Amazon Rainforest Tours and Travel | Living in the Amazon
When Europeans first entered the Amazon Rainforest in the 1500s, some ten million indigenous people of over 2,000 tribes lived in the region. Of the thirty million people who reside in the Amazon Rainforest today, less than five percent are indigenous, most having disappeared since the beginning of the 20th century. These people suffered the same fate as indigenous populations elsewhere. Exploration and settlements by foreigners introduced new diseases and alcohol; newcomers exploited them, forcing many into slavery. The slaughter would have been even greater had the forest inhabitants not lived in such inaccessible areas.
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Over half of today's Amazonians live in and around the region's major cities including Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado, Peru, and Manaus, Brazil where jobs are most plentiful. People who live along the river, are called riberenos in the western Amazon and caboclos in Brazil.
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The size of most Amazon tribes today ranges from a handful to fewer than 1,000 members. Some are nomadic; others have lived in the same location for centuries. A number of tribes have still had little, if any, contact with the outside world, encroachment having forced many to re-locate deeper into the jungle as progress comes their way. These tribes rely on traditional medicinal plant remedies to keep them well and hunting and gathering to sustain their communities. Formerly referred to as "uncontacted people," today tribes that shun as much contact as possible with outsiders are called "isolated peoples." Most of these tribes such as the Matis and Dslala, live in Brazil where the government maintains seven indigenous reservations.
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Protecting Amazonian indigenous rights has become a high profile political issue in some countries of South America. In 1999, the citizens of Venezuela adopted a new constitution by an overwhelming margin. One of its provisions was the country's first official acknowledgement of indigenous rights and far-reaching protections. Among those whose way of life is to be safeguarded are the remaining tribes of the Venezuela Amazon, consisting mostly of Piaroa, Yanomamo and Guajibo tribes.
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In Bolivia, sixty percent of the population is indigenous. Outside the borders of Bolivia, few probably recall the 1990 March for Territory and Dignity that 600 indigenous made through the Amazon Rainforest from Trinidad to the capital, La Paz, 370 miles away, demanding more say over the fate of their ancestral lands. What ignited the Amazonians to march was the government decision to allow logging on indigenous land. The marchers were joined by indigenous peoples living in the highlands between the Amazon and the Capital.
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In a country with such a huge indigenous population, it would seem indigenous rights might be less problematic than elsewhere but it is hardly a political constituency in the traditional sense, even when the president of the country is himself indigenous. Significant differences separate the indigenous populations of Bolivia. The desire for the rightful control of their land and a decent standard of living unites them.
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Balancing the needs of the Amazon's indigenous tribes in the Amazon with the desire to profit from the natural resources contained in this massive, sparsely populated, region is one of the greatest challenges for governments of South America. Faced with solving the problem of widespread poverty, exploiting the wealth of the country's natural resources becomes irresistible.
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Many advocacy organizations have come into existence to protect the rights of the Amazon's indigenous people. Some represent individual tribes. Others seek to link indigenous groups into omnibus advocacy organizations to strengthen their clout. One such organization is the Coordinating Body for Indigenous Peoples' Organizations of the Amazon Basin, representing 400 tribes living in the nine countries of the Amazon Rainforest and a population of 1.5 million. The organization represents the Amazonian indigenous perspective in international debates on such issues as intellectual property rights, the environment and other matters of crucial significance to the region.
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