Save Xingu peoples from Destruction!

There is a further problem here. Green incorporated are using Indians for theirs own ideals. In my case in am concerned by the Indians only. I am for actions that help indigenous people to progress, and there are good examples of that. Even in Brazil there have been changes.

If you want to help natives in the Amazon, move there. Get lawyers, etc. There are foreigners that have died defending theirs causes and legitimate rights. That's the only way to help.

Xingu Forever Alive May 26, 2008

We, representatives of indigenous peoples, river bank dwellers, gatherers of forest products, family farmers, urban dwellers, social movements, and non-governmental organizations of the Xingu basin met in the Xingu Forever Alive encounter, in the city of Altamira, Par%uFFFD state, Brazilian Amazon, between May 19 and 23, 2008 to discuss, recognize, and repudiate the threats to the river which is ours, and of which we are part, in order to reaffirm the type of development that we want for our region.

We who are the ancestral inhabitants of the Xingu Basin, whose course and whose tributaries we navigated to meet here, from where we catch the fish that nourish us, on the purity of whose water we depend on to be able to drink without worrying about getting sick, on the regime of whose floods and ebb we depend for our agriculture, whose forest products we collect, and which we pay reverence to and whose beauty and generosity we celebrate with every new day; our culture, our spirituality, and our survival are deeply rooted in the Xingu, and we depend on it for our existence.

We who have maintained and protected our forests and the natural resources of our territories in the midst of the destruction which has bled the Amazon feel that our dignity has been demeaned and that we have not been respected by the Brazilian Government and private dam-building groups planning dams on the Xingu and its tributaries, principally Belo Monte Dam. At no time have they asked us what we want for our future. At no time have they asked us what we think regarding the building of hydroelectric dams, and not even the indigenous people were consulted %u2013 a right guaranteed to them by law. Despite this fact, Belo Monte has been presented by the government as a done deal, even though its viability has been questioned.

We are aware that diverting the Xingu at its Big Bend will cause permanent flooding upstream, displacing thousands of river bank families and residents of the city of Altamira, affecting agriculture, extractivism, and biodiversity, and flooding our beaches. On the other hand, the dam would practically dry up more than 100 kilometers of the river, making navigation, fishing, and the use of water impossible for many communities, including various indigenous lands and reserves.

We are also concerned about the construction of Small Hydroelectric Dams (PCHs), on the rivers at the headwaters of the Xingu. Some have already been built and others have been authorized, without any evaluation of the impacts that these dams will cause to the 14 indigenous peoples living in the Xingu Indigenous Park. These dams profane their sacred sites and can destroy the fish which nourish them.

Therefore, we, Brazilian citizens, publicly communicate to our society and to our federal, state, and local government authorities our decision to defend our rights and those of our children and grandchildren to live with dignity, to keep our homes and our territories, our cultures and ways of life, honoring our ancestors as well who left us a healthy environment. We will not accept the construction of dams, large or small, on the Xingu and its tributaries, and we will continue fighting against the imposition of a development model which is socially unjust and environmentally destructive, and which today is represented by the increase in the illegal grabbing of public lands, by illegal logging operations, by clandestine gold mines which kill our rivers, and by the expansion of agricultural monocultures and extensive cattle ranching which cut down our forests.

We, who know the river at its every bend, wish to tell Brazilian society and to demand from public authorities the implementation of our development project for the region, which includes:

1. The creation of a forum bringing together the peoples of the basin in order to permit a permanent conversation regarding the future of our river, eventually creating a Xingu River Basin Committee;

2. The consolidation and effective protection of Conservation Units and Indigenous Lands and the investigation and legalization of land titles on public lands in the Xingu basin;

3. The immediate creation of the Middle Xingu Extractive Reserve;

4. The immediate demarcation of the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Territory, and the fair resettlement of its non-indigenous inhabitants, as well as the removal of invaders of the Parakan%uFFFD Indigenous Territory;

5. The taking of measures which effectively halt deforestation, including illegal logging and land grabbing;

6. Additional public policies providing incentives for sustainable extraction of forest products and support for family farming on an agroecological basis and which value and stimulate the commercialization of forest products;


7. Public policies capable of promoting the improvement and the installation of urban water and sewer treatment systems.

8. An increase in public policies to meet the demand for healthcare, education, transportation, and public safety, in a manner consistent with our reality;

9. Development of public policies which broaden and democratize social communication media;

10. More public policies for recuperation of gallery forests and areas degraded by ranching, logging, and mining;

11. Prohibiting the damming of the Xingu headwaters, as already took place with the construction of the Paranatinga II small dam on the Culuene River;

12. The effective protection of the great biodiversity corridor formed by the indigenous lands and conservation units of the Xingu.

We, who have protected our Xingu River do not accept the invisibility with which they wish to impose decisions upon us, nor the way we are treated with disdain by public officials. The way we are presenting ourselves to the country is through our dignity, the knowledge we have inherited, and the teachings by which we can transmit the respect that we demand.

This is our desire, this is our struggle. We want the Xingu forever alive.

Altamira, May 23, 2008. "

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-xingu-peoples-from-destruction