O endereço abaixo não existe na globo.com After spending 4 days at the “Encontro Xingu”, I had the opportunity to fly over the entire Xingu river basin beginning in Altamira, Para and ending in Canarana, Mato Grosso…soy and cattle country. Since I didn’t have time to travel the entire length of the Xingu, like the Heart of Brazil Expedition did in 2007 I flew to see if it was really true if deforestation stops as soon as the Xingu Indigenous Reserve begins I was with my travel partner Scott Fitzmorris and two Indigenous elders who couldn’t bear the 60 hour bus trip to Canarana Since Altamira and the surrounding area around the Transamazonia highway are pretty much dominated by cattle ranching it wasn’t long before the landscape was dominated by intact rainforest for as far as the eye could see we flew over the Xingu river and the great forest that surrounds it It was truly incredible and inspiring to see but then we crossed an area where the forest became mountainous That’s around the time I noticed a road all of a sudden this is the road that crosses the Indigenous Reserve I looked in the distance and saw what looked like cleared land I asked him what he thought about the soy plantations surrounding the reserve and he said that he didn’t like it because the chemicals sprayed on the soy contaminate the rivers and kill the fish Looking down at the Xingu river and all of the small rivers and channels that lead into it I could see how chemicals from pesticide spraying miles away could have disastrous effects on the ecology and culture of the Xingu It wasn’t long before the plane began to descend and I noticed the changing landscape We were reaching the transition zone where the Amazon and the Cerrado This is an area of extreme biological and cultural diversity it is a sacred place that needs to be respected and protected It turns out that I had already crossed paths with a couple of the young filmmakers a couple weeks ago in DC at the premiere of some their films at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Shortly after leaving the Kuikuro community, we began to see the changing landscape, once again. This time, however, it was a drastic change where the forest ends and agribusiness begins. According to ISA, the SocialEnvironmental Institute in Canarana 80,000 hectares of soy are in the Canarana area; 30,000 are in Agua Boa (south of Canarana); 40,000 are in Gaucha (west of Canarana); and 160,000 are in Querencia (north of Canarana) This soy expansion has occurred in just the last 13 years and is continuing To get a better sense of what I’m talking about After flying over the Xingu and hearing the perspectives of Indigenous people like the Kuikuro I find it pretty reprehensible that massive deforestation for agribusiness is occurring and continues to occur Seeing the silos of Cargill and Bunge in Canarana convince me even more that the ABC’s of Rainforest Destruction need to be held accountable for the impacts they are causing to the world’s rainforests Mailing AddressPO Box 3563Seattle WA 98124-3563 tax-exempt 501(c)(3) corporation (tax ID number 94-3045180) Context provides news and analysis on three of the world’s most critical issues: Seed collectors display some of their harvest in Canarana July 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - By law builders of roads and dams and others who destroy forests in Brazil's Amazon are required to replant an equivalent area of trees elsewhere To do that they need the right seeds - and collecting those has turned into valuable business for indigenous communities in the Xingu basin of Mato Grosso state as well as for other indigenous groups around Brazil more than 560 collectors - most of them women - have gathered almost 250 tonnes of seeds from 220 native species as part of an effort now known as the Xingu Seed Network The work has helped them earn an income, reconnect with their forests and restore more than 6,600 hectares of degraded land, according to Ashden, a British charity that this week awarded the group one of its sustainability prizes for 2020 The network has also helped protect indigenous communities during the COVID-19 pandemic as families that once would have shopped in town for food have learned to harvest from their home forests people have gotten back to their forests to learn the variety of fruits leaves and roots the ancients used to know how to eat," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation from Brazil after a virtual awards ceremony "They are getting that knowledge back and they are eating a lot more of those resources," she said Brazil's Amazon is one of the hardest-hit regions in a country with the world's second-highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths Brazil has registered nearly 62,000 deaths from COVID-19, with at least 11,000 of those in the Amazon region which has only 8% of the country's population Ferreira said three seed collectors in one village she works with have fallen ill Families may have contracted the disease after an eight-year-old child died at a health facility and was brought home for burial ceremonies which involve community members laying hands on the deceased "A lot of people got contaminated," she said noting that in the last 15 days she had seen "a lot of deaths start happening in the municipalities around the Xingu park" Dealing with cases of the virus is difficult due to a lack of intensive care units in cities "The one or two beds they have are already taken - and it's a 20-hour drive to the capital The indigenous collectors have discovered that planting seeds is a more efficient and effective way to rebuild forests quickly and help young trees survive drought Their seeding technique also makes it possible to plant 10 times as many trees per hectare as using seedlings The project got its start when the more than 20 indigenous tribes living in the Xingu reserve - and officials in the region - noticed water quality worsening as farms replaced forests on the borders of the reserve Efforts to restore vegetation around rivers and springs in the Xingu watershed eventually landed on seed planting as the best way forward a forest expert with Brazil's Instituto Socioambiental farmers and green groups trying to meet restoration requirements The Xingu group works in coordination with other seed networks in Brazil to meet demand and ensure the seeds provided are adapted to each ecosystem have good genetic variety and are selected for resilience to climate shifts One of the network's unanticipated benefits has been bringing together Amazon farmers and indigenous people has given farmers exposure to indigenous communities which at some level has helped alleviate misconceptions Beto Borges, one of the Ashden competition judges and an expert in community forest stewardship with U.S.-based non-profit Forest Trends said such efforts were particularly crucial as the country faces "challenging times with the Brazilian government we have now" Right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has vowed to encourage economic development in the Amazon to lift indigenous groups from poverty and improve the lives of the 30 million Brazilians who inhabit the region But environmentalists say his plans are speeding up destruction of the world's largest rainforest which is a crucial bulwark against global climate change and regulates rainfall in South America's agricultural zones "While there's progress because of our work there's still a lot of prejudice" against indigenous communities "It's one of the biggest challenges indigenous people in Brazil face," she said COVID-19 fears grow for isolated indingenous people in Brazil's Amazon As Amazon fire season looms, smoke and coronavirus could be 'a disaster' Indigenous leaders fear Amazon soy port could be conduit for COVID-19 (Reporting by Laurie Goering @lauriegoering; editing by Megan Rowling Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. Could an indigenous funding boost revive stuttering forest pact? No room to cut: Rising inflation traps Bangladesh climate migrants Will Iran's climate inaction fuel rising disaster threats? Why climate-change 'loss and damage' will be a hot topic at COP27 Our global editorial team of about 55 journalists and more than 350 freelancers covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Copyright © 2020 Thomson Reuters Foundation. Thomson Reuters Foundation is a charity registered in England and Wales (registration number: 1082139) Brazil (Reuters) - Chief Aritana Yawalapiti one of Brazil's most influential indigenous leaders who led the people of Upper Xingu in central Brazil and helped create an indigenous park there his family said in a statement.His death underscores the threat that Brazil's indigenous people are facing from the novel coronavirus pandemic that has spread to their vulnerable communities infected thousands and killed hundreds.Aritana was rushed to a Goiânia hospital two weeks ago in a risky 9-hour drive from the western state of Mato Grosso breathing with the aid of oxygen tanks so that he could get to an intensive care unit He died at the hospital from lung complications caused by the disease.His doctor Celso Correia Batista who serves the indigenous people in the Xingu region first drove Aritana 10 hours to the small Mato Grosso town of Canarana where his lung condition deteriorated.With no ICU and unable to find a doctor willing to transport Aritana by air Batista decided to drive on to Goiânia.One of the most traditional indigenous leaders in Central Brazil Aritana led the people of the Upper Xingu and was one of the last speakers of the language of his tribe Yawalapiti.Aritana worked with the Villas-Bôas brothers to create the Xingu National Park the first vast protected indigenous area in the Amazon where 16 tribes live.According to Brazil's largest indigenous umbrella organization APIB 631 indigenous people have died from COVID-19 and there have been 22,325 confirmed cases in the community so far.The Ministry of Health reports a smaller number of 294 deaths among indigenous people and 16,509 confirmed cases because it does not count indigenous people who have left their lands and moved to urban areas.Half of Brazil's 300 indigenous tribes have confirmed infections.Reporting by Ueslei Marcelino; Writing by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Aurora Ellis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. 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