The Awá tribe of Brazil are facing slow and inevitable destruction as those who want their forest close in around them. The tribe who number around 350 and are among the last hunter-gatherers in the world, are up against the illegal logging industry (said to be worth up to $15 billion annually). The forest which they depend upon to survive is shrinking and the Brazilian government, reluctant to take on the powerful agricultural lobby is doing very little to stop them.
It is not only the trees that in are in danger, in 2012 there were 1200 indigenous victims of aggression and 60 were killed by loggers. The activists that try to help them are also in danger; 1280 have been assassinated since the 1970s.
As celebrities like Colin Firth get involved in campaigning maybe there is a chance of saving these people but it could be too little too late after decades of destruction, both the forest and the people here are in grave danger.
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The world’s biggest forest is in danger; the Amazon rainforest is home to a thriving black market. Illegal loggers are indiscriminately chopping down all the trees they can, all to sell off the tropical hardwood.
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