Deni and their demarcation
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The Deni Indians live in a remote area of the Amazon rainforest.
With a population of just over 600 people, and little contact
with the outside world, the forest is their home and source
of livelihood. |
But an area where the Deni live was being bought and sold, and
slated for destruction without their knowledge, until now. The
Deni are taking the future of their territory into their own hands
and will begin the physical demarcation of their land in September
to protect their territory from logging and further development.
Greenpeace began working with the Deni two years ago after
Greenpeace discovered that WTK, the Malaysian logging giant,
had purchased lands that overlapped with the Deni territory
in the Brazilian Amazon. Due to its record as a global forest
destroyer, WTK had been on the Greenpeace radar since the
Amazon campaign was in its initial research period. |
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In 1997, an investigation by the Brazilian Congress revealed
that a local Amazon patron, Mario Moraes, who claims ownership
of over 1,000,000 hectares of forest, had been selling off Deni
lands. WTK had purchased 313,000 hectares from Sr. Moraes, of
which about 150,000 hectares overlapped with the Deni lands.
However, the Deni people were not informed of this transaction
until two years later, when a Greenpeace team reached their remote
villages on the Cuniua River, in the Purus River Basin of the
southern Amazon. In May 1999, Greenpeace campaigners Paulo Adario
and Nilo D'Avila met Deni leaders and, struggling to overcome
communication barriers, told the Deni that a portion of their
lands had been sold to a company that would come to cut down trees.
The Deni were shocked. They have been suffering disease and death
due to contacts with colonists over the past 60 years, and they
did not understand how this latest problem could occur. After
all, they first heard about the demarcation of their lands back
in 1985, when the first FUNAI (National Indigenous Foundation,
the Federal Government agency in charge of indigenous issues in
Brazil) representatives came to their villages to raise the issue
with them.
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The demarcation of lands is a mere recognition by the government
of what is, has been and will always be indigenous domain.
The demarcation guarantees to the indigenous population the
right to keep invaders out of their lands and to choose their
means of living in the forest. |
The Deni requested the help of
Greenpeace to fight for their demarcation. They understood
that the demarcation is a critical first step to guarantee the
integrity of the environment they depend upon. It was the only
legal way to keep WTK, and other invaders, outside of the borders
of their homeland.
By April 2001, more than two years after the first Greenpeace
visit to the Deni and 16 years after the Deni were first told
about demarcation, some things had changed. For six months, Greenpeace,
our two partner organizations, Operaçã Amazônia
Nativa and Conselho Indigenista Missionário, and a multi-skilled
team that included anthropologists, indigenous issues experts,
sociologists and agriculture engineers worked directly with Deni
leaders from all eight villages preparing them to take charge
of their demarcation.
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This "self-demarcation" is not common. Usually
the federal government sends in anthropologists, geographers,
and inspectors who determine the range of the Indian community's
lands, write reports and draw a map, submit their findings
to FUNAI, and await the approval of the physical demarcation.
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Once approved, FUNAI contracts a company to go to the land and
cut a border through the jungle, marking the outer limits of the
property. The Indians themselves are usually involved only peripherally.
But the Deni grew tired of waiting for the government to demarcate
their land; they want to finish the demarcation process now before
any other logging companies attempt to invade their territory.
Greenpeace, OPAN and CIMI provided the Deni with workshops on
maps and mapping, lessons on angles and degrees and theoretical
and practical classes on demarcation. The Deni learned how to
handle survey equipment such as theodolites and compasses, and
they now have a clear notion of the borders of their lands and
are able to follow the step-by-step process of physical demarcation.
The physical demarcation will begin in September opening
up one and a half metre wide trails in the forest creating
a visible border between indigenous land and other territories.
At their invitation, Greenpeace is sending in volunteers to
assist the Deni, document the demarcation and bear witness
to their fight for the protection of their lands. |
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By mid-October, after almost 20 years, demarcated paths of hundreds
of kilometres will be in place to protect the Deni culture and
their 1,600,000 hectares of pristine forest in the heart of the
Amazon from invading transnational companies and local loggers.
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