“ 3.5 : Other Traditional Cultures”

“ 3.5 : Other Traditional Cultures”

The culture that I chose to study on is the Surui people from the Brazilian rainforest. This tribe is one of several thousand indigenous groups living in Brazil. The land, Terra Indigena Sete deSetembro covers 2,428 square kilometers of rainforest and is home to the1,300 members. They remained within the confines of their reservation and never left the forest. Forty-one years later, it is a suburb town of Cacoal in the northwestern Brazilian State of Rondonia. The leader of this tribe is Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui.

Chief Almir Naravamoga Surui and tribe members are currently fighting to stop the destruction of their homeland by the “logger” companies. Thus far they have lost 7% and saved 93% of the land to illegal loggers. IN addition to planting seedlings, they are using the Internet, GPS and Google Earth as their weapon to alert the situation and learn of organizations and people who can help! Furthermore, they plan to start carbon emissions trading. The chief believes that technology and tradition is the key to saving their land.

“They planted 1,900” seedlings. "No other indigenous people in all of Brazil has done this much for the revival of their forests."

(Thomas Pizer: Aquaverde Organization)

Interesting Facts:

-So far, the Surui have planted 120,000 trees. Another 40,000 are to be added this year. But despite their efforts, they are still a long way from Almir's dream of a million new trees -- partly because of persistent illegal logging.

-Almir estimates it will cost $120 million (€99.6 million) to protect his forests for 44 years. Stopping the logging will also prevent 16,475,469 tons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere.