Brazil, genocide and environmental degradation

Danilo Anton

Before the Portuguese invasion and conquest, the current territory of Brazil was populated by several hundred indigenous nations with an estimated total population of more than 20 million inhabitants.

Death, enslavement, forced labor, infectious diseases, displacement and land occupation led to a dramatic decrease in that number of people. During the following centuries the process of demographic elimination did not cease and even in the 21st century it continues to affect the physical and cultural existence of the surviving nations.

At present (2019) there are more than a hundred differentiated native ethnic groups, many of them in serious danger of extinction with an estimated population of just over 1 million inhabitants in their traditional territories and another 3 or 4 million living outside their Reservations.

Some ethnic groups are particularly resilient and have resisted the continuing onslaught of agricultural and mining business interests, as well as the complicity of federal and state political powers.

This situation has been aggravated by the seizure of power by the extreme right groups that seek to modify or prevent the demarcation of indigenous reserves and the environmental protection of many valuable territories from an ecological and environmental point of view. The anti-indigenous policies that have been accentuated with the Jair Bolsonaro government already existed before but now intensified strongly.

The occupation and exploitation of indigenous lands and other areas of high biodiversity is carried out through the destruction of tropical forests (through logging and especially burning) resulting in numerous fires that year after year produce a cumulative destruction of ecosystems and productivity of the soils. This situation hinders or prevents the regeneration of jungle vegetation cover by developing erosive and polluting processes in the basins.

Once the lands have been occupied by the agricultural and mining corporations, or simply individual settlers, it is possible to prevent the implantation of new tree shoots through successive burns, generally annual, that can reach several tens of thousands in detectable fires from of satellite images.

Fires continue to increase resulting in local and regional climatic changes with harmful effects on the health and quality of life of populations.

It should be noted that many national and international indigenous and indigenist organizations are fighting these genocidal policies of Brazil's political-economic system and, in a way, have delayed or prevented predatory actions in the territory.

The main native peoples that have managed to survive with a relatively large number of inhabitants are the following.

1) Guarani (all) 270,000

(including the Kaiwá or Pai Tavytera, the Ñandeva or Ava Chiripá, the M’byá, The Ava Guaraní or Chiriguanos, and the Izoceños or Guarayos and the Ava Guayakíes).

2) Ticuna 70,000

3) Yanomami 35,000

4) Pai Tavytera or Kaa'wa, 40,000

5) Ñandeva or Pai Tavyterá, 25,000

6) Kaingang 30,000

7) Mbya Guarani 28,000

8) Xavantes 16,000

9) Potiguara 12,000

10) Pataxó 11,800

11) Kayapo 10,000

12) Terena 20,000

13) Sateré-Mawé 14,000

14) Xakriabá 10,000

15) Xucurú-Kariri 8,500

16) Karajá 3,000

17) Tupinambá de Olivença 3,000,

18) Tupiniquim 2,630,

19) Parecis 2,200

20) Bororo 1,500

21) Kadiweu 1,500

And another 100 nations with populations of less than 1,500 inhabitants.