Environmental
Growing risks from hatchery fish
by Staff Writers
Portland OR (SPX)
 Hatchery fish, as the name implies, are hatched from eggs fertilized in a controlled environment and raised in captivity until they are big enough to release into the natural environment. They lack the genetic diversity of wild fish that provides insurance against fisheries collapses. |
A newly published collection of more than 20 studies by leading university scientists and government fishery researchers in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Russia and Japan provides mounting evidence that salmon raised in man-made hatcheries can harm wild salmon through competition for food and habitat.
“The genetic effects of mixing hatchery fish with wild populations have been well-documented,” says journal editor David Noakes from Oregon State University. “But until now the ecological effects were largely hypothetical. Now we know the problems are real and warrant more attention from fisheries managers.”
The research volume, published in the May issue of Environmental Biology of Fishes, brings together 23 peer-reviewed, independent studies carried out across the entire range of Pacific salmon, including some of the first studies describing the impact of hatcheries on wild salmon populations in Japan and Russia.
The studies provide new evidence that fast-growing hatchery fish compete with wild fish for food and habitat in the ocean as well as in the rivers where they return to spawn. The research also raises questions about whether the ocean can supply enough food to support future increases in hatchery fish while still sustaining the productivity of wild salmon.
“This isn’t just an isolated issue,” says Pete Rand, a biologist at the Wild Salmon Center and a guest editor of the publication. “What we’re seeing here in example after example is growing scientific evidence that hatchery fish can actually edge out wild populations.”
Losing wild fish would mean losing the genetic diversity that has allowed salmon to survive for centuries. Unlike hatchery fish, wild salmon populations have a range of highly specialized adaptations to the natural environment. These adaptations not only help them return to their home streams to spawn, but also increase their ability to withstand environmental changes like increases in ocean temperature and extreme variations in stream flows.
Hatchery fish, as the name implies, are hatched from eggs fertilized in a controlled environment and raised in captivity until they are big enough to release into the natural environment. They lack the genetic diversity of wild fish that provides insurance against fisheries collapses.
Hatcheries have been used for many years in an attempt to increase catch in the over $3 billion Pacific salmon commercial fishing industry and to offset losses of wild salmon that have suffered serious declines due to dams and habitat degradation.
“These studies suggest that even more caution is needed to make sure hatchery programs keep wild salmon safe, and don’t inadvertently hurt the long term potential of salmon runs,” says Rand.
Since the mid-1970s, large increases in hatchery programs in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Japan have released billions of fish into the water. And the increasing global demand for salmon has resulted in calls to further expand hatchery production, especially in Russia and Alaska.
In a 2010 open letter to Alaska hatcheries, seafood processors proposed increasing pink salmon hatchery returns by 25%-115% over the next five years. Similarly, Russian hatchery managers stated in 2010 that Russia is planning to build 23 new hatcheries that would increase the country’s hatchery production by 66% or 680 million fish.
“The scale and magnitude of our current hatchery production system is enormous,” says Rand. “Five billion juvenile salmon are released each year worldwide, and the prospect of additional increases in hatchery production is worrisome for the long-term survival of wild salmon.”
Not Just a Local Problem
Scientists are also uncovering surprising interactions on an international scale. One of the new studies indicates that chum salmon (a type of Pacific salmon) released from hatcheries in Asia, mostly from Japan, have played a significant role in causing declines in a wild chum salmon population in remote western Alaska, 2500 miles away.
“Genetic data show that these fish share the same feeding grounds in the open waters of the Bering Sea and North Pacific Ocean,” says author Greg Ruggerone of Natural Resources Consultants. “With billions of hatchery chum released each year, the abundance of adult chum salmon from hatcheries is now much greater than wild chum salmon, so it is not all that surprising that we are seeing evidence of competition in the North Pacific.”
This competition is likely to get tougher with predicted changes in ocean conditions. Recent climate patterns have made ocean conditions temporarily favorable enough to support large populations of salmon, but as these patterns shift, the amount of food in the ocean available for salmon could drop significantly, making it even harder for wild populations to survive.
These results have caused many scientists to point to the need for a new international agreement or treaty to address the expansion of hatchery salmon in the open waters of the North Pacific.
Many industry leaders, academic scientists and government agencies also highlight the importance of more research to understand the full impact of hatchery fish on wild salmon. “Wild salmon represent the backbone of the Alaska salmon fishery,” says Stew Grant of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, a contributing author to the special issue. “We need more information about the impacts of hatchery salmon entering our wild salmon rivers.”
“There is no substitute for wild salmon. They must be our first priority,” says Guido Rahr, President of the Wild Salmon Center. “Wild salmon are an important part of local culture and a cornerstone of economic health for fishing communities.
“And once you lose the resilience that wild salmon contribute to our salmon fisheries, it’s almost impossible to bring it back. Given these new findings, we urge fishery managers across the North Pacific to examine the science and err on the side of caution when considering hatchery practices and expansions.”
Related Links
Wild Salmon Center
Darwin Today At TerraDaily.com
Manmade pollutants may be driving Earth’s tropical belt expansion
by Staff Writers
Riverside CA (SPX)
 Robert Allen is an assistant professor of Earth sciences at UC Riverside. Credit: UCR Strategic Communications |
Black carbon aerosols and tropospheric ozone, both manmade pollutants emitted predominantly in the Northern Hemisphere’s low- to mid-latitudes, are most likely pushing the boundary of the tropics further poleward in that hemisphere, new research by a team of scientists shows.
While stratospheric ozone depletion has already been shown to be the primary driver of the expansion of the tropics in the Southern Hemisphere, the researchers are the first to report that black carbon and tropospheric ozone are the most likely primary drivers of the tropical expansion observed in the Northern Hemisphere.
Led by climatologist Robert J. Allen, an assistant professor of Earth sciences at the University of California, Riverside, the research team notes that an unabated tropical belt expansion would impact large-scale atmospheric circulation, especially in the subtropics and mid-latitudes.
“If the tropics are moving poleward, then the subtropics will become even drier,” Allen said. “If a poleward displacement of the mid-latitude storm tracks also occurs, this will shift mid-latitude precipitation poleward, impacting regional agriculture, economy, and society.” Study results appear in Nature.
Observations show that the tropics have widened by 0.7 degrees latitude per decade, with warming from greenhouse gases also contributing to the expansion in both hemispheres. To study this expansion, the researchers first compared observational data with simulated data from climate models for 1979-1999. The simulated data were generated by a collection of 20 climate models called the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project version 3 or “CMIP3.”
The researchers found that CMIP3 underestimates the observed 0.35 degrees latitude per decade expansion of the Northern Hemisphere tropics by about a third. But when they included either black carbon or tropospheric ozone or both in CMIP3, the simulations mimicked observations better, suggesting that the pollutants were playing a role in the Northern Hemisphere tropical expansion.
Next, to ensure that their results were not influenced by intrinsic differences between CMIP3′s 20 models, the researchers expanded the time period studied to 1970-2009, comparing available observed data with simulated data from NCAR’s Community Atmosphere Model (CMIP3 data did not extend to 1970-2009). They then repeated the exercise with the GFDL Atmospheric Model. Using these models allowed the researchers to directly isolate the effects of black carbon and tropospheric ozone on the location of the tropical boundaries.
As before, they found that the models underestimate the observed Northern Hemisphere expansion of the tropics by about a third. When black carbon and tropospheric ozone were incorporated in these models, however, the simulations showed better agreement with observations, underscoring the pollutants’ role in widening the tropical belt in the Northern Hemisphere.
“Both black carbon and tropospheric ozone warm the tropics by absorbing solar radiation,” Allen explained. “Because they are short-lived pollutants, with lifetimes of one-two weeks, their concentrations remain highest near the sources: the Northern Hemisphere low- to mid-latitudes. It’s the heating of the mid-latitudes that pushes the boundaries of the tropics poleward.”
Allen further explained that with an expansion of the tropics, wind patterns also move poleward, dragging other aspects of atmospheric circulation with them, such as precipitation.
“For example, the southern portions of the United States may get drier if the storm systems move further north than they were 30 years ago,” he said. “Indeed, some climate models have been showing a steady drying of the subtropics, accompanied by an increase in precipitation in higher mid-latitudes. The expansion of the tropical belt that we attribute to black carbon and tropospheric ozone in our work is consistent with the poleward displacement of precipitation seen in these models.”
Black carbon aerosols are tiny particles of carbon produced from biomass burning and incomplete combustion of fossil fuels. Most of the world’s black carbon production occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, with Southeast Asia being a major producer. The same is true of tropospheric ozone, a secondary pollutant that results when volatile organic compounds react with sunlight.
“Greenhouse gases do contribute to the tropical expansion in the Northern Hemisphere,” Allen said. “But our work shows that black carbon and tropospheric ozone are the main drivers here. We need to implement more stringent policies to curtail their emissions, which would not only help mitigate global warming and improve human health, but could also lessen the regional impacts of changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation in the Northern Hemisphere.”
Thomas Reichler, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah, noted that the new work by the Allen-led team represents a major advance in climate dynamics research.
“For a long time it has been unclear to the research community why climate models were unable to replicate the observed changes in the atmospheric wind structure,” said Reichler, who was not involved in the study. “This work demonstrates now in very convincing ways that changes in the amount and distribution of tiny absorbing particles in the atmosphere are responsible for the observed changes. Since previous model simulations did not account properly for the effects of these particles on the atmosphere, this work provides a surprisingly simple but effective answer to the original question.”
“The question to ask is how far must the tropics expand before we start to implement policies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, tropospheric ozone and black carbon that are driving the tropical expansion?” said Allen, who joined UCR in 2011.
Allen, who conceived the research project and designed the study, was joined in the research by Steven C. Sherwood at the University of New South Wales, Australia; Joel Norris at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego; and Charles S. Zender at UC Irvine. Next, the research team will study the implications of the tropical expansion from a predominantly hydrological perspective.
Related Links
University of California – Riverside
The Air We Breathe at TerraDaily.com
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Cyber Space
Anonymous-Hater Claims Responsibility for Pirate Bay DDoS Attack
By Mary-Ann Russon, techworld.com
A hacker who claims to hate both Anonymous and notorious BitTorrent website The Pirate Bay (TPB) has claimed responsibility for the DDoS attack that TPB has been suffering under for the last 24 hours.
The user, who goes by the Twitter handle @AnonNyre, has been riling up members of the hacktivist group and supporters of TPB with a series of angry posts on Twitter, to the extent that Anonymous supporters are now demanding to get in contact with him over the social network.
AnonNyre also later posted on Pastebin, claiming that he works for the FBI and wants to take TPB website down because it is “a press-release website for Anonymous“.
Although PirateBay.se was still accessible from the UK during the DDoS attack, TPB claimed that it was under attack on its official Facebook page and TorrentFreak confirmed that users around the world were having difficulty accessing the website.
Today The Pirate Bay informed its fans through Facebook that it was back online.
In a message posted at about 9:45 GMT, The Pirate Bay wrote: “We’re back in full effect! Show your support by adding this badge to your profile picture!”
This is not the first DDoS attack to be linked with The Pirate Bay. UK ISP Virgin Media suffered a DDoS attack on 9 May, a week after complying with a high court order to block users’ access to the file-sharing website.
The Pirate Bay condemned the action att he time, stating: “We do NOT encourage these actions. We believe in the open and free internets, where anyone can express their views. Even if we strongly disagree with them and even if they hate us.
“So don’t fight them using ugly methods. DDoS and blocks are both forms of censorship.”
- See more like this:
- hackers
Amazon May Bring Ads to the Kindle Fire
Will the Kindle Fire‘s home screen soon double as a color billboard for advertisers? Ad Age reports that Amazon is pitching the idea to ad agency executives, although it’s unclear if the online retailer plans to bring ads to the current generation of Kindle Fires, or wait until the 2nd-gen models that are expected to arrive later this year.
Amazon currently sells versions of its E-Ink eReaders that display ads on the Kindle screensaver and at the bottom of the home screen. In exchange for viewing the ads, customers get a price break. The entry-level Kindle, for instance, is $79 with “Special Offers” (meaning advertisements) or $109 without ads. The Kindle Touch with ads is $99; the ad-free model is $139.
Amazon reportedly is seeking $600,000 to $1 million or more for ad campaigns that would run two months on the Fire, Ad Age says. If true, Kindle Fire ads may be more sophisticated–and possibly more intrusive–than the subtle ads on the E-Ink Kindles.
Would Kindle Fire owners be annoyed by the ads? Possibly, particularly if the ads hog too much space on the home screen, and if they’re obnoxious, flashy, and noisy. Then again, a reduced price tag–similar to Amazon’s cut-rate offer for its ad-supported eReaders–might help soothe users’ ire. Kindle Fire users, after all, are a pretty pragmatic bunch. They know the $199 Fire may not be the most advanced color tablet available, but the price is right and the Fire is good enough for their needs.
It seems to me that a $169 Kindle Fire with Special Offers would be a holiday hit.
Contact Jeff Bertolucci at Today@PCWorld, Twitter (@jbertolucci) or jbertolucci.blogspot.com.
Italian Court Upholds Apple Warranty Fine
An Italian court has upheld a €900,000 (US$1.2 million) fine imposed on Apple by Italy’s competition authority for allegedly violating consumer protection laws, Italian media reported late Friday.
The Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR) of Lazio rejected Apple’s appeal against the fine imposed by the Antitrust Authority last December for “unfair commercial practices that damage the consumer.”
The court found that Apple Italy was not fully applying a two-year guarantee that is obligatory under European law and was providing unclear information on its own additional commercial warranties, the online edition of the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.
An Apple Italy spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
The Antitrust fine applies to Apple Sales International, Apple Italia, and Apple Retail Italia and concerns their alleged failure to inform customers of their right to a 24-month warranty from the vendor under European Union regulations and insufficiently clear information on the company’s own AppleCare Protection Plan and its partial duplication of the existing legal warranties.
A campaign to force Apple to modify its behavior in Italy was spearheaded by the Milan-based consumer association Altroconsumo.
The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) might be cast into doubt in the wake of a Department of Defense announcement last week that as many as 1,000 defense contractors — and possibly thousands more — may voluntarily join an expanded program of sharing classified information on cyber threats with the federal government.
The program, known as the Defense Industrial Base Cyber Security/Information Assurance, or DIB CS/IA, has been in a pilot phase for the past four years with only 37 contractors. The expansion, recently approved by the Obama administration, means about 8,000 contractors cleared to work with DoD intellectual property are being invited to participate.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek reports that if this expansion “proves successful in safeguarding defense contractors from cyber attacks, the administration may enlarge the program to companies in 15 other critical infrastructure categories through the Department of Homeland Security,” Eric Rosenbach, deputy assistant secretary of defense for cyber policy, said.
This, if it works as expected, could prompt those arguing over CISPA, recently passed by the U.S. House, along with other similar pending legislation in Congress, to wonder how necessary it all is. Why mandate information sharing with the government if it can happen voluntarily?
[See also: CISPA enjoys wide backing from enterprises]
Jason Healey, director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative of the Washington, D.C. think tank Atlantic Council, says while “there absolutely are similarities” between DIB and the various legislative efforts, that there are “lots of other bits” in those bills — such as mandatory security standards. “Some legislation is necessary,” he says.
Dan Philpott, an expert in federal cybersecurity and editor of FISMApedia, says DIB CS/IA is “a much lighter version” of CISPA. He says another reason the program could not replace cybersecurity law is because it is unlikely that anything close to 8,000 contractors will volunteer to enter it. He believes the DoD is being optimistic even with an estimate of 1,000. “I think they’d be happy with 500,” he says.
Beyond that, there is debate over how worthwhile and effective DIB CS/IA has been and will be. There is broad agreement that the threat of cyberattacks is increasing at “a rapid and accelerating rate,” in the words of Rear Admiral Samuel Cox, director of intelligence for the military’s Cyber Command, at a forum last month.
And the goal of the DIB expansion is for more sharing of data between private defense contractors and the DoD’s intelligence-gathering arm, the National Security Agency. Richard A. Hale, deputy chief information officer for cybersecurity, told the American Forces Press Service, “We started the program in an attempt to share cyber-threat data with these companies in a way that allowed the companies to act on that information immediately,” and called it, “an important step forward in our ability to catch up with widespread cyber threats.”
But Healey, speaking to Reuters last week, expressed some skepticism about whether the benefits of DIB CS/IA would be worth the cost to contractors. “The DIB pilot probably increases the defenders’ work factor much more than it increases the attackers,” he said. “This is a lot of work and a lot of taxpayer dollars for something that has apparently not proven it can increase security more than on the margins.”
Healey says he is “very pleased to see DoD saying they could scale this to 8,000 companies.” But he still thinks the department could be much more efficient in its dealings with private industry.
In an article in The Atlantic, Healey argues that the NSA should simply declassify much of its database of malware “signatures.”
While he acknowledges that critics will argue that such action would, “compromise our sensitive collection sources and methods. [But] in truth, the extreme classification surrounding most of these signatures protect little but bureaucratic inertia. General Michael Hayden, a past NSA director, made this case best, saying, ‘Let me be clear: This stuff is overprotected.’”
“More importantly, the Internet is an open network and any adversary that uses novel malicious software knows it will eventually be discovered,” he said.
Philpott adds that in the information security community, “signature-based security is becoming kind of looked down on. It’s inherently weak because only identifies things that have already happened.”
Healey writes in The Atlantic that NSA’s signature database, while “considered among the crown jewels of the U.S. government’s defense capabilities … may not be as awe-inspiring as advertised.” He adds: “And independent review found only marginal benefit” to contractors like Northrop Grumman or Lockheed Martin.
“Only 1% of the attacks were detected using NSA threat data that the companies did not already have themselves,” Healey says.
He argues that a more effective system would be an “independent clearinghouse for signatures. NSA might anonymously add its signatures … and further wash their source by mixing them with signatures from security companies and even with other nations’ intelligence agencies.”
“This option would create the world’s best-ever signature database … and any organization that contributes their signature collection would then able to use the full database,” Healey says.
Read more about malware/cybercrime in CSOonline’s Malware/Cybercrime section.
FBI wants a wire-tap-friendly ‘back door’ to all internet providers
By J. D. Heyes,
(NaturalNews) In this Information Age, the government threats to privacy just continue to cascade, as now the FBI wants Internet companies to install “back doors” into their services to allow electronic eavesdropping of users. Specifically, the FBI wants the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, amended to require Internet platforms such as Facebook, as well as Web-based email programs like Gmail and Yahoo! to build back doors into their systems, so the FBI can access…
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Survival / Sustainability
Self Defense
Published on May 8, 2012 by SensiblePrepper
Sensible Prepper Presents: “Self Defense” This was from the Sensible Mountain Prepper Conference in Black Mountain, NC May 05, 2012.
Hosted by Carolina readiness in Waynesville, NC: http://www.carolinareadiness.com/
Survival Mind Set
Published on Apr 5, 2012 by SensiblePrepper
Sensible Prepper Presents: “Survival Mind Set”
1. Mind Set
2. Stay Physically Fit
3. Knowledge
4. Practice
5. Quality Gear
Never Give Up!
Thanks for watching~
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Whistle-blowers
US Department of Labor’s OSHA Establishes Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee
This week, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced the establishment of a Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee. This body will make recommendations to the Secretary of Labor on ways to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of OSHA’s administration of whistleblower protections.
Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health said in the news release, “Workers who expose securities and financial fraud, adulterated foods, air and water pollution, or workplace safety hazards have a legal right to speak out without fear of retaliation, and the laws that protect these whistleblowers also protect the health, safety, and well-being of a
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Activism
NYPD Caught Lying in the First Occupy Wall Street Trial
Published on May 18, 2012 by SamSeder
From the Majority Report, live M-F 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at http://Majority.FM:
A photographer who was arrested at an Occupy Wall Street event has won his case in what is the first Occupy Wall Street trial, after video evidence proved the NYPD were lying…
Iceland’s Amazing Peaceful Revolution Ignored by Mainstream Media
Iceland’s peaceful revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Read details about Iceland’s wonderful social evolution at DailyKos, here. Another great article is on Bloomberg.com. The following summation has been posted by countless people on Facebook; I’ve reposted it in its entirety: ICELAND (GP) – No news from Iceland? Why? Last we heard, people were rising up and overthrowing the bankers. Then, no news on the television or newspapers for two years. What happened? Why won’t the papers and TV tell us how the bankers successfully crushed or minimized another rebellion? Because… THEY DIDN’T! This time, the people won.
The people of Iceland have overwhelmingly risen up and forced their government puppets of the banks to resign. Primary banks have been nationalized. The debt scam imposed by Great Britain and Holland money printers was declared null and void. A public assembly has been created to rewrite Iceland’s constitution.
The best part is, all of this happened without violence or bloodshed. A whole country’s revolution succeeded against powers that created the current global crisis without a shot being fired. A very good reason exists for the apparent failure of television and newspapers to provide any publicity on this unprecedented event: what would happen if the rest of the EU and the United States took this as an example?
The following is a summary of the facts:
2008 – The main bank of Iceland is nationalized.
The Krona, the currency of Iceland devaluates and the stock market halts. The country is in bankruptcy
2008 – Citizens rise up at Parliament and succeed in forcing the resignation of both the prime minister and the effective government. New elections are held.
Yet, the country remains in a bad economic situation. A Parliament act is passed to pay back 3,500 million Euros to Great Britain and Holland by the people of Iceland monthly during the next 15 years, with 5.5% interest.
2010 – The people of Iceland again take to the streets to demand a referendum. In January of 2010, the President of Iceland denies approval, instead announcing a popular vote on the matter by the people.
In March, a referendum and denial of payment is approved by popular vote of 93%. Meanwhile, government officials initiate an investigation to bring to justice those responsible for the crisis. Many high level executives and bankers are arrested. Interpol dictates an order to force all implicated parties to leave Iceland.
An assembly is elected to write a new constitution (based on the Denmark’s) to avoid entrapments of debt based currency foreign loans. 25 citizens are chosen – with no political affiliation – out of the 522 candidates. The only qualifications for candidacy are adulthood and the support of 30 people. The constitutional assembly started in February of 2011. It continues to present ‘carta magna’ from recommendations provided by various assemblies throughout the country. Ultimately, it must be approved by both the current Parliament and the one created through the next legislative election.
In summary of the Icelandic revolution, we saw:
-resignation of the entire corrupt government of the country
-nationalization of the bank
-referendum enabling the people to determine their own economic system
-incarceration of responsible parties, and
-a rewriting of the Iceland Constitution by its people
This is significant stuff.
Have we been informed about this through the main stream media?
Has any political program on radio or TV commented on this?
Not that I’ve seen. The Icelandic people have demonstrated a way to beat the international money printers and controllers of information. The last thing entrenched usurers would want is for you to think you could also free yourself from their chains.
Chicago cops start preemptive arrests before NATO Summit?
Published on May 18, 2012 by RTAmerica
Over the weekend, thousands of NATO protesters are expected to hit the streets of Chicago. In preparation for the event, the Chicago PD has spent over $1 million on riot gear and sound cannons to blow the protesters away. Reports have surfaced of police raiding the homes of protest organizers, but will their arrests damage the massive protest? Kevin Gosztola, blogger for Dissenter.FireDogLake.com, joins us with a preview of what to expect this weekend.
Police arrest 400 ‘Blockupy’ activists in Frankfurt
Published on May 19, 2012 by RussiaToday
READ MORE + PHOTOS: http://on.rt.com/oqkebw
The protest mood is brewing in Europe. Protests target capitalism and austerity policies. In Germany, thousands are expected to rally in the country’s financial capilal, Frankfurt, marking the climax of a four-day campaign called ‘Blockupy’. RT’s Peter Oliver is in the city.
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Articles of Interest
Brazil’s threatened Awa tribe outnumbered, group says
by Staff Writers
Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (AFP)
 |
Brazilian authorities have admitted that the Amazon’s Awa, “Earth’s most threatened tribe,” are outnumbered 10 to one in just one of their reserves, Survival International said Thursday.
Survival International, a leading advocate for tribal peoples’ rights worldwide, said officials admitted “the scale of the emergency” after receiving over 20,000 messages of protest following the launch of its drive to save the Awa from “imminent extinction” late last month.
It pointed to a Brazilian government survey estimating there could be “up to 4,500 invaders, ranchers, loggers and settlers” occupying just one of the four territories inhabited by the Awa, whose total population stands at no more than 450.
Last month, the rights group launched a major campaign spearheaded by Britain’s Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth to focus world attention on the plight of the Awa, saying they were threatened with “genocide” and “extinction.”
The campaign also aimed to persuade Brazilian Justice Minister Jose Eduardo Cardozo to send in federal police to clear out the loggers, ranchers and settlers invading Awa lands, and keep them out.
Survival said the new head of Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), Marta Azevedo, confirmed that the threat to the Awa was now her agency’s top priority.
“The Awa tribe’s land is being destroyed faster than any other Amazon tribe. As the rainy season ends, one of their main hunting areas is now being targeted by loggers. An Awa man named Armadillo said today, How will we live without the forest?,” the group said in a statement.
“Brazil is one of the world’s most important countries with one of its most dynamic economies, and it certainly has the resources to protect Awa land. Can it deliver?” said Survival Director Stephen Corry. “If not, and the Aw� are destroyed, then is this new economic miracle’ just for the rich and powerful?”
According to Survival, there are roughly 360 Awa who have been contacted by outsiders, many of them survivors of brutal massacres, along with another 100 believed to be hiding in the rapidly-shrinking forest.
FUNAI estimates that there are 77 isolated indigenous tribes scattered across the Amazon. Only 30 such groups have been located.
Indigenous peoples represent less than one percent of Brazil’s 192 million people and occupy 12 percent of the national territory, mainly in the Amazon.
Related Links
Forestry News – Global and Local News, Science and Application
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