agribusiness has always been strong in Brazil. Now it represents almost a quarter of the country's GDP and it has acquired even more economic and political power. The Amazon region supports soy farms, gold and iron mines, and ranches with more than 50 million cattle livestock.
The fires spurred a worldwide reaction by politicians, influencers, and public opinion. After the fires, the international community demanded the adoption of urgent measures to stop deforestation in the Amazon. In 2020, deforestation rates continue to grow and reach historic levels. Illegal fires in the region are expected to be even worse this year than in 2019.
Throughout two months I documented this sad episode in the history of the Amazon and global climate change on a special mission for The New York Times.
01. PORTO VELHO, RONDONIA, BRAZIL, AUGUST 25: Fire in a section of the Amazon forest on August 25, 2019 in Porto Velho, Brazil. According to the Brazilian National Institute for Spatial Research, the number of fires detected by satellites in the Amazon region that month was the highest since 2010.
02. RIO PARDO, RONDONIA, BRAZIL: SEPTEMBER 2019: A team of brigadistas from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and of the Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) combats the fire at a farm that spread to the Amazon forest area, near the city of Rio Pardo. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
03. PORTO VELHO, RONDONIA, BRAZIL, AUGUST 25: Fire in a section of the Amazon forest on August 25, 2019 in Porto Velho, Brazil. According to the Brazilian National Institute for Spatial Research, the number of fires detected by satellites in the Amazon region that month was the highest since 2010.
04. CANDEIAS DO JAMARI, RONDONIA, BRAZIL: Aerial view of a large burned area in the city of Candeiras do Jamari in the state of Rondonia.
(Crédito Victor Moriyama, Greenpeace)
05. PORTO VELHO, RONDONIA, BRAZIL: Aerial view of burned areas in the Amazon forest.
(Photo: Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace)
06. ALTA FLORESTA, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 31, 2019: Aerial view of a burned forest area next to a cattle ranch in the state of Mato Grosso. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
07. RIO PARDO, RONDONIA, BRAZIL: SEPTEMBER 2019: A team of Ibama brigadistas works to extinguish the fire at a farm that spread to the Amazon forest area near the city of Rio Pardo. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
08. MANDACARU, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL - SEPTEMBER 1, 2019: The burning of the pastures of a cattle farm ignites the neighboring forest area in the Mandacaru region, near the Teles Pires Hydroelectric Power Plant in the state of Mato Grosso. The fires in the state of Mato Grosso increased by 80% compared to August 2018. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
09. RIO PARDO, RONDONIA, BRAZIL: SEPTEMBER 2019: A team of Ibama brigadistas works to extinguish the fire at a farm that spread to the Amazon forest area near the city of Rio Pardo. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
10. A lawful team of loggers bringing down a Brazilian redwood tree in the Caxiuanã National Forest in the state of Pará.
11. APIACAS, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL - SEPTEMBER 2, 2019: Burned area of the forest near a cattle farm. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
12. APIACAS, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL - SEPTEMBER 2, 2019: Workers cut logs in the city of Apiacas, which ranks third in number of fires in the state of Mato Grosso. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for The New York Times
13. Workers suspected of illegal logging are questioned by the environmental police in the state of Pará. Some illegal logging operations are suspected of keeping workers in conditions similar to those under slavery.
14. Legally harvested wood in the Caxiuanã National Forest in the state of Pará.
15. ALTA FLORESTA, MATO GROSSO, BRAZIL - AUGUST 31, 2019: Aerial view of an illegal gold panning in the middle of the Amazon forest. CREDIT: Victor Moriyama for the New York Times
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NICOLA OKIN FRIOLI
ECUADOR
An unsustainable intervention
Nicola Okin's project covers the different forms of resistance of the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian Amazon against extraction activities at the hands of foreign companies. The Shuar and Achuar territory is rich in copper and gold. Further north, in the Province of Pastaza, Orellana and Sucumbío, where Záparas, Kichwas, Kofán and Sionas, among others live, the threat is oil extraction.
Ten years ago, a group of Amazonian communities achieved a historic legal victory against one of the most powerful corporations in the world: Chevron. In 1964 the Texaco oil company (today Chevron) arrived in Ecuador with a concession of 1.5 million hectares in the Amazon for extraction in the Sucumbiós and Orellana Province, subtracting oil from 450 thousand hectares in its possession. When it arrived, the only inhabitants of the area were indigenous peoples, ancestral peoples of the tropical forest and settlers.
At Ecuador's Constitutional Court, the oil giant admitted that it had poured 19 billion gallons of crude oil and harmful chemicals directly into uncoated rivers and pools for decades, in a particularly biodiverse region of the Ecuadorian rainforest. Through this action, the company saved almost $2 per barrel of oil and contaminated an area of 4,000 square kilometers.
Contaminants in soils and groundwater still persist in the environment. Hundreds of waste pools still settle, leaching toxic waters with the rains, transporting heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, petroleum hydrocarbons and other polluting additives that have serious health consequences.
The presence of abortions and cancer is significantly higher in communities exposed to oil pollution. The region now has the highest cancer rates in the country, and there are no local hospitals that specialize in cancer.
Group of young Kichwas on duty during the assembly day convened to halt progress on construction of a hydroelectric plant on the Rio Piatúa, where community members of the area had no prior consultation. The Genefran company began preliminary work, which had to be blocked due to indigenous peoples’ pressure in defense of their river and water source. The indigenous peoples’ declaration was that they would burn one machine daily until the company would decide to remove them. Canton of Santa Clara, Province of Pastaza.
View of the Bobonaza River of Sarayaku’s community.
Pipelines for the transportation of oil in the area of Centinela de la Patria, Coca, Orellana province, in use currently by a number of operating oil companies.
Sinangoe A’i Kofán guards on duty on the community suspension bridge, the only access to it. Sucumbío Province.
A woman of the Zápara people looks through the window of a small plane that has just landed in the Morete community, on the Zápara territory of the Ecuadorian Amazon. This territory is surrounded by thousands of acres of primary jungle, and is therefore only reachable through the air. There is no road, and it would take a person almost a week to get there by foot through muddy lands. The absence of a road is a blessing for the local people, as it enables them to control and preserve the territory, thus preventing its deforestation. The arrival of an airplane is a special happening, as it is the only contact with the 'modern world'. Morete Community, Province of Pastaza, Ecuador.
Left: Gas flares burn for the extraction of oil from the Sucumbíos province.
To the left: The head of the former President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, in what is left of a poster inside a Shuar house in the community of Paandin, Morona-Santiago Province.
Oil well in Alto Bermejo, Sucumbíos province. A few years ago, Ecuador's crude production was an average of 470,000 barrels per day. About 44% of the oil is extracted by private companies and the rest by state companies such as Petroecuador, Petroamazonas and Río Napo.(2010 Reuters)
To the right: A man from the community of Tsumtsuim. To this date, the men of Tsumtsuim are subject to an arrest warrant. They cannot leave the Community, as they are at risk of being arrested. Shuar Community of Tsumtsuim, Morona-Santiago Province.
Javier Ushigua, 20 years old, is President of the Yaku Runa Community in the Province of Pastaza. His features show a mixture of three indigenous nationalities of the Amazon. His grandmother of the Shuar nationality married an Achuar man, and his mother a man of the Zápara Nation. He represents an almost complete summary of where the community he lives in stands for.
Screening of the documentary 'Cordillera del Cóndor - Paraíso Amenazado' (Condor Mountain Range - Threatened Paradise) on an improvised screen of paper and tape at the headquarters of the Interprovincial Federation of Shuar Centers (FICSH) in Sucua, Province of Morona-Santiago. November 19, 2016. It was shown during a workshop of the Fundaciòn Tiam by the lawyer Mario Melo for the Shuar leaders of the differentes communities of Morona-Santiago to inform them on the real consequences of large scale mining.
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MIDIA INDIA
BRAZIL
An indigenous communication network
Mídia Índia is a project to build a decentralized communication network that produces and disseminates content related to indigenous issues in Brazil, respecting the specificities of each group, based on the collaborative logic of sharing and communicating, connecting and empowering young indigenous people from all over the country. Mídia Índia allows for the exchange of technologies and experiences and seeks indigenous representation in the media through the dissemination of their struggles and as another tool for claiming rights.
The idea emerged in 2015 after an audiovisual training course in the indigenous land of Arariboia, where three of the participants decided to form the indigenous communications media network, to be a focal point of the indigenous movement, giving them visibility and using communication as a tool for the struggle.
The project was officially launched in April 2017 in the largest annual mobilization of indigenous peoples in Brazil, the Terra Livre Camp. From there, together with the support of the activist groups and the communication networks that already existed, a group of 10 young people was formed, which began its process of training and empowering the media and communication tools.
The purpose of the project is to strengthen Mídia Índia as an official vehicle of communication of the aspirations of indigenous peoples, to expand the dissemination and visibility of their struggle, their search for rights and land. It is one of the only communication groups formed by indigenous people, coordinated by indigenous people and focused on the indigenous struggle. The project also aims to qualify its team through training and education with workshops and meetings in association with indigenous organizations like Coiab and Apib and free media such as NINJA Media, the Indian Thing project and others.
01. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
02. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
03. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
04. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
05. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
06. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
07. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
08. Eric Marky Terena - Member of the Mídia Índia, Indian journalist and ethnomedia specialist. From the Terena people of Mato Grosso do Sul, the Cachoeirinha Indigenous Land.
His photos portray the KOKAMA people, who live in the Alto Solimões region, in the Amazon, Novo Progresso town. The images portray the daily work of the indigenous people and their daily lives.
09. Kisedje women collect raw materials to make handicrafts. The handicrafts of the Kisedje people are delicately made by women and men of the Kisedje village in the Wawi Indian Territory, Xingu. They are made with raw material from the territory and other non-native materials that give life to the colors and lines of the crafts. Organized by the Associação Indígena Kisedje - AIK, the products are sold in the association headquarters’ store and by other partners outside the territory. As such, relatives, visitors and consumers in the city buy the products, through which they collaborate with the organization, valuing their work and strengthening the community’s territory. The income goes to the producer family and the Kisedje people through a bank fund.
Photos by Kamikia Kisedje - Member of Mídia Índia, people from Kisedje, IT Wawi, Mato Grosso state. Created by the Video in the Villages project, a film school for the indigenous people of Brazil.
10. A Kisedje woman collects pepper. Mendije Nho Wájsy Project: Traditional Pepper from Kisedje Women. The project was developed with women from the four villages of the Kisêdje village. The project complements the families’ and community’s income to access the manufactured products needed in today’s world. This project also aims to support the organization of women from the four small villages of the Kisêdje village with the fair production, processing and commercialization of ground pepper, considering the rescue, registration and guarantee of the transmission of cultural and traditional knowledge, as well as a sustainable income.
Photos by Kamikia Kisedje - Member of Mídia Índia, people from Kisedje, IT Wawi, Mato Grosso state. Created by the Video in the Villages project, a film school for the indigenous people of Brazil.
11. Kisedje women collect raw materials to make handicrafts. The handicrafts of the Kisedje people are delicately made by women and men of the Kisedje village in the Wawi Indian Territory, Xingu. They are made with raw material from the territory and other non-native materials that give life to the colors and lines of the crafts. Organized by the Associação Indígena Kisedje - AIK, the products are sold in the association headquarters’ store and by other partners outside the territory. As such, relatives, visitors and consumers in the city buy the products, through which they collaborate with the organization, valuing their work and strengthening the community’s territory. The income goes to the producer family and the Kisedje people through a bank fund.
Photos by Kamikia Kisedje - Member of Mídia Índia, people from Kisedje, IT Wawi, Mato Grosso state. Created by the Video in the Villages project, a film school for the indigenous people of Brazil.
12. Kisedje women collect raw materials to make handicrafts. The handicrafts of the Kisedje people are delicately made by women and men of the Kisedje village in the Wawi Indian Territory, Xingu. They are made with raw material from the territory and other non-native materials that give life to the colors and lines of the crafts. Organized by the Associação Indígena Kisedje - AIK, the products are sold in the association head quarters’ store and by other partners outside the territory. As such, relatives, visitors and consumers in the city buy the products, through which they collaborate with the organization, valuing their work and strengthening the community’s territory. The income goes to the producer family and the Kisedje people through a bank fund.
Photos by Kamikia Kisedje - Member of Mídia Índia, people from Kisedje, IT Wawi, Mato Grosso state. Created by the Video in the Villages project, a film school for the indigenous people of Brazil.
13. Girls and boys cut cassava branches to plant in the field. Youth carry out the Hurusi project in the town of Ngosoko. Rescuing varieties and planting cassava to produce flour, searching for quality food and income through commercialization.
Photos by Kamikia Kisedje - Member of Mídia Índia, people from Kisedje, IT Wawi, Mato Grosso state. Created by the Video in the Villages project, a film school for the indigenous people of Brazil.
14. Kisedje women collect raw materials to make handicrafts. The handicrafts of the Kisedje people are delicately made by women and men of the Kisedje village in the Wawi Indian Territory, Xingu. They are made with raw material from the territory and other non-native materials that give life to the colors and lines of the crafts. Organized by the Associação Indígena Kisedje - AIK, the products are sold in the association headquarters’ store and by other partners outside the territory. As such, relatives, visitors and consumers in the city buy the products, through which they collaborate with the organization, valuing their work and strengthening the community’s territory. The income goes to the producer family and the Kisedje people through a bank fund.
Photos by Kamikia Kisedje - Member of Mídia Índia, people from Kisedje, IT Wawi, Mato Grosso state. Created by the Video in the Villages project, a film school for the indigenous people of Brazil.