Povo Suruí

La coordination des organisations indigènes de l’Amazonie brésilienne (COIAB) souhaite répondre aux déclarations que le président de la FUNAI, Mércio Pereira Gomes, a faites à la presse le 12 janvier dernier, remettant en question le droit originel des peuples indigènes sur les territoires qu’ils occupent traditionnellement. Nous déclarons publiquement :

Le président de la FUNAI, Mércio Gomes, contrarié par les récents rapports faisant état d’un nombre élevé de décès d’Indiens en 2005, la plupart dus à la lenteur du processus de reconnaissance des territoires indigènes, conséquence de la pression exercée et des violences perpétrées à l’encontre des populations indigènes par les envahisseurs de toute sorte, a déclaré à l’agence de presse Reuters, le 12 janvier 2006, que les peuples indigènes du Brésil avaient assez de territoires : « Jusqu’à présent, il n’y a pas eu de limite à leurs revendications territoriales, mais nous arrivons à une étape où la Cour suprême aura à en instaurer une ».

La COIAB réitère publiquement que ces décès sont la conséquence de l’inertie de l’actuel gouvernement qui, durant les dernières années de son mandat, a totalement négligé les promesses faites ces vingt dernières années aux leaders indiens et à leurs instances représentatives. Ils sont dus à la violence perpétrée par les envahisseurs des terres indigènes ou à l’incapacité du gouvernement de définir et d’implanter des politiques publiques appropriées en faveur des peuples indigènes dans les domaines de la santé, de l’éducation et du développement durable. Ce n’est qu’en 2005 que celui-ci a ouvert le dialogue avec le mouvement indigène, sous la pression des peuples indigènes et de leurs organisations, qui ont toujours été ignorées et bafouées, en particulier par le président du département des Affaires indiennes.

Concernant la démarcation des territoires et les revendications des peuples indigènes qui, non seulement impliquent la ratification officielle des territoires, mais également la mise en place de programmes de contrôle et de protection de ceux-ci afin d’assurer leur viabilité, l’attitude de l’anthropologue Mércio Gomes est lamentable. Il s’efforce de minimiser l’importance de la terre pour les peuples indigènes et les conséquences que sa privation peut entraîner, contredisant ainsi ses propres affirmations sur la recherche qu’il a effectuée auprès des Indiens tenetehara (Guajajara) dans le Maranhão : « Un peuple indigène qui n’a pas assez de terres pour pouvoir mener son mode de vie se voit forcé de modifier et d’abandonner les pratiques sociales et culturelles qui renforcent son identité, et de s’adapter à un nouveau mode vie plus proche de celui des paysans. Ce qui amenera inévitablement le groupe ethnique à se scinder en plusieurs groupes familiaux ou individus qui passeront leur temps à s’efforcer de construire un nouveau mode de vie… ».

En déclarant : « Il y a assez de territoires. Il n’y a pas de limites à leurs revendications territoriales », le président de la FUNAI semble vraiment souhaiter ce sort aux peuples indigènes. C’est une intention ethnocidaire qu’il propose d’institutionnaliser à travers la décision de la Cour suprême de limiter les droits territoriaux des peuples indigènes.

Dans la pratique, le président de la FUNAI a déjà agi dans ce sens en étant l’un des principaux responsables de la paralysie du processus de ratification des territoires indigènes depuis la fin de l’année 2003. Il lui est aujourd’hui inutile d’essayer de renier ces déclarations honteuses, qui ont été confirmées depuis longtemps, par exemple lorsqu’il a approuvé des décisions anticonstitutionnelles telles que la réduction du territoire indigène de Baû dans l’Etat du Pará appartenant aux Kayapó.

Souhaiter que la Cour suprême limite les droits territoriaux des peuples indigènes revient à l’encourager à établir un acte dictatorial qui va à l’encontre des droits constitutionnels des peuples indigènes. Et ce, en faveur d’individus qui ont dans l’affaire des intérêts politiques et économiques, tels le président de la FUNAI qui propose et défend devant le Congrès national la réduction des territoires indigènes, au mépris de la grande diversité ethnique et culturelle de plus de 230 peuples indigènes. Cette diversité donne lieu à d’absurdes comparaisons arguant du fait que la superficie occupée par les Indiens au Brésil est supérieure à celle des pays européens.

Se glorifier de la ratification, par le gouvernement Lula, du territoire de Raposa-Serra do Sol et prétendre que le Brésil mène l’une des politiques indigénistes les plus avancées est l’arbre qui cache la forêt. Le gouvernement n’a, jusqu’à présent, fait que remplir son rôle constitutionnel et parachever le processus administratif en ratifiant ce territoire, qui ne l’a été que suite à de nombreuses pressions et après une très longue lutte ayant entraîné de grandes souffrances pour les peuples indigènes et leurs organisations en bute à l’inertie des instances gouvernementales.

La COIAB avait de bonnes raisons de s’opposer à la nomination par le gouvernement Lula de l’anthropologue Mércio Gomes à la tête de la FUNAI, puisqu’il se révèle être aujourd’hui l’ennemi des peuples indigènes en remettant en cause leurs droits territoriaux, se faisant ainsi l’écho des intérêts des propriétaires terriens, des exploitants forestiers et autres envahisseurs attirés par les ressources naturelles des territoires indigènes et qui ne souhaitent que l’extinction physique et culturelle des Indiens.

C’est au gouvernement du président Luis Inácio Lula da Silva qu’il revient de déclarer à l’opinion publique nationale et internationale que la position du président de la FUNAI reflète bien sa politique indigéniste. Si ce n’est pas le cas, il doit montrer qui gouverne dans ce pays en limogeant immédiatement l’anthropologue Mércio Gomes avant qu’il ne fasse encore plus de tort, non seulement au gouvernement, mais aussi au droit sacré des peuples indigènes à utiliser la terre qu’ils occupent traditionnellement. Mais son renvoi n’est pas suffisant. Le gouvernement doit prouver qu’il est effectivement engagé vis-à-vis des peuples indigènes, que sa nouvelle politique indigéniste si haut proclamée au début de son mandat, se concrétise en action autour de politiques répondant aux souhaits, aux revendications et aux aspirations des peuples indigènes.

Manaus, 17 janvier 2006

Locality: !sem cidade - ex
Source: Tierramérica - IPS
Link: http://www.tierramerica.net/2004/0814/index.shtml
By Stephen Leahy and Mario Osava*

Genetic material from members of the Karitiana and Suruí indigenous communities in Brazil can be purchased for 85 dollars through the Internet.

The Brazilian government is demanding an end to what it says are ‘illegal sales’ conducted by the U.S.-based Coriell Institute, which holds the world’s largest collection of human cell cultures.

RIO DE JANEIRO - The Brazilian government has asked Interpol to intervene in what it says is the illegal sale of genetic material from its indigenous peoples by a U.S. research center.

Living cells from individual members of Karitiana and Suruí Indians, as well as other South and Central American tribes, are available for 85 dollars, purchased through the Internet from the Coriell Cell Repositories, a division of Coriell Institute for Medical Research.

The cells are intended to be used for research purposes only, says the independent, not-for-profit, biomedical research institute, based in the northeastern U.S. city of Camden, New Jersey.

Mercio Pereira, president of Brazil’s National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (FUNAI), asked the federal police to investigate the matter in October.

The Brazilian embassy in Washington is attempting to have the information about the sale of the Indians’ genetic material removed from the Coriell website, said a spokesperson from the Foreign Relations Ministry.

This is not the first time Brazil has protested such sales. In the late 1990s Coriell made this same type of genetic material available for sale. FUNAI threatened to suspend all biomedical research authorizations with indigenous peoples, and native groups filed a formal complaint about the practice.

Pat Mooney, of the non-governmental ETC Group (Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration), and other civil society organizations oppose corporations patenting plants and animals, and other forms of what they consider ‘biopiracy’.

In this case, ‘while DNA and genes from indigenous peoples are not being patented, the information obtained from their genetic material is being turned into patentable drugs,’ Mooney said in an interview with Tierramérica.

The Coriell Repository has the world’s largest collection of human cell cultures, with nearly a million vials of cells. These cells are obtained from blood or skin samples and can be kept alive indefinitely at extremely low temperatures.

DNA obtained from the cells is used by medical researchers to investigate potential medical treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, Down syndrome, heart disease and others, according to the Coriell website.

Since 1964, 120,000 cell samples and nearly 100,000 DNA samples have been shipped to scientists in 55 countries. The sale of genetic material for research is legal under United States law.

For the most part researchers at Coriell did not collect the original blood and skin samples themselves. Instead these samples have been “deposited” in the Coriell cell bank by other research centers and individual scientists.

The core question is whether the samples from the Karitiana and Suruí peoples were obtained with the full and informed consent of the individuals and of the Brazilian government.

Another matter is whether there are guarantees in place to ensure equitable distribution of the knowledge and profits generated from the samples.

Coriell did not respond to several attempts by Tierramérica to seek comment.

For more than a decade FUNAI has been aware that blood samples taken from the Karitiana and Suruí have ended up in the hands of foreign companies or institutions, even though the agency did not approve any sample collection efforts, said FUNAI executive Raimundo José Lopes, who filed the police investigation request.

Brazilian doctor Hilton Pereira da Silva was accused in federal court in 2002 of collecting blood samples from Karitiana Indians in 1996 without the proper authorization. He did so as part of a film project and with the excuse that he took the samples to diagnose illnesses, says Maria Cecilia Filipini, a lawyer with the Catholic Indigenist Missionary Council in the Amazon state of Rondonia.

The lawsuit against the doctor, filed by the government, is moving slowly because of difficulties in questioning Pereira da Silva, who apparently now lives in the United States. Prosecutors discovered that he had ties with the foreign pharmaceutical industry and suspect that he illegally sold the Indians’ genetic material.

‘It would be strange’ for a doctor to head a team of filmmakers and also carry equipment to collect blood samples, Filipini said in a Tierramérica interview.

It is not known if Coriell is selling that blood, but officials have recovered just 53 samples of a total believed to reach 160.

FUNAI has tried to impede the illegal collection of genetic material, through tight control over access to indigenous territories by researchers. ‘Brazilian researchers have complained about this,’ said Lopes.

Any research — Brazilian or foreign — in indigenous territories must be approved by the National Council on Scientific and Technological Development (of the Ministry of Science and Technology) and other state institutions.

FUNAI is supposed to consult with indigenous groups before any research begins and only if they agree does the work proceed, and remains under the agency’s supervision, says Claudio Romero, FUNAI coordinator of studies and research.

Thanks to modern technology, 40-year-old blood samples from Brazil and Venezuela’s Yanomami peoples are still being traded between researchers, as are samples from the Ticuna, an indigenous group from Brazil’s far west, collected in the mid-1970s, writes Bruce Albert, research director of the Research Institute for Development, which has offices in Sao Paulo and Paris.

The Ticuna cells have been incorporated into a major tool for immunology research, and one the world’s largest pharmaceutical corporations has used them to delve into the genetics of the human immune system, Albert notes in the journal ‘Public Anthropology: Engaging Ideas 2001′.

Indigenous peoples “should be treated as fully-respected social partners, not as natural ‘populations’ for gene mining,’ Albert concludes.
* The authors are Tierramérica and IPS contributors.

by ALAN CLENDENNING
AP Business Writer

Indigenous chief Almir Naramayoga Surui of the Paiter Surui tribe who live in the Amazonas region in the Rondonia state in Brazil, poses in front of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, the main building of the United Nations in Geneva, on June 13, 2007. Surui, which is his surname and also the name of his tribe, is in Geneva to talk about the struggle of the indigenous people against the deforestation of the Amazonian rain forest. Surui accents, that his people is not against technology, but for a clean technology which treats environment in a sustainable way. (KEYSTONE/Martial Trezzini) Brazilian Indian tribe is linking up with Google Earth to try to capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation. Though the project is still in the planning stages for a remote area that doesn’t even have Internet access yet, the tribe’s chief and Google Inc. hope their unusual alliance will reduce illegal rainforest destruction where government enforcement is spotty at best. Google Earth, which enables anyone who downloads its free software to see satellite images and maps of most of the world, is increasingly being called upon for humanitarian purposes by groups who see the technology’s potential. In another initiative unveiled this year, Google and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are calling attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. And last year, Google Earth joined forces with the United Nations Environmental Program to show users areas of environmental destruction, and with the Jane Goodall Institute to highlight its research on chimpanzees and African deforestation. “At Google, we feel an obligation to help groups like this when it is so clear that our tools can make an important positive impact,” spokeswoman Megan Quinn said. Eventually, Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui envisions many of the 1,200 members of his Surui tribe using computers with satellite Internet connections and high-resolution images from Google Earth to police all corners of their 618,000-acre reservation. They could then offer proof to authorities that the destruction is occurring and demand action, or possibly spook the loggers and miners away because they would know they are being monitored, said Surui, who uses his tribes’ name as his last, like many Brazilian Indians. The loggers and miners “will certainly be scared, because we’ll be watching all the time and denouncing the invasions,” the chief said in an e-mail interview from Switzerland, where he was meeting with environmentalists and United Nations officials. Surui came up with the idea some time ago when he was tooling around Google Earth and saw thin whitish lines suggesting deforestation in the vast verdant swath that popped up when he zoomed in on his reservation. With help from the U.S.-based Amazon Conservation Team non-profit group, Surui met last month with Google Earth executives in California, wowing them with a vision of how Google technology could help stop the devastation, said Quinn. “If you look at the Surui land today in Google Earth, you’ll see their “island” of healthy green rainforest is surrounded almost completely by clear-cut, barren land,” she said. “The stark contrast at their boundary is dramatic, and conveys vividly what is at stake.” Google Earth will now try to buy better satellite images of the Surui reservation from vendors to ramp up the quality of shots that turn extremely blurry when users try to focus in closer on the reservation, Quinn said. The division of Google also committed to providing “layering” to accompany images of the Indians’ land, including photos and other information about “the Surui’s struggle to preserve their land and culture,” she said. Quinn declined comment on Google Earth’s financial commitment, and did not know how often the images of the reservation might be updated once the project gets under way. Meanwhile, Chief Surui is lobbying for donations of computers and other equipment from companies or non-profit groups, and hopes to persuade the Brazilian government to include his tribe in a new program to provide Indians with satellite Internet connections. The tribe has already proved its technological prowess, creating sophisticated maps of the reservation after receiving handheld Global Positioning System devices and laptop computers from the Amazon Conservation Team. “We gave them GPS and told them how to use it and they took it from there,” said the group’s president, Mark Plotkin. About 400,000 Brazilian Indians still live on reservations, the majority of them in Amazon rainforest. Indian reservations are among the best preserved areas of the 1.6 million-square-mile Amazon region, which has lost about 20 percent of its forest cover to loggers and ranchers in recent years.

InfoSud

Almir Narayamoga Surui

23 July 07 - Almir Narayamoga Surui is chief of the Surui people in Brazil. He has struck an unusual deal with Google Earth in order to save the Amazon from illegal deforestation. Interview in Geneva.

Isolda Agazzi/Infosud - Almir Narayamoga Surui, chief of the Surui people in Brazil, has spent a month in Switzerland at the invitation of the Aquaverde association. Extremely disappointed by the policies of his president, Lula da Silva, he has just struck a deal with Google Earth in order to combat deforestation in the Amazon. Meeting in Geneva.

Mr Surui, what are you fighting against?

I want to expose the policy of the Lula government, which is betraying the interests of the indigenous peoples. He wants to build a hydro electric dam on the Rio Madeira and to make the river navigable. This is going to destroy the forest and flood areas where people live who have never had any contact with the white man. The Amazon forest stretches for 4 millions km2, but 20% is already destroyed, from above all biofuel production and the cultivation of soya in order to feed Europe’s cattle.

The Brazilian government accuses us of stopping development, but that is wrong! We are simply asking that the forest is managed in a responsible way. It is all of humanity that is at stake. We indigenous people are tied culturally to the forest because it guarantees the survival of our people and of biodiversity. We want a sustainable environment: 400,000 indigenous people still live in the Amazon, most of them on reserves and these are the only green areas remaining on the map. But it is a difficult struggle: many of our leaders have been murdered and I have also been threatened.

My people had their first contact with the white man just 39 years ago. There was 5,000 of us then, but three years later due to sickness and conflict, there were only 250 of us left. Today we number 1,200 and are determined to protect our people who live in the rainforest.

You have done a deal with Google Earth. What is it ?

Google is ready to take high resolution satellite images of the Amazon which thanks to the internet will be administered by members of my poeple. This allows us to monitor the illegal clearing of our 250,000 hectares reserve and to complain to the government. I am looking for computers and other IT equipment and I hope to persuade the government to include us in a new programme that aims to provide Indians with satellite connections to the internet. We have already created sophisticated maps of our reserve thanks to GPS and portable computers provided by the Amazon Conservation Team, an NGO based in the United States. Google Earth is also committed to putting information about our people, cultural programmes and policies on the internet.

Is n’t it surprising that the Lula government is giving you so many problems?

We were the first to be surprised for the indigenous movement had supported Lula for 16 years and considered him a political ally. But he has shown himself to be one of the worst presidents for the indigenous and environmental cause! Under pressure from powerful lobby groups, he has bowed to business interests. Today indigenous lands are protected by law - even if it is often not applied - but the government is trying to change the law to favour mineral prospecting as the land is rich in gold and diamonds.

What have you come to do in Switzerland?

I have come to give talks on deforestation, planted a symbolic tree with the former swiss minister Ruth Dreyfuss and the communal authorities at the botanical gardens in Geneva and taken part in the regatta Bol d’or on a boat that had my slogan imprinted on its sail « a tree for the Amazon ». I visited Bertrand Picard because I was very interested in his work on renewable energy, including solar power. I demonstrated in front of the UN at the wheel of an electric car in order to protest at the deforestation of the Amazon as a result of biofuel production.

Up to now, with the support of the Geneva association, Aquaverde, we have planted 25,000 trees in the Amazon but we want to plant 80,000. We are also looking for organisations which can train indigenous lawyers, particularly in the area of property rights.

 Source : www.humanrights-geneva.info

By Alan Clendenning The Associated Press

Published: June 19, 2007

SAO PAULO: A Brazilian Indian tribe is linking up with Google Earth to try to capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation.

Although the project is still in the planning stages for a remote area that does not even have Internet access yet, the tribe’s chief and Google hope their unusual alliance will reduce illegal rain forest destruction, where government enforcement is spotty at best.

Google Earth, which enables anyone who downloads its free software to see satellite images and maps of most of the world, is increasingly being called upon for humanitarian purposes by groups who see the technology’s potential.

In another initiative unveiled this year, Google and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are calling attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. And last year, Google Earth paired with the United Nations Environmental Program to show users areas of environmental destruction, and with the Jane Goodall Institute to highlight its research on chimpanzees and African deforestation.

“At Google, we feel an obligation to help groups like this when it is so clear that our tools can make an important positive impact,” said a spokeswoman for the company, Megan Quinn.

Eventually, the Surui chief, Almir Narayamoga Surui, envisions many of the 1,200 members of his Surui tribe using computers with satellite Internet connections and high-resolution images from Google Earth to police all corners of their 250,000-hectare, or 618,000-acre, reservation.

They could then offer proof to the authorities that the destruction is occurring and demand action, or possibly spook the loggers and miners away, said Surui, who uses his tribes’ name as his last, like many Brazilian Indians.

The loggers and miners “will certainly be scared, because we’ll be watching all the time and denouncing the invasions,” the chief said in an e-mail interview from Switzerland, where he was meeting with environmentalists and United Nations officials.

The chief came up with the idea some time ago when he was tooling around Google Earth and saw thin whitish lines suggesting deforestation in the vast verdant swath that popped up when he zoomed in on his reservation.

With help from the U.S.-based non-profit Amazon Conservation Team, the chief met in May with Google Earth executives in California, wowing them with a vision of how Google technology could help stop the devastation, Quinn said.

“If you look at the Surui land today in Google Earth, you’ll see their island of healthy green rain forest is surrounded almost completely by clear-cut, barren land,” she said. “The stark contrast at their boundary is dramatic, and conveys vividly what is at stake.”

Google Earth will now try to buy better satellite images of the Surui reservation from vendors to increase the quality of shots that turn extremely blurry when users try to focus in closer on the reservation, Quinn said.

The Google division also committed to providing “layering” to accompany images of the Indians’ land, including photos and other information about “the Surui’s struggle to preserve their land and culture,” she said.

Quinn declined to comment on Google Earth’s financial commitment, and did not know how often the images of the reservation might be updated once the project gets under way.

Meanwhile, the chief is lobbying for donations of computers and other equipment from companies or non-profit groups, and hopes to persuade the Brazilian government to include his tribe in a new program to provide Indians with satellite Internet connections.

The tribe has already proved its technological prowess, creating sophisticated maps of the reservation after receiving hand-held Global Positioning System devices and laptop computers from the Amazon Conservation Team.

“We gave them GPS and told them how to use it and they took it from there,” said the group’s president, Mark Plotkin.

About 400,000 Brazilian Indians still live on reservations, the majority of them in the Amazon. The reservations are among the best preserved areas of the 4.1 million-square-kilometer, or 1.6 million-square-mile, Amazon region, which has lost about 20 percent of its forest cover to loggers and ranchers in recent years.

source: www.iht.com

Film de 14 min. sur la deforestation de l’Amazonie et la lutte pour la sauver.
Les territoires amazoniens déjà menacés par la déforestation (20% sont déjà détruits) se retrouve face à une problématique basée sur de nouveaux enjeux économiques: la culture du soja. L’éradication de la forêt primaire a déjà commencé et la culture intensive du soja contribue à bouleverser l’écosystème amazonien par l’appauvrissement des sols et engendre une désertification de notre poumon planétaire.
Ce film est réalisé par Aquaverde, une association à but non lucratif qui lutte notamment pour la la sauvegarde de l’eau en Amazonie.

Visionnez le film, donnez votre note, et conseillez-le a vos amis sur: www.alternativechannel.org

Locality: São Paulo - SP
Source: Amazonia.org.br
Link: http://www.amazonia.org.br

Renata Gaspar and Altino Machado

Partnership negotiations between the Suruí indigenous people, in Rondônia, and internet giant Google, are being intermediated by the Brazilian staff of the US-based non-governmental organization, Amazon Conservation Team (ACT).  The agreement has not yet been concluded, but foresees the inclusion of their village on Google Earth, which provides access to satellite images and maps over the internet.

The idea came after the tribe’s leader, Almir Suruí, asked the NGO for help in increasing visibility of the Sete de Setembro indigenous area and enabling better monitoring.  ACT says that, despite participating in the negotiations with Google, the tribe’s leader is the one responsible for the transmitting of any information to the company.  “ACT is not responsible because information is within the domain of the community”, highlighted the organization’s press advisor.

Almir visited Google headquarters in California (US) in early June, accompanied by the president of ACT in Brazil, Vasco Van Roosmalen.  He is now in Europe, on a campaign for environmental conservation, and should return to Brazil on July 6th.

The Funai offices in Cacoal (RO), where the Sete de Setembro area is located, says that it will look into the matter because it has not yet been informed of the agreement.  According to information published yesterday (12th) by Agência Estado, Almir had said that the purpose of the agreement with Google would be to detect incursions by loggers into the 250,000 hectares of indigenous land and to contribute to the fight against deforestation.  “We have already given [Google] a first map that we made ourselves.  We provided information on the area, its inhabitants and other data so that it can begin mapping the region”, the tribe’s leader said to Agência Estado.

Background - Present in Brazil since 2002 and with offices in Colombia and Suriname, in addition to its main offices in the United States, ACT began its partnership with the Suruí tribe by preparing an ethno-cultural map of the Sete de Setembro reserve last year.  According to the organization, the map includes points such as boundaries, rivers, hunting and fishing areas.  ACT emphatically states, however, that “nothing strategic is placed on the maps”.  Copies of the documents were delivered to Funai and to tribe members.

Two years ago, the organization was scrutinized by the Public Prosecutors Office, the Congressional Bio-Piracy Inquiry and Funai.  The triple investigation was conducted due to suspicion it had committed bio-piracy.  ACT was accused of paying a minimum wage salary per month for three years to a group of indigenous people to sketch a map of natural resources of the Xingu Park in northern Mato Grosso.

The map was prepared with the consent of Funai, but the Public Prosecutor and congressmen of the Bio-Piracy Inquiry suspected that ACT had availed itself of the map and located medicinal plants of traditional knowledge of the indigenous people for the purpose of later patenting them abroad.  Funai went so far as to refuse to sign another agreement proposed by ACT, forbade its personnel from entering the Xingu and alerted the Federal Police.  The NGO denies the accusations of bio-piracy.

Vasco van Roosmalen, President of ACT in Brazil, is the son of researcher Marcus van Roosmalen, responsible for the discovery of over 20 species of primates in the country.  In 2003, the scholar shocked the scientific community when he was sacked from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (Inpa) for illegally transporting primates and collecting forest data without proper record sheets.

Despite appearances, no proof was found that bio-piracy occurred.  Marcus had already received funding from ACT for the studies.  Highly respected, some of the researcher’s friends say that he was victim of prejudice and revenge.  ACT was founded in 1996 and is supported by private funds from around the world and allocates R$ 2 million a year to its offices in Brazil.

Communiqué from ACT - After being contacted by reporters from Amazonia.org, ACT circulated a communiqué admitting that it is intermediating and will guide the partnership between the Suruí indigenous leader and the Google company.  Read the full text of the communiqué:

“In the beginning of June, the indigenous representative of the Suruí-Paiter community, Almir Suruí, visited the headquarters of Google Earth to get to know the web-based map and satellite image service of the US-based Google.  Although still in a preliminary phase, the indigenous leader intends to initiate a partnership with the US company to provide the boundaries of the Sete de Setembro indigenous land, located in the municipality of Cacoal - Rondônia (RO), in the Google Earth search engine.

ACT Brasil will provide guidance to the indigenous community to submit this initiative to the National Indigenous Foundation, the Public Prosecutors Office and other responsible institutions for analysis.  The idea is to increase environmental surveillance and protection to the indigenous land to avert incursions by loggers, squatters and other constant threats to Suruí territory.  “The advance of illegal logging can be averted, since these images will be available for public viewing”, stated the indigenous leader, Almir Suruí.  Accompanied by the President of ACT Brasil, Vasco van Roosmalen, management at Google Earth were enthused about the possibility of using the tool to protect the environment.

In September 2006, ACT Brasil began a cultural mapping project on the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land, an area of 250,000 hectares.  The project began from a demand by the community and involved participation of representatives from 24 indigenous villages as a means of recording current and historical uses of the Suruí-Paiter people’s land.  “The ethno-environmental map will not only strengthen our culture and protection of our political rights, but will help halt the devastating situation taking place in Rondônia”, says Almir Suruí.  Mapping will also be used to prepare a management plan, unprecedented in the region, which is still being constructed by the Suruí-Paiter community”.

Enlarge AP In this undated photo released by Google Earth, Surui Indians’ reservation is seen to the east of Ministro Andreazza and to the north of Cacoal in the state of Rondonia, Brazil. The reservation’s edges contrast sharply with the populated, deforested areas. A Brazilian Indian tribe is linking up with Google Earth to try to capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation. (AP Photo/Google Earth)

By Alan Clendenning, AP Business Writer

SAO PAULO, Brazil — A Brazilian Indian tribe is linking up with Google Earth to try to capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation.

Though the project is still in the planning stages for a remote area that doesn’t even have Internet access yet, the tribe’s chief and Google Inc. hope their unusual alliance will reduce illegal rainforest destruction where government enforcement is spotty at best.

Google Earth, which enables anyone who downloads its free software to see satellite images and maps of most of the world, is increasingly being called upon for humanitarian purposes by groups who see the technology’s potential.

In another initiative unveiled this year, Google and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum are calling attention to atrocities in the Darfur region of Sudan. And last year, Google Earth joined forces with the United Nations Environmental Program to show users areas of environmental destruction, and with the Jane Goodall Institute to highlight its research on chimpanzees and African deforestation.

“At Google, we feel an obligation to help groups like this when it is so clear that our tools can make an important positive impact,” spokeswoman Megan Quinn said.

Eventually, Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui envisions many of the 1,200 members of his Surui tribe using computers with satellite Internet connections and high-resolution images from Google Earth to police all corners of their 618,000-acre reservation.

They could then offer proof to authorities that the destruction is occurring and demand action, or possibly spook the loggers and miners away because they would know they are being monitored, said Surui, who uses his tribes’ name as his last, like many Brazilian Indians.

The loggers and miners “will certainly be scared, because we’ll be watching all the time and denouncing the invasions,” the chief said in an e-mail interview from Switzerland, where he was meeting with environmentalists and United Nations officials.

Surui came up with the idea some time ago when he was tooling around Google Earth and saw thin whitish lines suggesting deforestation in the vast verdant swath that popped up when he zoomed in on his reservation.

With help from the U.S.-based Amazon Conservation Team non-profit group, Surui met last month with Google Earth executives in California, wowing them with a vision of how Google technology could help stop the devastation, said Quinn.

“If you look at the Surui land today in Google Earth, you’ll see their “island” of healthy green rainforest is surrounded almost completely by clear-cut, barren land,” she said. “The stark contrast at their boundary is dramatic, and conveys vividly what is at stake.”

Google Earth will now try to buy better satellite images of the Surui reservation from vendors to ramp up the quality of shots that turn extremely blurry when users try to focus in closer on the reservation, Quinn said.

The division of Google also committed to providing “layering” to accompany images of the Indians’ land, including photos and other information about “the Surui’s struggle to preserve their land and culture,” she said.

Quinn declined comment on Google Earth’s financial commitment, and did not know how often the images of the reservation might be updated once the project gets under way.

Meanwhile, Chief Surui is lobbying for donations of computers and other equipment from companies or non-profit groups, and hopes to persuade the Brazilian government to include his tribe in a new program to provide Indians with satellite Internet connections.

The tribe has already proved its technological prowess, creating sophisticated maps of the reservation after receiving handheld Global Positioning System devices and laptop computers from the Amazon Conservation Team.

“We gave them GPS and told them how to use it and they took it from there,” said the group’s president, Mark Plotkin.

About 400,000 Brazilian Indians still live on reservations, the majority of them in Amazon rainforest.

Indian reservations are among the best preserved areas of the 1.6 million-square-mile Amazon region, which has lost about 20 percent of its forest cover to loggers and ranchers in recent years.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Posted on usatoday.com, iht.com, contracostatimes.com, washingtonpost.com, namibian.com.na, etc…

Surui’s hope capturing satellite images of devastation from illegal logging and mining will spur action

Some politicians have criticized Google Earth as a potential tool for terrorists. Privacy groups have raised alarms that it can be used as a tool for voyeurists and stalkers. But an Indian tribe in the Amazon hopes that Google Earth will help save rain forests, according to reports.

The Surui tribe in Brazil has called upon Google to “capture vivid images that could help stop loggers and miners from deforesting the jungle and digging for gold on its vast Amazon reservation,” the Associated Press reports.

Currently, the tribe has no Internet access, but with time, the tribe’s chief, Almir Narayamoga Surui, foresee “many of the 1,200 members of his Surui tribe using computers with satellite Internet connections and high-resolution images from Google Earth to police all corners of their 618,000-acre reservation,” AP reports.

Surui hope that the images will provide visual proof to the Brazilian government that illegal logging and mining is taking place, spurring politicians to act. Additionally, he hopes that those performing the illegal operations will cut back, or stop, once they know they’re being watched.

According to AP, Google Earth will attempt to purchase high-quality images of the region.

Posted by Ted Samson on June 19, 2007 02:29 PM - weblog.infoworld.com

June 20, 2007 9:02 p.m. EST

Richard Bowden - AHN News Writer

Sao Paulo, Brazil (AHN) - A Brazilian tribe is hoping to team up with satellite imagery system Google Earth to prevent illegal logging and gold mining on their traditional lands.

Though the tribe has yet to acquire internet access in their remote area of the Amazon, the aim of the co-operative venture is to subject loggers and miners to more intense scrutiny in an area where government regulation is lacking.

The plan is the latest example where Google Earth technology has been linked to humanitarian causes throughout the world. Earlier this year the software was used by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to draw attention to the ongoing plight of African refugees in the Darfur region of west Sudan.

Google spokeswoman Megan Quinn said to news agency AP the company feels “…an obligation to help groups like this when it is so clear that our tools can make an important positive impact.”

Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui said to reporters he would like to see many of his 1,200 fellow Surui tribes people using satellite imagery from Google Earth to track illegal logging and mining. The chief said to AP via email loggers and miners “will certainly be scared, because we’ll be watching all the time and denouncing the invasions.”

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