Protection of indigenous territories 'a matter of life and death'

[Judi Lynn]

By agency reporter
APRIL 5, 2020

The protection of indigenous lands around the globe is critical to prevent thousands of tribal people dying from coronavirus, says Survival International.

Although the entire world now understands how dangerous new diseases can be, Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is actively encouraging fundamentalist missionaries to make contact with uncontacted Amazonian tribes, who lack resistance to outside diseases.

He has appointed an evangelical missionary to head the government’s uncontacted tribes department, and the New Tribes Mission (one of the largest fundamentalist missionary organisations) has launched a plan to target uncontacted tribes in the Javari Valley, home to more such peoples than anywhere else on Earth. (The New Tribes Mission has re-branded as Ethnos360 in the US).

In addition, many tribes in Brazil such as the Yanomami, the Kawahiva, the Uru Eu Wau Wau, the Munduruku and the Awá, are seeing their territories invaded by goldminers, ranchers and loggers. All are home to uncontacted communities, who are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet and extremely susceptible to outside diseases.

More:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/29483