Brazil: Awa Face Extinction
The Awa, a community of several hundred in Brazil´s Northeastern Amazon, are facing extinction due to land incursions and abuses by the logging industry, rights groups warn.
One of the world´s last hunter-gatherer groups, the Awa, who depend on the forest, could be wiped out as illegal logging groups tear it down, indigenous rights group Survival International said.
Survival’s director, Stephen Corry, said in March that “the Awa are the world’s most threatened tribe. If their rights are not protected, they’ll only exist in the pages of history books.”
The organization launched a campaign on April 25 to draw attention to the issue and urge the Brazilian government to protect the Awa, who number around 360, 100 of whom have had no contact with the outside world.
Loggers in January entered the communities, run over their camps with large vehicles, and burned down forest, according to the Indigenist Missionary Council, an indigenous rights group tied to the Catholic Church.
