Demarcation Diaries
29 August 2001
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This is our third day aboard the Commandte Savio, a triple
decker Amazon river boat.
We are headed upstream, the river is flat, the colour of
chocolate milk. Hammocks on the centre deck swing gently
with the light roll of the ship.
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Small acrobatic grey dolphins splash in an inlet, pushing fish
at each other. Sometimes the back of a boto (pink river dolphin)
breaks the surface for a quick breath. The trees behind them are
2000 shades of green, with the odd flash of fluoro blue or bleached
white as a kingfisher or heron skims past the brick red riverbank.
The river is low at this time of year, only a meter of bank is
visible.
Today is a very good day to travel, hot but not too humid, and
surprisingly bug-free. Everyday the river narrows a little.
There are a few signs of human life, floats from fishing nets,
an occasional stilted hut, even a cleared field with fenced in
cattle, but mostly it is pristine.
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We launch a voadeira (a narrow aluminium boat with a 40
horsepower engine) to cross to the far bank to look at a
small log raft being towed down river.
We have previously documented the journey of such log rafts
from protected Indian lands all the way to the logging companies.
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I came to this area as part of the first Greenpeace expedition
in 1999. I am a doctor and my role then was to make an assessment
of the problems which future expeditions might face in the area
and how we might help the Deni Indians with their health problems,
of which malaria is probably the most severe.
On this trip we are providing logistical and medical support
for the Deni who are in the process of demarcating their territorial
boundaries as protection against predatory logging companies who
claim to have purchased land which is traditional Deni territory.
We will divide into three smaller expedition groups later in
the week and spend six weeks in the jungle assisting the Deni
to mark the boundaries of their territory, then logging and other
developments will be prohibited in the area.
If all indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazon were demarcated,
20 percent of the forest area would come under legal protection.
The Deni lands are one of the largest indigenous
areas to be demarcated. The process needs accurate plotting of
lands, so we use Global Positioning Systems to plot out points
on the boundary at five kilometre intervals. It is going to be
hard work mostly because of the insects and midday heat.
This afternoon, Marcio the Brazilian doctor and I will run through
some medical scenarios with the team to prepare them for emergencies.
Here there are snakes, scorpions, spiders, flatfish, crocodiles,
malaria, tropical ulcers and bush kitchen cooking to survive.
We have set up a well equipped hospital bay in Manuel´s
cabin. Sometimes the jungle's main role seems to be to provide
a large surface area for biting insects to breed in.
Ian
United Kingdom
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