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Amazon Rainforest Tours and Travel | The Border Tribes of the Amazon Rainforest

The ancestral lands of some Amazonian tribes span the borders of current country designations. Having a say in government and corporate decisions about indigenous lands is a greater challenge for these tribes. Countries develop and implement their own policies on indigenous rights and exploit their natural resource as they see fit. For tribal members living on the other side of the border, this adds a complexity to making their voice heard.
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One of the largest border tribes in the Peru Amazon is the Bora. The 2,000 Boras live in the narrow corridor between the Putumayo (that forms the border between Peru and Colombia) and Napo tributaries in Peru, Colombia and Brazil, an area that was once a significant in the colonial rubber industry. The Boras occupy no reserve and have no organized effort when it comes to protecting their interests.
The Matis live in eastern Peru, near Iquitos, and western Brazil in the 32,000 square-mile Vale do Javari Indigenous Park. They are called the "jaguar people" or "cat people." During the ceremony of mariwin, men wear bright red masks adorned with foliage for hair and paint their skin black, to represent the spirit world. The tribe's body art and tattoos include whiskers, symbolizing the jaguar which they believe has supernatural powers.
Ticuna live in the border area of Peru, Brazil and Colombia and are known for their wood carving abilities. Over half of the Ticunas live in Brazil, while most of the rest live in settlements located in Peru.
Some organizations help tribes that occupy two or more Amazon countries to protect their rights and to develop eco-tourism projects. MATSES (Movement in the Amazon for Tribal Subsistence and Economic Stability) assists the Matses people who live along the border between Peru and Brazil (mostly in Peru), and had their first contact with the outside world in 1969. Over a million acres, the Indigenous Matses Reserve was established in 1998 and is the largest in Peru. The tribe is called Mayoruna in Brazil.
Even some of the smallest of communities have been able to work with organizations promoting ecotourism to develop revenue-producing projects. One border tribe, the Ese 'eja, numbers approximately 800, living in three communities in a designated buffer zone bordering the Tambopata Candamo Reserve on the border between Peru and Bolivia. One of these communities, Infierno, operates the highly regarded Posada Amazonas eco-lodge, the destination of three and four-day eco-adventures offered by Southern Explorations.

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