Save Xingu Peoples from Destruction
- by: David Jackson, Organisation for Human, Animal and Environmental Rights
- recipient: Brazilian and State of Para government, UN, and pertinent organisations
The Brazilian government is planning to build what would be the world%uFFFDs third largest dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The Xingu River in northeast Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River. The Belo Monte Dam, meant principally to fuel the expansion of aluminum foundries and other industrial plants in the Amazon, would require diverting nearly the entire flow of the Xingu, drying up the Big Bend of the Xingu and its tributary, the Bacaj%uFFFD, home to hundreds of indigenous people. Native people upstream would also be affected by the dam%uFFFDs impacts on fish stocks, their principal food source.
In May, one thousand indigenous people, in addition to social movements and environmentalists gathered in the town of Altamira, on the Xingu River, to protest the plans for Belo Monte and other dams on the Xingu. In the Xingu Forever Alive letter, they stated "We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries". The Amazon basin with its intact rainforests and rivers is a critical ecosystem that must remain intact for the Planet to remain inhabitable. Please tell Brazil%uFFFDs President Lula and other decision makers in the Brazilian government that you support the position of indigenous peoples of the rainforest - that Brazil has better ways of providing its future energy needs than destroying the mighty Xingu River. The plans for the dams should be cancelled.
Let the Brazil's President know the wild and free Xingu River is critical to maintaining intact the Amazon, its peoples and the Earth we share.
The corporations and government dont have any idea what would happen if they flood this life-giving rainforest. Or do they care, that's the thing? Is it about money, or is it about a lot of people losing their homes, and animals drowning, as well as the survivors losing their only habitat? We have taken over this beautiful planet, declaring ourselves the dominant, so-called intelligent species, destroying everything in our path, with no regard for anyone or anything else. How can we call ourselves intelligent?
Amazonia is the Earth's Lung. They are destroying everything in there, animals and humans. The Indians were there first and have always respected the holiness of life! They deserve to remain in their homes!!
Amazon Indians lead battle against power giant's plan to flood rainforest
By Patrick Cunningham in Altamira, Brazil
Friday, 23 May 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amazon-indians-lead-battle-against-power-giants-plan-to-flood-rainforest-832865.html
The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon.
At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high.
For people living beside the river, the dam will bring an end to their way of life. Thousands of homes will be submerged and changes in the local ecology will wipe out the livelihoods of many more, killing their main food sources and destroying their raw materials.
For the 10,000 tribal indians of the Xingu, whose lives have changed little since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago, this will be a devastating blow.
"This is the second time we are fighting this battle," says Chief Bocaire, a young leader of the Kayapo, one of more than 600 Indians from 35 ethnic groups who gathered in record numbers in Altamira. The Indians had travelled hundreds of miles to get there in an area with hardly any roads. The roads that do exist are mostly dirt tracks, impassable in bad weather and difficult and dangerous at the best of times. For most it has been an odyssey of several weeks, travelling in small boats to reach the roads.
"In 1989, our parents defeated a similar proposal with the help of the international media. Now it is back. But we are ready to fight again. This time we speak their language, and we are more determined than ever," says Chief Bocaire.
With so much at stake, tensions spilled over into violence this week when an engineer from the power company Eletrobras was caught up in a melee with Indians wielding machetes. Paulo Fernando Rezende had his shirt ripped from him and was left with a deep cut to his shoulder.
Nineteen years ago, the Indians called on the support of the rock star Sting and the late Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. Pictures of the pair alongside Chief Raoni, with his lower lip distended by a traditional lip plate, sent their message to the outside world.
The reservoir will flood up to 6,140 square kilometres (2,371 square miles). Scientists say it will cause a dramatic increase in greenhouse-gas emissions. from the decomposition of organic matter in the stagnant water of the reservoir.
"Hydroelectric dams have severe social impacts," Philip Fearnside, one of the world's leading rainforest scientists explains, "including flooding the lands of indigenous peoples, displacing non-indigenous residents and destroying fisheries."
Dr Fearnside said the project helps aluminium plants looking to cash in on exports but does little for local needs, and in fact increases the health risks to local populations, including malaria.
For three months in the dry season, the flow of the Xingu reduces to a trickle and the dam's turbines will stop working, unable to maintain the supply of power and necessitating the use of inefficient fossil-fuel power stations.
Last November, Chief Bocaire delivered a letter to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Signed by 78 leaders, the letter demanded that all dam be halted.
But Glenn Switkes, of International Rivers, says: "The Lula government and its political allies are closing ranks to ensure it goes ahead no matter what the cost. The construction cost could be more than %uFFFD5bn, and Belo Monte will not be feasible without building other dams upstream to regulate the flow of the Xingu %u2013 and that means facing off with the Kayapo."
Xingu Forever Alive May 26, 2008
We, representatives of indigenous peoples, river bank dwellers, gatherers of forest products, family farmers, urban dwellers, social movements, and non-governmental organizations of the Xingu basin met in the Xingu Forever Alive encounter, in the city of Altamira, Par%uFFFD state, Brazilian Amazon, between May 19 and 23, 2008 to discuss, recognize, and repudiate the threats to the river which is ours, and of which we are part, in order to reaffirm the type of development that we want for our region.
We who are the ancestral inhabitants of the Xingu Basin, whose course and whose tributaries we navigated to meet here, from where we catch the fish that nourish us, on the purity of whose water we depend on to be able to drink without worrying about getting sick, on the regime of whose floods and ebb we depend for our agriculture, whose forest products we collect, and which we pay reverence to and whose beauty and generosity we celebrate with every new day; our culture, our spirituality, and our survival are deeply rooted in the Xingu, and we depend on it for our existence.
We who have maintained and protected our forests and the natural resources of our territories in the midst of the destruction which has bled the Amazon feel that our dignity has been demeaned and that we have not been respected by the Brazilian Government and private dam-building groups planning dams on the Xingu and its tributaries, principally Belo Monte Dam. At no time have they asked us what we want for our future. At no time have they asked us what we think regarding the building of hydroelectric dams, and not even the indigenous people were consulted %u2013 a right guaranteed to them by law. Despite this fact, Belo Monte has been presented by the government as a done deal, even though its viability has been questioned.
We are aware that diverting the Xingu at its Big Bend will cause permanent flooding upstream, displacing thousands of river bank families and residents of the city of Altamira, affecting agriculture, extractivism, and biodiversity, and flooding our beaches. On the other hand, the dam would practically dry up more than 100 kilometers of the river, making navigation, fishing, and the use of water impossible for many communities, including various indigenous lands and reserves.
We are also concerned about the construction of Small Hydroelectric Dams (PCHs), on the rivers at the headwaters of the Xingu. Some have already been built and others have been authorized, without any evaluation of the impacts that these dams will cause to the 14 indigenous peoples living in the Xingu Indigenous Park. These dams profane their sacred sites and can destroy the fish which nourish them.
Therefore, we, Brazilian citizens, publicly communicate to our society and to our federal, state, and local government authorities our decision to defend our rights and those of our children and grandchildren to live with dignity, to keep our homes and our territories, our cultures and ways of life, honoring our ancestors as well who left us a healthy environment. We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries, and we will continue fighting against the imposition of a development model which is socially unjust and environmentally destructive, and which today is represented by the increase in the illegal grabbing of public lands, by illegal logging operations, by clandestine gold mines which kill our rivers, and by the expansion of agricultural monocultures and extensive cattle ranching which cut down our forests.
We, who know the river at its every bend, wish to tell Brazilian society and to demand from public authorities the implementation of our development project for the region, which includes:
1. The creation of a forum bringing together the peoples of the basin in order to permit a permanent conversation regarding the future of our river, eventually creating a Xingu River Basin Committee;
2. The consolidation and effective protection of Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands and the investigation and legalization of land titles on public lands in the Xingu basin;
3. The immediate creation of the Middle Xingu Extractive Reserve;
4. The immediate demarcation of the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, and the fair resettlement of its non-indigenous inhabitants, as well as the removal of invaders of the Parakan%uFFFD Indigenous Territory;
5. The taking of measures which effectively halt deforestation, including illegal logging and land grabbing;
6. Additional public policies providing incentives for sustainable extraction of forest products and support for family farming on an agroecological basis and which value and stimulate the commercialization of forest products;
7. Public policies capable of promoting the improvement and the installation of urban water and sewer treatment systems.
8. An increase in public policies to meet the demand for healthcare, education, transportation, and public safety, in a manner consistent with our reality;
9. Development of public policies which broaden and democratize social communication media;
10. More public policies for recuperation of gallery forests and areas degraded by ranching, logging, and mining;
11. Prohibiting the damming of the Xingu headwaters, as already took place with the construction of the Paranatinga II small dam on the Culuene River;
12. The effective protection of the great biodiversity corridor formed by the indigenous lands and conservation units of the Xingu.
We, who have protected our Xingu River do not accept the invisibility with which they wish to impose decisions upon us, nor the way we are treated with disdain by public officials. The way we are presenting ourselves to the country is through our dignity, the knowledge we have inherited, and the teachings by which we can transmit the respect that we demand.
Altamira, May 23, 2008.
Signed by:
Kayap%uFFFD da Aldeia Kriny, Kayap%uFFFD do Bacaj%uFFFD Xikrin, Kayap%uFFFD de Las Casas, Kaiap%uFFFD de Gorotire, Kayap%uFFFD Kubenkr%uFFFDk%uFFFDnh, Kayap%uFFFD Moikarak%uFFFD, Kayap%uFFFD Pykar%uFFFDr%uFFFDkre, Kayap%uFFFD Kendj%uFFFDm, Kayap%uFFFD Kubenk%uFFFDkre, Kayap%uFFFD Karara%uFFFD, Kayap%uFFFD Purure, Kayap%uFFFD Tepore, Kayap%uFFFD Nh%uFFFDkin, Kayapo Bandjunk%uFFFDre, Kayap%uFFFD Kr%uFFFDnh%uFFFDpari, Kayap%uFFFD Kawatire, Kayap%uFFFD Kapot, Kayap%uFFFD Metyktire, Kayap%uFFFD Piara%uFFFDu, Kayap%uFFFD Mekr%uFFFDnoti, Kayap%uFFFD Pykany, Kayap%uFFFD da Aldeia Aukre, Kayap%uFFFD da Aldeia Kokraimoro, Kayapo Bau, Kayap%uFFFD Kikretum, Kayap%uFFFD K%uFFFDk%uFFFDku%uFFFDdja, Mrotidjam Xikrin, Potikr%uFFFD Xikrin, Djudjek%uFFFD Xikrin, Catet%uFFFD Xikrin, %uFFFDodja Xikrin, Parakan%uFFFD da aldeia Apyterewa e Xingu, Akr%uFFFDtikatej%uFFFD, Parkatej%uFFFD, Munduruku, Arawet%uFFFD, Kuruwaia, Xipaia, Asurini, Arara da aldeia Laranjal e Cachoeira Seca, Arara do Maia da terra Alta, Panar%uFFFD, Juruna do Km 17,Temb%uFFFD, Kayabi, Yudja, Kuikuro, Nafukua, Kamaiur%uFFFD, Kalapalo, Waur%uFFFD, Trumai, Xavante, Ikpeng, Apinay%uFFFD, Krah%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo das Mulheres Agricultoras do Assurini, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Mulheres Agricultoras do Setor Gonzaga, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Moradores do M%uFFFDdio Xingu, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Moradores da Resex do Iriri ,Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Moradores da Resex Riozinho do Anfrisio, AFP- Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Floresta Protegida do povo Kayap%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Ind%uFFFDgena Kisedje - povo Kisedje (Parque Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu), Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Pr%uFFFD-Moradia do Parque Ip%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Pr%uFFFD-Moradia do S%uFFFDo Domingos, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Yaki%uFFFD Panar%uFFFD - Povo Panar%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Yarikayu - povo Yudja (Parque Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu), Articula%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Mulheres Paraenses, Articula%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Mulheres Brasileiras, ATIX %u2013 Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Terra Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu (Parque Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu), CJP- Comiss%uFFFDo de Justi%uFFFDa e Paz, Conselho Indigenista Mission%uFFFDrio (CIMI), Prelazia do Xingu, CPT- Comiss%uFFFDo Pastoral da Terra, FAOR %u2013 F%uFFFDrum da Amaz%uFFFDnia Oriental, Federa%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Assist%uFFFDncia Social e Educacional (FASE), FETAGRI- Federa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Regional Altamira, F%uFFFDrum de Direitos Humanos Dorothy Stang (FDHDS), F%uFFFDrum Popular de Altamira, Funda%uFFFD%uFFFDo Elza Marques, Funda%uFFFD%uFFFDo Tocaia, Fundo DEMA, Grupo de Mulheres do Bairro Esperan%uFFFDa, Grupo de Trabalho Amaz%uFFFDnico Regional Altamira (GTA), IPAM- Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amaz%uFFFDnia, Coordena%uFFFD%uFFFDo das Organiza%uFFFD%uFFFDes Ind%uFFFDgenas da Amaz%uFFFDnia Brasileira (COIAB), MAB- Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragem, STTR-Altamira, Pastoral da Juventude, S.O.S. Vida, Sindicato das Dom%uFFFDsticas de Altamira, Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educa%uFFFD%uFFFDo P%uFFFDblica do Par%uFFFD %u2013 SINTEPP, Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras de Altamira Campo e Cidade %u2013 MMTACC, Movimento de Mulheres do Campo e Cidade do Par%uFFFD - MMCC, Movimento de Mulheres do Campo e Cidade Regional Transamaz%uFFFDnica e Xingu, F%uFFFDrum de Mulheres da Amaz%uFFFDnia Paraense, SDDH- Sociedade Paraense dos Direitos Humanos, MNDH- Movimento Nacional dos Direitos Humanos, MMM- Movimento de Mulheres Maria Maria, SOS Corpo, Instituto Feminista para a Democracia, Instituto Socioambiental %u2013 ISA, Funda%uFFFD%uFFFDo Viver Produzir e Preservar (FVPP).
Supported by:
Alternativa Verde (Peru), American Anthropological Association (USA), Amazon Watch (USA), Amigos da Terra Amaz%uFFFDnia Brasileira (Brazil), Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Prote%uFFFD%uFFFDo ao Meio Ambiente - Cianorte/Paran%uFFFD (Brazil), Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Terra Laranjeiras (Brasil), Asociaci%uFFFDn Ambientalista Eco La Paz (Argentina), Asociaci%uFFFDn de Ecolog%uFFFDa Social de Costa Rica, Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation (Canada), Centre for Organisation Research & Education (Indigenous Peoples' Centre for Policy and Human Rights in India's Eastern Himalayan Territories), Center for Political Ecology (USA), Chile Sustentable, Coalici%uFFFDn Ciudadana por Ais%uFFFDn Reserva de Vida (Chile), Convergencia de Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Am%uFFFDricas (Mexico), Cultural Survival (USA), Ecologia e A%uFFFD%uFFFDo (Brazil), Ecological Society of the Philippines, Ecosistemas (Chile), Environmental Defense (USA), Fundaci%uFFFDn Proteger (Argentina), Global Response (USA), Grupo Ecologista Cu%uFFFDa Pir%uFFFD (Argentina), Heinrich Boell Foundation (Germany), Independent Platform against Nuclear Dangers (Austria), Instituto de Estudos Socioecon%uFFFDmicos (Brazil), Instituto Madeira Vivo (Brazil), International Accountability Project (USA), International Rivers (USA), Jubilee Kyushu on World Debt and Poverty (Japan), Living River Siam (Thailand), Matilija Coalition (USA), Movimiento de Ecociudadanos Venezolanos (Venezuela), Movimiento Mexicano de Afectados por las Presas y en Defensa de los R%uFFFDos, Oilwatch Costa Rica, Oilwatch Mesoamerica, Otros Mundos, A.C./Chiapas (Mexico), Quatro Cantos do Mundo (Brazil), Probe International (Canada), Probioma (Bolivia), Rainforest Action Network (USA), Rainforest Foundation US, Rainforest Foundation Norway, Red de Organizaciones Sociales Encarnaci%uFFFDn-Itapua (Paraguay), River Basin Friends (India), Sierra Club Canada, Sierra Club USA, Sobrevivencia - Amigos de la Tierra Paraguay, Society for Threatened Peoples International (USA, Germany), Southern Ute Grassroots Organization (USA), Sunray Harvesters (India), Survival International (UK), Taller Ecologista de Ros%uFFFDrio (Argentina), Urgewald (Germany), Water and Energy Users%uFFFD Federation (Nepal)
Ask that the Belo Monte dam project be immediately cancelled, and that the Xingu river, and those who depend on it are permenantly protected from the disasterous consequences that would spell an end for their life and culture, their future and their way of life which has existed for thousands of years, from other damming of the river. The Belo Monte dam and other dams on the Xingu will have a genocidal and ecologicidal effect on the natvie peoples who live in this area. It is a crime of monstrous proportions which will destroy the lives of indigenous people, some of the last remaining indigenous peoples on this planet are now greatly endangered of vanishing from this earth. We Recognise that the construction of the Belo Monte dam will result in irreparable damage to the amazon rainforest, widespread destruction and loss of inportant native plant and animal species, and completely destroy the lives, cultures and traditions of the ancient Xingu river people who have lived in that area for thousands of years.
The people of the Xingu river of the Amazon Rainforest are being threatened with destruction. These people have lived in Xingu river for thousands of years in a sustainable manner with the beautiful rainforest which they co-exist with and provides them with what they need. They depend on fish from the Xingu river and from the lands which surround it to grow their crops. We would be taking away the ability of these people to feed themselves, and destroying their traditional way of life as they have lived for thousands years. All of these things are being threatened, and the traditional way of life and culture of some of the last indigenous people on this planet. This is as a result of a massive dam project which could decimate fish populations in their river and destroy thousands of square miles of the very rainforests that they depend on for survival. For too long we have caused the native traditional peoples such as this to vanish from the earth, and their culture and way of life. It is now time we do the right thing to make up for hundreds of years of wrongs, now, and protect these last indigenous that remain now. These people have lived in this area for thousands of years and the river and land belongs to them.
The Brazilian government is planning to build what would be the world%uFFFDs third largest dam on the Xingu River in the Brazilian Amazon. The Xingu River in northeast Brazil is a tributary of the Amazon River. The Belo Monte Dam, meant principally to fuel the expansion of aluminum foundries and other industrial plants in the Amazon, would require diverting nearly the entire flow of the Xingu, drying up the Big Bend of the Xingu and its tributary, the Bacaj%uFFFD, home to hundreds of indigenous people. Native people upstream would also be affected by the dam%uFFFDs impacts on fish stocks, their principal food source.
In May, one thousand indigenous people, in addition to social movements and environmentalists gathered in the town of Altamira, on the Xingu River, to protest the plans for Belo Monte and other dams on the Xingu. In the Xingu Forever Alive letter, they stated "We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries". The Amazon basin with its intact rainforests and rivers is a critical ecosystem that must remain intact for the Planet to remain inhabitable. Please tell Brazil%uFFFDs President Lula and other decision makers in the Brazilian government that you support the position of indigenous peoples of the rainforest - that Brazil has better ways of providing its future energy needs than destroying the mighty Xingu River. The plans for the dams should be cancelled.
Let the Brazil's President know the wild and free Xingu River is critical to maintaining intact the Amazon, its peoples and the Earth we share.
The corporations and government dont have any idea what would happen if they flood this life-giving rainforest. Or do they care, that's the thing? Is it about money, or is it about a lot of people losing their homes, and animals drowning, as well as the survivors losing their only habitat? We have taken over this beautiful planet, declaring ourselves the dominant, so-called intelligent species, destroying everything in our path, with no regard for anyone or anything else. How can we call ourselves intelligent?
Amazonia is the Earth's Lung. They are destroying everything in there, animals and humans. The Indians were there first and have always respected the holiness of life! They deserve to remain in their homes!!
Amazon Indians lead battle against power giant's plan to flood rainforest
By Patrick Cunningham in Altamira, Brazil
Friday, 23 May 2008
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amazon-indians-lead-battle-against-power-giants-plan-to-flood-rainforest-832865.html
The Amazonian city of Altamira played host to one of the more uneven contests in recent Brazilian history this week, as a colourful alliance of indigenous leaders gathered to take on the might of the state power corporation and stop the construction of an immense hydroelectric dam on a tributary of the Amazon.
At stake are plans to flood large areas of rainforest to make way for the huge Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the Xingu river. The government is pushing the project as a sustainable energy solution, but critics complain the environmental and social costs are too high.
For people living beside the river, the dam will bring an end to their way of life. Thousands of homes will be submerged and changes in the local ecology will wipe out the livelihoods of many more, killing their main food sources and destroying their raw materials.
For the 10,000 tribal indians of the Xingu, whose lives have changed little since the arrival of Europeans five centuries ago, this will be a devastating blow.
"This is the second time we are fighting this battle," says Chief Bocaire, a young leader of the Kayapo, one of more than 600 Indians from 35 ethnic groups who gathered in record numbers in Altamira. The Indians had travelled hundreds of miles to get there in an area with hardly any roads. The roads that do exist are mostly dirt tracks, impassable in bad weather and difficult and dangerous at the best of times. For most it has been an odyssey of several weeks, travelling in small boats to reach the roads.
"In 1989, our parents defeated a similar proposal with the help of the international media. Now it is back. But we are ready to fight again. This time we speak their language, and we are more determined than ever," says Chief Bocaire.
With so much at stake, tensions spilled over into violence this week when an engineer from the power company Eletrobras was caught up in a melee with Indians wielding machetes. Paulo Fernando Rezende had his shirt ripped from him and was left with a deep cut to his shoulder.
Nineteen years ago, the Indians called on the support of the rock star Sting and the late Body Shop founder Anita Roddick. Pictures of the pair alongside Chief Raoni, with his lower lip distended by a traditional lip plate, sent their message to the outside world.
The reservoir will flood up to 6,140 square kilometres (2,371 square miles). Scientists say it will cause a dramatic increase in greenhouse-gas emissions. from the decomposition of organic matter in the stagnant water of the reservoir.
"Hydroelectric dams have severe social impacts," Philip Fearnside, one of the world's leading rainforest scientists explains, "including flooding the lands of indigenous peoples, displacing non-indigenous residents and destroying fisheries."
Dr Fearnside said the project helps aluminium plants looking to cash in on exports but does little for local needs, and in fact increases the health risks to local populations, including malaria.
For three months in the dry season, the flow of the Xingu reduces to a trickle and the dam's turbines will stop working, unable to maintain the supply of power and necessitating the use of inefficient fossil-fuel power stations.
Last November, Chief Bocaire delivered a letter to President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. Signed by 78 leaders, the letter demanded that all dam be halted.
But Glenn Switkes, of International Rivers, says: "The Lula government and its political allies are closing ranks to ensure it goes ahead no matter what the cost. The construction cost could be more than %uFFFD5bn, and Belo Monte will not be feasible without building other dams upstream to regulate the flow of the Xingu %u2013 and that means facing off with the Kayapo."
Xingu Forever Alive May 26, 2008
We, representatives of indigenous peoples, river bank dwellers, gatherers of forest products, family farmers, urban dwellers, social movements, and non-governmental organizations of the Xingu basin met in the Xingu Forever Alive encounter, in the city of Altamira, Par%uFFFD state, Brazilian Amazon, between May 19 and 23, 2008 to discuss, recognize, and repudiate the threats to the river which is ours, and of which we are part, in order to reaffirm the type of development that we want for our region.
We who are the ancestral inhabitants of the Xingu Basin, whose course and whose tributaries we navigated to meet here, from where we catch the fish that nourish us, on the purity of whose water we depend on to be able to drink without worrying about getting sick, on the regime of whose floods and ebb we depend for our agriculture, whose forest products we collect, and which we pay reverence to and whose beauty and generosity we celebrate with every new day; our culture, our spirituality, and our survival are deeply rooted in the Xingu, and we depend on it for our existence.
We who have maintained and protected our forests and the natural resources of our territories in the midst of the destruction which has bled the Amazon feel that our dignity has been demeaned and that we have not been respected by the Brazilian Government and private dam-building groups planning dams on the Xingu and its tributaries, principally Belo Monte Dam. At no time have they asked us what we want for our future. At no time have they asked us what we think regarding the building of hydroelectric dams, and not even the indigenous people were consulted %u2013 a right guaranteed to them by law. Despite this fact, Belo Monte has been presented by the government as a done deal, even though its viability has been questioned.
We are aware that diverting the Xingu at its Big Bend will cause permanent flooding upstream, displacing thousands of river bank families and residents of the city of Altamira, affecting agriculture, extractivism, and biodiversity, and flooding our beaches. On the other hand, the dam would practically dry up more than 100 kilometers of the river, making navigation, fishing, and the use of water impossible for many communities, including various indigenous lands and reserves.
We are also concerned about the construction of Small Hydroelectric Dams (PCHs), on the rivers at the headwaters of the Xingu. Some have already been built and others have been authorized, without any evaluation of the impacts that these dams will cause to the 14 indigenous peoples living in the Xingu Indigenous Park. These dams profane their sacred sites and can destroy the fish which nourish them.
Therefore, we, Brazilian citizens, publicly communicate to our society and to our federal, state, and local government authorities our decision to defend our rights and those of our children and grandchildren to live with dignity, to keep our homes and our territories, our cultures and ways of life, honoring our ancestors as well who left us a healthy environment. We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries, and we will continue fighting against the imposition of a development model which is socially unjust and environmentally destructive, and which today is represented by the increase in the illegal grabbing of public lands, by illegal logging operations, by clandestine gold mines which kill our rivers, and by the expansion of agricultural monocultures and extensive cattle ranching which cut down our forests.
We, who know the river at its every bend, wish to tell Brazilian society and to demand from public authorities the implementation of our development project for the region, which includes:
1. The creation of a forum bringing together the peoples of the basin in order to permit a permanent conversation regarding the future of our river, eventually creating a Xingu River Basin Committee;
2. The consolidation and effective protection of Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands and the investigation and legalization of land titles on public lands in the Xingu basin;
3. The immediate creation of the Middle Xingu Extractive Reserve;
4. The immediate demarcation of the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, and the fair resettlement of its non-indigenous inhabitants, as well as the removal of invaders of the Parakan%uFFFD Indigenous Territory;
5. The taking of measures which effectively halt deforestation, including illegal logging and land grabbing;
6. Additional public policies providing incentives for sustainable extraction of forest products and support for family farming on an agroecological basis and which value and stimulate the commercialization of forest products;
7. Public policies capable of promoting the improvement and the installation of urban water and sewer treatment systems.
8. An increase in public policies to meet the demand for healthcare, education, transportation, and public safety, in a manner consistent with our reality;
9. Development of public policies which broaden and democratize social communication media;
10. More public policies for recuperation of gallery forests and areas degraded by ranching, logging, and mining;
11. Prohibiting the damming of the Xingu headwaters, as already took place with the construction of the Paranatinga II small dam on the Culuene River;
12. The effective protection of the great biodiversity corridor formed by the indigenous lands and conservation units of the Xingu.
We, who have protected our Xingu River do not accept the invisibility with which they wish to impose decisions upon us, nor the way we are treated with disdain by public officials. The way we are presenting ourselves to the country is through our dignity, the knowledge we have inherited, and the teachings by which we can transmit the respect that we demand.
Altamira, May 23, 2008.
Signed by:
Kayap%uFFFD da Aldeia Kriny, Kayap%uFFFD do Bacaj%uFFFD Xikrin, Kayap%uFFFD de Las Casas, Kaiap%uFFFD de Gorotire, Kayap%uFFFD Kubenkr%uFFFDk%uFFFDnh, Kayap%uFFFD Moikarak%uFFFD, Kayap%uFFFD Pykar%uFFFDr%uFFFDkre, Kayap%uFFFD Kendj%uFFFDm, Kayap%uFFFD Kubenk%uFFFDkre, Kayap%uFFFD Karara%uFFFD, Kayap%uFFFD Purure, Kayap%uFFFD Tepore, Kayap%uFFFD Nh%uFFFDkin, Kayapo Bandjunk%uFFFDre, Kayap%uFFFD Kr%uFFFDnh%uFFFDpari, Kayap%uFFFD Kawatire, Kayap%uFFFD Kapot, Kayap%uFFFD Metyktire, Kayap%uFFFD Piara%uFFFDu, Kayap%uFFFD Mekr%uFFFDnoti, Kayap%uFFFD Pykany, Kayap%uFFFD da Aldeia Aukre, Kayap%uFFFD da Aldeia Kokraimoro, Kayapo Bau, Kayap%uFFFD Kikretum, Kayap%uFFFD K%uFFFDk%uFFFDku%uFFFDdja, Mrotidjam Xikrin, Potikr%uFFFD Xikrin, Djudjek%uFFFD Xikrin, Catet%uFFFD Xikrin, %uFFFDodja Xikrin, Parakan%uFFFD da aldeia Apyterewa e Xingu, Akr%uFFFDtikatej%uFFFD, Parkatej%uFFFD, Munduruku, Arawet%uFFFD, Kuruwaia, Xipaia, Asurini, Arara da aldeia Laranjal e Cachoeira Seca, Arara do Maia da terra Alta, Panar%uFFFD, Juruna do Km 17,Temb%uFFFD, Kayabi, Yudja, Kuikuro, Nafukua, Kamaiur%uFFFD, Kalapalo, Waur%uFFFD, Trumai, Xavante, Ikpeng, Apinay%uFFFD, Krah%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo das Mulheres Agricultoras do Assurini, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Mulheres Agricultoras do Setor Gonzaga, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Moradores do M%uFFFDdio Xingu, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Moradores da Resex do Iriri ,Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Moradores da Resex Riozinho do Anfrisio, AFP- Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Floresta Protegida do povo Kayap%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Ind%uFFFDgena Kisedje - povo Kisedje (Parque Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu), Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Pr%uFFFD-Moradia do Parque Ip%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Pr%uFFFD-Moradia do S%uFFFDo Domingos, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Yaki%uFFFD Panar%uFFFD - Povo Panar%uFFFD, Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Yarikayu - povo Yudja (Parque Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu), Articula%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Mulheres Paraenses, Articula%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Mulheres Brasileiras, ATIX %u2013 Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Terra Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu (Parque Ind%uFFFDgena Xingu), CJP- Comiss%uFFFDo de Justi%uFFFDa e Paz, Conselho Indigenista Mission%uFFFDrio (CIMI), Prelazia do Xingu, CPT- Comiss%uFFFDo Pastoral da Terra, FAOR %u2013 F%uFFFDrum da Amaz%uFFFDnia Oriental, Federa%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Assist%uFFFDncia Social e Educacional (FASE), FETAGRI- Federa%uFFFD%uFFFDo dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura Regional Altamira, F%uFFFDrum de Direitos Humanos Dorothy Stang (FDHDS), F%uFFFDrum Popular de Altamira, Funda%uFFFD%uFFFDo Elza Marques, Funda%uFFFD%uFFFDo Tocaia, Fundo DEMA, Grupo de Mulheres do Bairro Esperan%uFFFDa, Grupo de Trabalho Amaz%uFFFDnico Regional Altamira (GTA), IPAM- Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amaz%uFFFDnia, Coordena%uFFFD%uFFFDo das Organiza%uFFFD%uFFFDes Ind%uFFFDgenas da Amaz%uFFFDnia Brasileira (COIAB), MAB- Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragem, STTR-Altamira, Pastoral da Juventude, S.O.S. Vida, Sindicato das Dom%uFFFDsticas de Altamira, Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Educa%uFFFD%uFFFDo P%uFFFDblica do Par%uFFFD %u2013 SINTEPP, Movimento de Mulheres Trabalhadoras de Altamira Campo e Cidade %u2013 MMTACC, Movimento de Mulheres do Campo e Cidade do Par%uFFFD - MMCC, Movimento de Mulheres do Campo e Cidade Regional Transamaz%uFFFDnica e Xingu, F%uFFFDrum de Mulheres da Amaz%uFFFDnia Paraense, SDDH- Sociedade Paraense dos Direitos Humanos, MNDH- Movimento Nacional dos Direitos Humanos, MMM- Movimento de Mulheres Maria Maria, SOS Corpo, Instituto Feminista para a Democracia, Instituto Socioambiental %u2013 ISA, Funda%uFFFD%uFFFDo Viver Produzir e Preservar (FVPP).
Supported by:
Alternativa Verde (Peru), American Anthropological Association (USA), Amazon Watch (USA), Amigos da Terra Amaz%uFFFDnia Brasileira (Brazil), Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo de Prote%uFFFD%uFFFDo ao Meio Ambiente - Cianorte/Paran%uFFFD (Brazil), Associa%uFFFD%uFFFDo Terra Laranjeiras (Brasil), Asociaci%uFFFDn Ambientalista Eco La Paz (Argentina), Asociaci%uFFFDn de Ecolog%uFFFDa Social de Costa Rica, Barnard-Boecker Centre Foundation (Canada), Centre for Organisation Research & Education (Indigenous Peoples' Centre for Policy and Human Rights in India's Eastern Himalayan Territories), Center for Political Ecology (USA), Chile Sustentable, Coalici%uFFFDn Ciudadana por Ais%uFFFDn Reserva de Vida (Chile), Convergencia de Movimientos de los Pueblos de las Am%uFFFDricas (Mexico), Cultural Survival (USA), Ecologia e A%uFFFD%uFFFDo (Brazil), Ecological Society of the Philippines, Ecosistemas (Chile), Environmental Defense (USA), Fundaci%uFFFDn Proteger (Argentina), Global Response (USA), Grupo Ecologista Cu%uFFFDa Pir%uFFFD (Argentina), Heinrich Boell Foundation (Germany), Independent Platform against Nuclear Dangers (Austria), Instituto de Estudos Socioecon%uFFFDmicos (Brazil), Instituto Madeira Vivo (Brazil), International Accountability Project (USA), International Rivers (USA), Jubilee Kyushu on World Debt and Poverty (Japan), Living River Siam (Thailand), Matilija Coalition (USA), Movimiento de Ecociudadanos Venezolanos (Venezuela), Movimiento Mexicano de Afectados por las Presas y en Defensa de los R%uFFFDos, Oilwatch Costa Rica, Oilwatch Mesoamerica, Otros Mundos, A.C./Chiapas (Mexico), Quatro Cantos do Mundo (Brazil), Probe International (Canada), Probioma (Bolivia), Rainforest Action Network (USA), Rainforest Foundation US, Rainforest Foundation Norway, Red de Organizaciones Sociales Encarnaci%uFFFDn-Itapua (Paraguay), River Basin Friends (India), Sierra Club Canada, Sierra Club USA, Sobrevivencia - Amigos de la Tierra Paraguay, Society for Threatened Peoples International (USA, Germany), Southern Ute Grassroots Organization (USA), Sunray Harvesters (India), Survival International (UK), Taller Ecologista de Ros%uFFFDrio (Argentina), Urgewald (Germany), Water and Energy Users%uFFFD Federation (Nepal)
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