In the Amazon Rainforest, indigenous people continue to lose their land, culture and way of life due to extreme economic development and destruction of the natural features and resources in the rainforest.
The Amazon is home to nearly 20 million people including approximately 400 different indigenous groups. Their lives are under an incredible threat due to the current vast destruction of the rainforest itself (due to cattle ranching, logging, construction of roads, etc.), introduced diseases from other humans intruding on their land (due to the lack of immunity to common diseases spread by outsiders) and the continuous denial of their basic human rights. They are very often victims of discrimination by their own government.
There are many factors affecting the lives of these indigenous groups. They are extremely under-represented at a political level and the Brazilian government continues to ignore their rights to education, health care and autonomy. Forced relocation and assimilation has caused the destruction of their culture (loss of language, spirituality, medicinal wisdom, etc.).
The future of the Amazon depends mainly on the lives of the people who call the rainforest home. Unfortunately, very few people are aware of these issues and the threat that these indigenous groups face. As a result, we are continuing to destroy their homes and their environment. The best solution we have is to let them live in isolation, uncontacted by all outsiders and their man-made interferences.
These tribes are vulnerable. They have adapted to the conditions of the rainforest and cannot survive anywhere else. Over thousands of years, they have gathered abundant knowledge of the local plants and animals and have collected enumerable remedies for diseases and for various pharmaceutical purposes. They know in great detail the potential the rainforest may hold for future advances and improvements in our modern world. Vast bodies of knowledge are lost the more we destroy the rainforest and its people.
Will you help put a stop to the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest and the unfair treatment of the people who have the power to do wonders for our modern world?
