Photographer Jimmy Nelson's controversial work 'Before They Pass Away' has been attacked by tribal peoples around the world.

© Jimmy Nelson/teNeues

The controversial work of photographer Jimmy Nelson will open at the Young Gallery in Brussels on November 7, amidst protests from indigenous people around the world and organizations such as Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, for portraying a false and damaging picture of tribal people.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá from Acre state in Brazil recently protested outside Nelson’s exhibition in London. He said, “As a tribal person I feel offended by Jimmy Nelson’s work ’Before They Pass Away’. It’s outrageous! We are not passing away but struggling to survive. Industrialized society is trying to destroy us in the name of ‘progress’, but we will keep defending our lands and contributing to the protection of the planet.”

While Nelson claims his work is “ethnographic fact”, Survival Director Stephen Corry denounces it as a photographer’s fantasy which bears little relationship either to how the people pictured look now, or how they ever appeared.

Nelson portrays Waorani girls unclothed with a 'fig' leaf.

© Jimmy Nelson/teNeues

The photos of Waorani girls from Ecuador, for example, portray them shorn of the clothes that contacted Waorani routinely wear, and wearing “fig” leaves to protect their modesty, which they have never done (previous generations of Waorani women wore a simple waist string).

Nelson’s subjects are supposed to be “passing away”, but no mention is made of the genocidal violence they are being subjected to.

The Dani of West Papua are wrongly called the “the most dreaded head-hunting tribe of Papua”, but no mention is made of the killings, torture and intimidation they have suffered under the Indonesian occupation since 1963.

Papuan tribal leader Benny Wenda said, “What Jimmy Nelson says about us is not true. My people, the Dani people, were never headhunters, it was never our tradition. The real headhunters are the Indonesian military who have been killing my people. My people are still strong and we fight for our freedom. We are not ‘passing away’, we are being killed by the brutal Indonesian soldiers. That is the truth.”

Nelson’s work has also received fierce criticism from tribal peoples in North America and New Zealand. A Maori blogger wrote, "Maori people are not part of a dying breed and we don’t need to be portrayed as such, for a book,” and Cowlitz Indian Elissa Washuta wrote in Salon magazine, “Nelson’s mission is built on a horrifying assumption: that these indigenous peoples are on the brink of destruction. He couldn’t be more wrong.”

Nixiwaka Yawanawá protested against the 'outrageous' exhibition of Jimmy Nelson's work at London's Atlas Gallery, wearing his ceremonial headdress.

© Sophie Pinchetti/Survival

Davi Kopenawa, spokesman of the Yanomami tribe in Brazil and known as the “Dalai Lama of the Rainforest”, said during his recent visit to London, “I saw the photos and I didn’t like them. This man only wants to force his own ideas on the photos, to publish them in books and to show them to everyone so that people will think he’s a great photographer. Just like (Napoleon) Chagnon, he does whatever he wants with indigenous peoples. It is not true that indigenous peoples are about to die out. We will be around for a long time, fighting for our land, living in this world and continuing to create our children.”

Notes to Editors:

- Read Survival Director Stephen Corry’s full exposé of Jimmy Nelson’s work in US journal Truthout

Guarani leader Marinalva Manoel was stabbed to death after campaigning for her tribe's ancestral land.

© Aty Guasu

An indigenous leader has been killed in central-western Brazil, after campaigning for her tribe’s ancestral land to be returned.

Marinalva Manoel, a 27-year-old Guarani Indian, was allegedly raped and stabbed to death. Her body was found on the side of a highway on Saturday.

Last month Marinalva traveled over 1,000 km to the capital, Brasília, with a delegation of Guarani leaders, to insist that the authorities fulfil their legal duty to return the land to the Guarani before more of their people are killed.

The Guarani Council, Aty Guasu, which voices the Indians’ demands, has released a letter calling on the authorities to investigate the murder, and proclaiming, “No more Guarani deaths!”

Guarani leader Marinalva Manoel's body was found on the side of a highway.

© Osvaldo Duarte/Dourados News

Guarani leaders are frequently attacked and killed by gunmen employed by the ranchers who are occupying indigenous land and earning huge profits from sugar cane, soya and cattle whilst the Guarani are squeezed into reserves and roadside camps.

Suffering alarming rates of malnutrition, violence and suicide, the Guarani sometimes decide to reoccupy small patches of their ancestral land stolen from them decades ago, without which they cannot survive. Seven communities which recently carried out land reoccupations, including Marinalva’s community, now face eviction orders which could force them off their land yet again.

Guarani leader Eliseu Lopes told Survival, “We are fighting for our land, and we are being killed, one by one. They want to get rid of us altogether… We are in a state of despair, but we will not give up.”

Protestors handed leaflets to visitors to the World Travel Market in London, calling for a boycott of Botswana tourism until the Bushmen are allowed to live in peace on their land.

© Sophie Pinchetti/Survival

Supporters of Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, called for a boycott of Botswana tourism at the World Travel Market in London today, over the country’s relentless persecution of Africa’s last hunting Bushmen.

On today’s World Responsible Tourism Day, protestors handed leaflets to visitors to the leading travel industry event, where the Botswana Tourism Organisation is hosting a stall all week. Botswana actively promotes visits to the Bushmen’s ancestral land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, while starving the tribespeople off their land by preventing them from hunting.

Earlier this year, the Botswana government imposed a nationwide ban on hunting without consulting the Bushmen. Now they are accused of “poaching” because they hunt their food. And they face arrest and beatings, torture and death, while fee-paying big-game hunters are encouraged to kill giraffes and zebras on private game ranches.

Bushman Roy Sesana said, “President Ian Khama and his brother Tshekedi decided to ban hunting without consulting us. It was a calculated move to starve us out of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. They know that we are dependent on hunting and they decided to ban hunting in the reserve.”

There is no evidence that the Bushmen's way of hunting is unsustainable.

© Philippe Clotuche/Survival

And while Botswana’s President Ian Khama is praised by international conservation organizations, he has allowed fracking exploration and recently opened a diamond mine on Bushman land.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, President Khama revealed his disdain for the Bushmen. He said the Bushmen lived a “very extinct…very backward form of life,” and claimed they were responsible for “severe loss of wildlife” in the reserve.

There is no evidence that the Bushmen’s hunting methods are unsustainable. On the contrary, a study conducted between 1986 and 1996 found that numbers of some antelope species hunted by the Bushmen actually increased.

Over 8,000 people have pledged not to visit Botswana until the Bushmen are allowed to live freely on their land, and several tour companies have joined the boycott.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “Tribal peoples are portrayed as backward and primitive simply because their communal ways are different. It’s a way of justifying the theft of their land and resources in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’. President Khama’s comments are nothing new – they reflect a level of prejudice and racism that was typical of the colonial era and which should have long since been consigned to the history books.”

Tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world. Survival's new report reveals how the world's biggest conservation organizations are implicated in their eviction from 'protected areas.'

© Selcen Kucukustel/Atlas

‘Parks Need Peoples’ campaign launched during World Parks Congress

A hard-hitting new report launched by Survival International – the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights – reveals how conservation has led to the eviction of millions of tribal people from “protected areas.”

Many of the world’s biggest conservation organizations, including WWF and The Nature Conservancy, are implicated in this issue. And United for Wildlife, set up by Prince William and Prince Harry, does not acknowledge calls to back tribal peoples’ rights to live on their traditional lands and hunt for food.

The launch of the “Parks Need Peoples” report coincides with the World Parks Congress in Sydney, a once-in-a-decade global conference on protected areas conservation, and comes ahead of Prince William and Kate’s launch of United for Wildlife in the United States next month.

Survival’s report shows that nearly all protected areas are, or have been, the ancestral homelands of tribal peoples, who have been dependent on, and managed them for millennia. But in the name of “conservation”:

• Tribal peoples are being illegally evicted from these lands.
• They are accused of “poaching” because they hunt their food.
• They face arrest and beatings, torture and death at the hands of anti-poaching squads.
• Although the tribes have been evicted, tourists, and in some cases even fee-paying big-game hunters, are welcomed in.

Botswana's Bushmen have faced arrest, beatings and torture in the name of 'conservation.'

© Survival International

The “Parks Need Peoples” report examines current cases of eviction, such as the Baka “Pygmies” in Cameroon; the Bushmen in Botswana; and tribal peoples in India’s tiger reserves. But this model of conservation can be traced back to the creation of Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks in the 19th Century in the United States, which led to the brutal eviction of Native American tribes.

Bushman Dauqoo Xukuri from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in Botswana said, “I sit and look around the country. Wherever there are Bushmen, there is game. Why? Because we know how to take care of animals.”

The Xingu indigenous park (outlined in pink) is home to several tribes. It provides a vital barrier to deforestation (in red) in the Brazilian Amazon.

© ISA (Instituto Socioambiental)

Survival’s “Parks Need Peoples” report concludes that the current model of conservation needs a radical shake-up. Conservation must stick to international law, protect tribal peoples’ rights to their lands, ask them what help they need in protecting their lands, listen to them, and then be prepared to back them up as much as they can.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “Millions are being spent by conservationists every day, yet the environment’s in deepening crisis. It’s time to wake up and realize that there is another way and it’s much, much better. Firstly, tribal peoples’ rights have to be acknowledged and respected. Secondly, they have to be treated as the best experts at defending their own lands. Conservationists must realize it’s they, themselves, who are junior partners.”

Notes to editors:

- Download the “Parks Need Peoples” report (pdf, 700 KB)
- Visit Survival’s “Parks Need Peoples” campaign for more information

Brazilian rancher Marcelo Bastos Ferraz has rejected the Ayoreo's plea to stop destroying the forest inhabited by their uncontacted relatives.

© OPIT

The last uncontacted Indians outside Amazonia are running out of forest to hide in, say campaigners, as alarming new photos reveal rampant, illegal destruction of their territory.

Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians, whose uncontacted relatives are hiding in the last patches of forest in western Paraguay, have watched helplessly as cattle-ranching firms illegally invade their territory and raze the forest.

The Ayoreo have recently discovered miles of cattle fences illegally built in their territory – in Paraguay, this is always the first step to clearing the forest.

© GAT/ Survival

The Paraguayan government has ignored their pleas to intervene.

Satellite photos show that two firms, Yaguarete Porá S.A. and Itapoti S.A., are defying national and international laws in a race to clear as much forest as possible. Yaguarete is owned by Brazilian rancher Marcelo Bastos Ferraz, who earlier this year rebuffed a Totobiegosode appeal to stop destroying their forest.

Guiejna, an Ayoreo woman, on the day she was first contacted in 2004. Her relatives are still hiding in the forest.

© GAT

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is investigating the Ayoreo’s plight, and recently met government ministers to question them on why the Totobiegosode’s land claim, submitted in 1993, has still not been resolved.

Western Paraguay, until recently covered in forest, now has the highest deforestation rate in the world.

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today, “The uncontacted Ayoreo-Totobiegosode face catastrophe unless their land is protected. They are one of the most vulnerable societies on the planet. It’s shameful that the Paraguayan authorities are simply letting these ranchers carry on clearing the forest, knowing that this is the Totobiegosode’s last refuge. Unless public opinion forces them to act, the Indians have no future.”

The Ayoreo have discovered ranch workers illegally camped in their forest as they clear and bulldoze the forest.

© GAT/ Survival

Due to their isolation the Sentinelese of India's Andaman Islands are the most vulnerable society on the planet. They face increasing threats from illegal fishermen who are targeting their waters.

© Indian Coastguard/Survival

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has received worrying reports that illegal fishermen are targeting the waters around the island home of the uncontacted Sentinelese tribe on India’s Andaman Islands.

Seven men identified as Burmese fishermen were apprehended by the Indian Coast Guard near North Sentinel Island earlier this month. Worryingly, one man was reportedly found on the island itself, in close proximity to the uncontacted tribespeople.

The Sentinelese are the most vulnerable society on the planet and reject any contact with outsiders. Due to their complete isolation, they are likely to have no immunity to common diseases such as flu and measles and the chances of them being wiped out by an epidemic are very high.

Survival International has welcomed the authorities’ swift action in apprehending the illegal fishermen around North Sentinel and urges them to remain vigilant. It also calls for an end to the daily intrusions into the forest of the neighboring Jarawa tribe as a matter of urgency.

The Jarawa, who inhabit islands neighboring the Sentinelese, face daily intrusions into their land by tourists and poachers.

© Survival

The Jarawa are forced to endure “human safaris” – hundreds of tourists passing through their forest on a daily basis in the hope of spotting a member of the tribe – as well as poachers stealing their game. Earlier this year, it was revealed that Jarawa women are being sexually abused by poachers who lure them with alcohol and marijuana.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “The Great Andamanese tribes of India’s Andaman Islands were decimated by disease when the British colonized the islands in the 1800s. The most recent to be pushed into extinction was the Bo tribe, whose last member died only four years ago. The only way the Andamanese authorities can prevent the annihilation of another tribe is to ensure North Sentinel Island is protected from outsiders.”

This Baka man from Ndongo village reported that he was severely beaten by anti-poaching squads on two occasions. His neighbors have appealed to WWF to stop funding such abuses.

© Survival International

A group of Baka "Pygmies" and their neighbors in southeast Cameroon have sent an impassioned plea to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), urging the conservation giant to stop funding anti-poaching squads that are responsible for a long history of persecution against the Baka.

One letter by a village elder reads, "When WWF started its work here in Ndongo we welcomed it, but the promises that were made and the things we were told have never materialized. We are subjected to your law enforcement work – and where are the promises you made?

“Sir, before you finance your work we want you to come meet the people on the ground [to see] its negative impacts.”

Another letter urges WWF to stop giving money to the anti-poaching squads. 

When much of their land was turned into “protected areas” and safari hunting zones, the Baka, who hunt to feed their families, were promised they would still be able to use their ancestral lands.

Many Baka children are now afraid of strangers entering the village due to a history of raids and attacks from anti-poaching squads.

© Survival International

But now the Baka are forced to stay in roadside villages and fear going into the forest which has provided them with most of what they needed for generations. Anti-poaching squads routinely arrest, beat and torture Baka and their neighbors in the name of “conservation” and many Baka say that friends and relatives have died as a result of the beatings.

Despite having known about these abuses for at least 13 years, WWF has taken no effective action and has repeatedly claimed that it has not been presented with enough evidence. 

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “National parks have, since their invention, been responsible for the eviction, and sometimes destruction, of tribal peoples. It is not sufficient for organizations like the WWF merely to have ‘policies’ to protect tribal peoples – they have actually to adhere to them. If WWF cannot ensure the funds it gives to anti-poaching squads are not harming people, it must stop that part of its program. For conservation of the Baka’s forests to really work, WWF must help protect the tribe’s land rights and respect their own methods of conservation.”

Notes to editors:

- Download the letters to WWF here: letter 1 (French, pdf, 209KB), letter 2 (French, pdf, 168KB)
- Earlier this month, Survival International – the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights – launched its "Parks Need Peoples" report exposing the “dark side of conservation.” The report details many other cases of tribal peoples facing illegal eviction from their ancestral homelands in the name of “conservation.” 
- Read more about WWF’s response to the reports of abuse.
- Read a Q&A about Survival’s work to change conservation.
- “Pygmy” is an umbrella term commonly used to refer to the hunter-gatherer peoples of the Congo Basin and elsewhere in Central Africa. The word is considered pejorative and avoided by some tribespeople, but used by others as a convenient and easily recognized way of describing themselves. Read more.

An Ogiek man prepares his bow and arrows.

© Yoshi Shimizu

For the first time in history, an indigenous people is arguing its case at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The Ogiek, one of Africa’s last hunter-gatherer peoples, have on several occasions been forcibly evicted from their ancestral land in the Mau Forest by the Kenyan government.

In 2012 Africa’s leading human rights watchdog, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ruled this was a serious human rights violation.

The case, originally brought by the Ogiek People’s Development Programme (OPDP), Minority Rights Group and the Center for Minority Rights Development, was then referred to the African Court.

Twenty-six Ogiek elders went to Addis Ababa to give testimony against the Kenyan government in this landmark hearing.

An Ogiek man stands inside the remains of his house after an eviction in Ngongeri, Njoro, Kenya.

© Lewis Davies/Survival

The Court is looking at evidence that these forced evictions have had serious and far-reaching impacts on the Ogiek, harming their health, livelihoods and religious life.

It is also being asked to consider the essential role indigenous peoples play in the conservation of their land and resources. This too is a historic moment, as indigenous peoples – the best conservationists – are illegally evicted around the world in the name of “conservation.”

Although the Court called last March for all evictions to be halted, Survival has received reports that homes have been destroyed and Ogiek individuals harassed and arrested.

According to Daniel Kobei, the Executive Director of Ogiek People’s Development Programme, “This hearing represents a significant step towards the realization of justice for our people, the Ogiek.”

Bushman leader Roy Sesana has appealed to Prince William to acknowledge that the Bushmen are hunters not poachers.

© Survival International

Ahead of the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the United States this week, a Botswana Bushman leader has appealed to Prince William for help in recognizing that tribal peoples who hunt for food are not poachers.

The couple are scheduled to visit New York and Washington D.C., where Prince William will launch his “United for Wildlife” initiative in the United States – a consortium of conservation organizations such as Conservation International and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) aiming to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.

But initiatives like United for Wildlife – which uses the slogan #WhoseSideAreYouOn – risk criminalizing tribal peoples like the Bushmen in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Baka “Pygmies” in Cameroon by failing to openly acknowledge their rights to live on their ancestral land and hunt for food.

In a letter addressed to Prince William, renowned Bushman leader Roy Sesana wrote, "For a long time now the government in our country says we are poachers because we hunt to feed our families on our land. It tries to stop us from hunting, even though our High Court said that this is a death sentence for us. The wildlife scouts are arresting and beating up many Bushman hunters.

“… Today we Bushmen are crying for our homes and our wild animals. I am asking you, please tell [Botswana’s] President Khama and conservationists that when we hunt on our ancestral lands to feed our families, we are not poachers. We have lived with the wild animals for generations and we will always care for them, for our children and our children’s children.”

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, recently exposed hundreds of cases of abuse of the Kalahari Bushmen at the hands of wildlife officers and police. Its "Parks Need Peoples" report exposes how conservation has led to the evictions of millions of tribal people from “protected areas,” as well as the abuse faced by tribal peoples like Bushmen or Baka.

The Bushmen hunt for their survival yet they are accused of 'poaching.'

© Philippe Clotuche/Survival

Survival has urged United for Wildlife to publicly acknowledge tribal peoples’ rights to live on their traditional land and hunt for food. Tribal peoples are better at looking after their environments than anyone else, and should be recognized as the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “By refusing to recognize that tribal hunters are not poachers, United for Wildlife is perpetuating a long history of human rights abuses carried out in the name of ‘conservation.’ Organizations that promote safari hunting are amongst U4W members – how do they justify banning subsistence hunters from feeding their families whilst encouraging fee-paying big game hunters? It’s nothing more than colonialism in a ‘green’ guise and Survival is fighting these abuses.”

Note to editors:

- Read the full letter by Bushman Roy Sesana Prince William (pdf, 20KB)
- Download Survival’s hard-hitting “Parks Need Peoples” report
- Read more about Survival’s work to change conservation

The Munduruku Indians of the Brazilian Amazon have embarked on a landmark mission to protect their territory

© Maíra Irigaray/Amazon Watch

The Munduruku tribe has embarked on a landmark mission to map out its ancestral territory in the northern Brazilian Amazon, and prevent its destruction.

The Indians are protesting against a series of dams due to be built on the Tapajós river basin and some of its tributaries, illegal mining and logging on their land, and the government’s failure to protect their forest.

For the Munduruku, who number approximately 12,000, the invasions of their land and the planned dams mean the destruction of the rainforest which provides them with all they need. They stated in a recent declaration, “This is yet another act of violence against our rights, our forest, and the future of our people.”

Last month, they began to map out their territory for their exclusive use – a task which the government has failed to do despite its legal duty. According to the Brazilian constitution, all indigenous lands in Brazil should have been returned to the Indians by 1993.

The Indians explained, “We have been pushing for this demarcation for many years, but every time we go to Brasília, FUNAI [government indigenous affairs department] invents lies and promises… We know that FUNAI is doing this to buy time for the construction of the Tapajós dams, and we are now tired of waiting.”

The Munduruku are protesting against a series of dams which, if constructed, would destroy their rainforest.

© Maíra Irigaray/Amazon Watch

The government’s failure to properly consult the Indians about the dam project is also in breach of Brazilian and international law.

Last week, a Munduruku delegation occupied FUNAI offices in protest against the hydroelectric project and the authorities’ failure to legally recognize part of their land, known as Sawré Muybu.

Munduruku leader Suberanino Saw said, “Our struggle is dangerous, but we know we will win.”

Watch the new documentary “The Munduruku Indians: Weaving Resistance” by filmmaker Nayana Fernandez, and read an open letter by the Indians, voicing their demands.

Guarani leader Marinalva Manoel was stabbed to death after campaigning for her tribe's ancestral land.

© Aty Guasu

To mark Human Rights Day on Wednesday, Survival International – the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights – warns about the growing humanitarian crisis afflicting tribal peoples around the world by highlighting five murders of tribal people fighting for their land and their rights:

- Marinalva Manoel, Guarani spokeswoman from Brazil, was brutally stabbed and dumped on the side of a highway in November 2014. She had been fighting for the return of the Guarani’s land – most of which has been taken over by cattle ranchers.

- Four Ashéninka Indian leaders from Peru were fatally shot in September 2014. The Indians were renowned for their work against illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest, making them a prime target.

Jumma activist Timir Baran Chakma was killed after being tortured in the custody of the Bangladesh army.

© Survival

- Jumma activist Timir Baran Chakma (also known as Duran Babu Chakma) from the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh was killed after being tortured in army custody in August 2014. The Jummas suffer violent repression by the Bangladesh military. More recently there has been an alarming increase in sexual violence against Jumma women, often resulting in their death.

- Martinus Yohame, a pro-independence tribal leader in West Papua, went missing in August 2014. His body was found floating in a sack in the sea, tied up and covered in bullet wounds. His murder has been linked to the Indonesian special military unit Kopassus, with which the United States renewed military ties in 2010 following a 12-year ban due to gross human rights violations. Since West Papua’s brutal occupation by Indonesia in 1963, an estimated 100,000 Papuans have been killed.

Uncontacted Indians in the Amazon rainforest made contact in June 2014 after their relatives were massacred and their houses set alight by outsiders.

© FUNAI/Survival

- A group of highly vulnerable uncontacted Indians made contact with a settled indigenous community near the Peru border in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest in June 2014. A team of interpreters learnt that they had been fleeing violent attacks by outsiders who massacred their elder relatives and set their houses on fire. Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable societies on the planet.

These are just a few gruesome examples of tribal people who have been killed fighting for their lands. In virtually all cases of murder and assassination of tribal peoples the perpetrators escape justice. Survival is calling for an end to the impunity; better law enforcement; and protection for tribal peoples who are being targeted and threatened in their fight for land and rights. 

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “If anyone should think that the industrialized world’s assault on tribal peoples had ended, these tragic cases serve as a grim reminder that killings, massacres, even genocides, are still going on. Industrialized societies subject tribal peoples to genocidal violence, slavery and racism so they can steal their lands, resources and labor in the name of ‘progress’ and ‘civilization’. It’s one of the most urgent and horrific humanitarian crises of our time.”

The UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights has voiced concerns over Botswana's evictions of the Bushmen in the name of wildlife conservation.

© Philippe Clotuche/Survival

The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on cultural rights has condemned Botswana’s treatment of Africa’s last hunting Bushmen following her visit to the country last month.

Farida Shaheed voiced concerns over restrictions placed on Bushmen over access to their ancestral homeland in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, as well as the government’s contradictory policy of evicting the Bushmen in the name of wildlife conservation, while pursuing mining and tourism inside the reserve.

“The fear amongst affected people is that once the elders have passed away, nobody will be entitled to live in the reserve. Furthermore, insisting that people relocate outside the reserve for wildlife conservation purposes is at odds with allowing the continuation of mining and tourism activities,” Ms Shaheed wrote in her report.

She demanded that the Botswana government “clarify the matter.”

Despite a landmark High Court ruling in 2006 which confirmed the Bushmen’s right to live and to hunt inside the reserve, most Bushmen are forced to apply for restrictive permits to enter – including children when they reach the age of 18.

Bushman spokesperson Jumanda Gakelebone told dpa, the German press agency, “If we cannot return to our ancestral lands, there will soon be no Bushmen left in Botswana.”

The Bushmen are accused of “poaching” because they hunt their food, and face arrest and beatings, torture and death, while fee-paying big-game hunters are encouraged to hunt in private game parks.

Bushman leader Roy Sesana recently asked Prince William – who heads the "United for Wildlife" anti-poaching initiative – for help in recognizing that Bushmen hunters are not poachers.

The Botswana government holds deep contempt for the Bushmen’s hunter-gatherer way of life. In a recent state of the nation address, Botswana’s President Ian Khama emphasized the government’s work with community organizations to “facilitate [the Bushmen’s] transition from hunting to photographic tourism.”

Bushmen have been arrested and tortured for hunting to feed their families.

© Survival International

President Ian Khama will host United for Wildlife’s inter-governmental “Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade” in Botswana in March 2015. The president, however, continues to act illegally in his persecution of the Bushmen, and in contravention of the High Court ruling, by denying them the right to live freely on their land and to hunt game animals there.

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, has documented over 200 cases of violent abuse of the Bushmen at the hands of wildlife officers and police and has called for a boycott of Botswana tourism until the Bushmen are allowed to live in peace on their ancestral homeland.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “As Khama needlessly drags the country’s reputation through the mud over the oppression of the Bushmen, communities continue to suffer the effects of the president’s prejudice. This latest government address perfectly illustrates his contempt – to Khama the Bushmen are only good for tourists’ titillation.”

Family members grieve over teenagers' bodies following a shooting by Indonesian security forces

© http://www.kobogaunews.com/

Five tribal teenagers have been shot dead by Indonesian security forces in West Papua.

The killings occurred during a protest over an incident the night before, when soldiers beat a 12 year-old boy, Yulianus Yeimo, with their rifle butts. Yeimo and others, who were decorating a Christmas tree, had shouted at the soldiers’ vehicle to turn on its headlights. He needed to be hospitalised for his injuries.

The following day a large number of Papuans gathered outside the local police station and army HQ in the central highland Paniai region to protest at the beating. The police ordered the group to disperse, and eyewitnesses report that when they did not move the police beat them with sticks and batons. Gunshots were then heard, although it’s not clear whether it was the soldiers or police who fired on the crowd.

The five who died have been named as Simon Degei, 18; Otianus Gobai, 18; Alfius Youw, 17; Yulian Yeimo, 17; and Abia Gobay, 17. Approximately 20 others, including primary school children, were injured.

Rev. Neles Tebay of Papua Peace Network told journalists, ‘Civilians have been shot and killed without reason… These actions show that security personnel have treated residents not as citizens but as enemies who must be eliminated.’

Indonesia’s new President, who was inaugurated in October, pledged during his election campaign to enter into dialogue with Papuan leaders and to move away from the use of force.

Survival International is calling for an independent investigation into this incident, and for President Jokowi to ensure that those responsible for the killing of Papuan teenagers and the beating of a young child are brought to justice. Survival also calls for an end to the culture of impunity that soldiers have enjoyed in West Papua for too long.

A Totobiegosode woman after she was forced out of the forest, Paraguayan Chaco.

© Ruedi Suter/Survival

A senior UN official has condemned the “massive destruction of (Paraguay’s) ecosystems” which could wipe out the country’s last remaining uncontacted Indians.

Uncontacted Ayoreo­-Totobiegosode Indians in Paraguay’s northern Chaco region are being forced to flee from bulldozers that are destroying their homeland for beef production.

The Ayoreo­-Totobiegosode, like all uncontacted tribal peoples, face catastrophe unless their land is protected.

UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, Victoria Tauli­ Corpuz, told the Paraguayan authorities, “(The Ayoreo) need their forests, without them their culture will disappear.”

In October 2014, Survival submitted a report to the Special Rapporteur in advance of her first trip to Paraguay.

Survival’s report highlighted the illegal invasion of cattle ranchers on the Ayoreo’s land, which has resulted in the fastest rate of deforestation in the world.

Brazilian beef firm Yaguarete Pora S.A. has been illegally felling the Ayoreo’s forest home, forcing the vulnerable indians to flee from the land they depend on for their survival.

The Rapporteur remarked on the poor health of the country’s indigenous peoples, 87% of whom have no access to health services.

Following first contact, many Ayoreo succumb to respiratory diseases to which they have no immunity, and numerous members of the tribe have been left to die.

“My general recommendation to the Paraguayan State is that it guarantees the Ayoreo-Totobiegosode’s rights and resources,” Tauli­ Corpuz said.

Hoti Indians in the Venezuelan Amazon. The Hoti and other tribes are demanding the removal of armed gangs from their land.

© Jacques Jangoux/Survival

Venezuelan Indians have revealed their alarm at the presence of illegal miners and armed gangs on their land, some claiming to be members of Colombia’s guerrilla army the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

Tribes across the country’s southern rainforest are calling for the urgent removal of the invaders, who are threatening and harassing the Indians and destroying their forest home.

The Eñepa and Hoti Indians who live in the Venezuelan Amazon, hundreds of kilometers from the Colombian border, stated in a recent declaration, "When we first saw the guerrillas on our land… we felt invaded, worried and scared to go to the hills and go about our lives.

“This ancestral land is our home, our life and our culture. We love it, we have always looked after it, and we are ready to defend it with our lives.”

The Hoti, Eñepa and other affected tribes depend on their forest for their survival.

© Survival

The Organization of Indigenous Women of Amazonas State warned, “These acts undermine our right to a life free of violence, and are aimed at silencing our voices.”

Armed gangs have been present in indigenous territories close to the Colombian border for several years. The Piaroa, Mako, Baré and other tribes have been lobbying the government to remove them, but no effective action has been taken and meanwhile, the threat has spread to other regions, affecting tribes like the Eñepa and Hoti.

Last month, the Coalition of Indigenous Organizations of the Venezuelan Amazon (COIAM) released a statement to mark the 15th anniversary of the current constitution which guarantees indigenous land rights. It criticised the government’s failure to protect indigenous territories – crucial for the tribes’ survival – and called for urgent action to safeguard their lands and lives.

Survival is calling on Venezuela’s President Maduro to take swift action to protect the tribes’ lands and prevent their annihilation, and to map out and recognize all indigenous territories according to the constitution.

Up to 200 uncontacted Mashco Piro Indians have entered a local indigenous village.

© FENAMAD

An Amazon village in Peru will today be evacuated by boat after it was taken over by a large group of uncontacted Indians.

Up to 200 uncontacted Mashco-Piro Indians arrived in the community of Monte Salvado on Thursday.

According to the villagers, who belong to the Yine tribe, the Mashco-Piro ransacked homes and stole metal goods before retreating into the forest.

The majority of the community was not present during the incident, as they had left the area for local elections. They returned to find their homes destroyed.

Fifty-five community members who have taken refuge in their guard post will be evacuated today.

The area is the ancestral land of the Mashco-Piro, and this is the third time this year that they have arrived at Monte Salvado.

The Mashco-Piro's ancestral land is under pressure from loggers, drug-traffickers and oil companies.

© FENAMAD

Uncontacted Indians occasionally make contact with other indigenous groups, in search of machetes and other metal goods.

Local indigenous organization FENAMAD has asked the Peruvian government to protect the Mashco-Piro’s land, much of which has been taken over by logging concessions and drug traffickers.

The government recently announced the creation of a new oil exploration block, near a reserve that serves to protect the Mascho-Piro.

But the initial proposal of the reserve was double the size, and included the area which will now be taken over by oil workers.

Survival and FENAMAD are calling on the Peruvian authorities to stop outsiders from entering this area; to implement an emergency health program to prevent the outbreak of a fatal epidemic among the Mashco-Piro; and to enlarge their protected territory as a matter of urgency.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable societies on the planet. If the survival of the Mashco-Piro is to be guaranteed, Peru has to take action quickly, otherwise they risk being wiped out by diseases like flu and measles to which they have no resistance. The Mashco-Piro, like all uncontacted tribes, face catastrophe unless their land is protected.”

Tribes across Brazil have secured a historic victory for their lands and futures.

© Agência Brasil

Tribes across Brazil have secured a historic nationwide victory, preventing Congress from seizing control of the future of their lands.

A proposal to change the constitution and give Congress power in the demarcation of indigenous territories has been shelved following months of vociferous protests by thousands of Indians, representing dozens of tribes.

Last week, dozens of Indians traveled to Brasilia and entered the Congress building to make their voices heard. Five were arrested during the protest, and have since been released.

Dozens of Indians entered the Congress building to make their voices heard.

© Agência Brasil

If passed, the proposed constitutional amendment, known as ‘PEC 215’, would have caused further delays and obstacles to the recognition and protection of the tribes’ ancestral land, on which they depend for their survival.

Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara stated on her way back to her Amazon home after weeks of lobbying in Brasilia, “I am returning with a cleansed heart, a light soul, and full of courage to do it all over again if ever needed in the fight for the defense of our rights and our peoples.”

The Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) issued an open letter to mark this momentous occasion, stating, “We indigenous peoples have shown that we will never allow our lands to be recolonized, invaded or destroyed, even if that means sacrificing our own lives.”

Alongside several other proposals, PEC 215 was a result of pressure by Brazil’s powerful agri-business lobby group which includes many politicians who own ranches on indigenous land.

It threatened to spell disaster for tribes such as the Guarani who have been evicted from most of their land and who face appalling living conditions and one of the highest suicide rates in the world while they wait for the government to fulfil its legal duty to map out their land, and Brazil’s numerous uncontacted tribes – the country’s most vulnerable societies.

Survival has been lobbying against PEC 215 and the other dangerous proposals. Nixiwaka Yawanawá, an Amazon Indian from Brazil, led the international protests by Survival supporters and stated, “We’re here to support our indigenous brothers and sisters in Brazil who are facing the worst assault on their rights in decades.”

Brazilian Indians continue to fight against the invasion of their lands by loggers, miners, ranchers and others, and against a series of Amazon mega-dams which threaten to destroy the livelihoods of thousands of Indians, and wipe out some uncontacted tribes.

The work of controversial photographer Jimmy Nelson ‘Before they pass away’ has been attacked by tribal people, Survival International and photographer Timothy Allen.

© Jimmy Nelson/teNeues

Renowned photographer Timothy Allen has joined tribal people around the world in condemning Jimmy Nelson’s work “Before They Pass Away”, which is due to open at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery in New York in February 2015.

Allen, a leading photographer for the BBC’s Human Planet said, “The patronizing and self-aggrandizing narrative behind ‘Before They’ is literally painful to watch. Fortunately, primitive attitudes like these have been on the endangered list for quite a few years now and it is fair to expect that they will pass away long before any of the cultures Nelson encountered in his project.”

Allen is joined by Seminole-Muscogee-Navajo photographer Hulleah J. Tsinhnahjinnie, who said, “[Jimmy Nelson’s] words of ‘authenticity, purity, beauty,’ are hollow adoration while his romanticized images are nothing but his own reflection. As for the Indigenous communities whom he has engaged, does he not recognize politeness laced with an ironic smile?”

Jimmy Nelson says his $150 coffee-table book of tribal people was inspired by the work of photographer Edward Curtis. Curtis documented Native Americans as “The Vanishing Race” whose disappearance was inevitable, at a time when the US government was still actively driving them off their land.

Cowlitz Indian Elissa Washuta, Papuan tribal leader Benny Wenda, and Amazon Indians Nixiwaka Yawanawá and Davi Yanomami have also attacked the work alongside Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, for portraying a false and damaging picture of tribal peoples.

Nixiwaka Yawanawá protested against the 'outrageous' exhibition of Jimmy Nelson's work at London's Atlas Gallery, wearing his ceremonial headdress.

© Sophie Pinchetti/Survival

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry called Nelson’s work a photographer’s fantasy, bearing little relationship either to how the people pictured look now, or to how they’ve ever appeared. Corry warned that Nelson not only presents a fictionalized portrait of tribal people, but glosses over the genocidal violence to which many of the tribes pictured are being subjected.

While the Dani of West Papua are wrongly called the “the most dreaded head-hunting tribe of Papua”, Dani leader Benny Wenda said, “What Jimmy Nelson says about us is not true. My people were never headhunters, it was never our tradition. The real headhunters are the Indonesian military who have been killing my people. My people are still strong and we fight for our freedom. We are not ‘passing away’, we are being killed by the brutal Indonesian soldiers. That is the truth.”

Amazon Indian Nixiwaka Yawanawá protested outside Nelson’s exhibition in London, stating that “We are not passing away but struggling to survive. Industrialized society is trying to destroy us in the name of ‘progress’, but we will keep defending our lands and contributing to the protection of the planet.”

Note to editors:

- Read more criticisms of Jimmy Nelson’s work here

Tribal peoples like the Baiga are the best conservationists. But they face eviction from their ancestral homelands in the name of tiger conservation.

© Survival International

Tribal people have been forcibly and illegally evicted from India’s Kanha Tiger Reserve – home of Kipling’s The Jungle Book – in the name of tiger conservation. Across India, many more face a similar threat.

Evicted tribespeople report that the Forest Department threatened to release elephants to trample their houses and crops if they did not leave immediately.

The area is the ancestral home of the Baiga and Gond tribes, who face a desperate future without their forests.

The families were harassed for years to leave the reserve. When they were finally evicted, they received no land or help in establishing their lives outside. Months after their eviction, families report that they have received only a fraction of the compensation they were expecting – others have received nothing.

“We got some money, but we are lost – wandering in search of land. Here there is only sadness. We need the jungle,” a tribesperson evicted from Jholar village in Kanha said.

This man’s whole community was evicted from Kanha Tiger Reserve. Villagers report that guards threatened to release elephants on them.

© Survival

The communities have now been scattered among the surrounding villages. Their rights to stay in, live from, and protect their forests are enshrined in Indian law.

One Baiga man told Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, before the eviction, “They want to give us money. We don’t want money. We want land. Money doesn’t mean anything to us. It comes and it goes.”

Watch moving interviews with the residents of Jholar village in Kanha tiger reserve, who have now been evicted (filmed in 2012):

Survival has written to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), which has been providing infrastructural support, training and equipment for frontline Forest Department staff.

Tribal peoples are the best conservationists. Survival’s "Parks Need Peoples" campaign challenges the current model of conservation. Conservation programs must stick to international law, protect tribal peoples’ rights to their lands, ask them what help they need in protecting their lands, listen to them, and then be prepared to back them up as much as they can.

While tribal people have been illegally evicted from Kanha Tiger Reserve – home of the 'Jungle Book' – tourists are welcomed in.

© Survival

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “What’s happening in Kanha epitomizes the ugly side of the conservation industry – thousands of tourists career through the park in noisy jeeps, clamoring to take photos of the beleaguered tigers. Meanwhile, Baiga communities that have carefully managed the tiger’s habitat over generations are annihilated by forced evictions. The irony appears to be lost on the conservationists. If India doesn’t allow the Baiga and Gond to return and prevent further villagers being kicked out, these communities will be completely destroyed. Evicting tribes won’t save the tiger.”

Notes to editors:

- In a similar eviction in December 2013, 32 Khadia families were moved out of Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha state and were living in dire conditions under plastic sheets. They have not received the compensation they were promised.
- Read Survival’s letter to WWF (pdf, 454 KB)
- Read Survival’s letter to the National Tiger Conservation Authority concerning the illegal evictions from Kanha and Similipal Tiger Reserves (pdf, 482 KB)
- Indian and international law require that the authorities must prove to the communities that their co-existence with the wildlife is impossible; that communities’ forest rights are processed; and that they have given their free, prior and informed consent to the move. None of these conditions were fulfilled in Kanha.

In this scene of 'Amazon's Ancient Tribe', Paul Raffaele said a Suruwaha girl refused to shake his hand because she wanted to kill him. In fact, he was wearing so much sun cream the Suruwaha thought he had a skin disease.

© Channel 7

An Australian TV Channel has lost a legal appeal over a program branded “Freakshow TV” for its racist and misleading depiction of Amazon Indians as child murderers.

Australia’s Federal Court dismissed Channel 7’s appeal against the ruling that the "program “Amazon’s Ancient Tribe”,":https://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/features/a/10164176/amazons-ancient-tribe/ presented by Australian “adventurers” Paul Raffaele and Tim Noonan, was racist. It is the second appeal that Channel 7 has lost.

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights, brought the complaint to Australia’s media regulator ACMA in 2011.

The decision marks a major victory for Brazil’s Suruwaha Indians, who had condemned the show’s misleading portrayal of them as murderers who kill innocent children. Two separate appeal hearings have now ruled that this was seriously inaccurate.

The report portrayed the Suruwaha as child murderers and the 'worst human rights violators in the world'.

© Adriana Huber/Survival

A Suruwaha man told Survival after the show was broadcast in 2011, “They lied about us…They said, ’The Suruwaha kill their children.’ The Suruwaha don’t kill children nowadays.”

The show openly fundraised for an evangelical missionary organization which is pushing a bill in Brazil’s Congress that could allow the removal of tribal children – echoing Australia’s Stolen Generation scandal. The bill singles out Brazilian Indians and perpetuates the myth that tribes are more violent than other societies.

The Channel 7 show is not an isolated case. A recent report on Globo TV – Brazil’s leading broadcaster – falsely claimed that 13 tribes in Brazil practice infanticide, while in fact the practice is extremely rare and dying out. Unfortunately, such misleading portrayals of tribal peoples continue to have a large impact on how tribal peoples are treated by those in power.

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said today, “One of Australia’s highest courts has now confirmed what Survival and the Suruwaha have known all along – that Channel 7’s portrayal of the Suruwaha as child killers was both racist and wrong. Sadly, infanticide happens in all societies. It should be condemned everywhere, but the evangelical lobby in Brazil clearly decided to single out Indians as uniquely responsible to promote the idea they’re backward and in need of outside intervention.”

Notes to editors:

- Forms of infanticide are found in all societies, including industrialized ones. The practice is rare and dying out amongst Amazon Indians. Survival opposes non-consensual practices, however ‘traditional’, which hurt or kill people. This includes infanticide.

- Download a briefing sheet on what experts and Indians say about infanticide allegations by fundamentalist missionary organization JOCUM (pdf, 49 KB).

- Survival has written a set of ethical guidelines to help filmmakers work responsibly with tribal peoples.