The Brazilian government has come down heavily
on the Kayapo Indians, an
Amazonian tribe. The
Kayapoes are "mining"
mahogany from the reserve
forests in northern Brazil
and wreaking havoc on the
pristine forest cover, allege
the authorities; therefore,
they must be stopped immediately.
Now, a court in Brasilia
has banned the selling of
mahogany altogether. It has
confiscated the wood from
the kayapoes and plans to
auction it. The proceeds,
estimated at more than
E900,000, will go to the government's environment agency, Ibama.
The 8,000-odd Kayapoes inhabit a 3 million ha
reserve in the south of
Para state. They have been
trading in mahogany for
more than a decade and
prospering from their
enterprises. The money
generated by selling timber
has allowed them to indulge in some of the pleasures of the modern day
consumer-oriented life-
style. They even own
2 small planes and a fleet of
4-wheel-drive vehicles. And
worst of all, they chopped the
trees in a "predatory" manner and did nothing to harvest forest products in a sustainable way, says Marcio
Santilli, director of the
Socio-Economic Institute in Brasilia.
But Santilli still feels
the ban is too harsh a measure; rather, the Indians
should be allowed to switch
to a sustainable economy
based on forest products,
with backing from the government.
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