MIRANDA and ANTONIO JOAO, Brazil, Feb 29 (IPS) - Thousands of indigenous people in the west-central Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul are living in precarious camps or small overcrowded reservations, lacking the land they need to grow the food needed to overcome high levels of malnutrition.

But despite government recognition of their ancestral land, their claims are tied up in court. Meanwhile, their community leaders face the threat of being killed for attempting to secure respect for indigenous people’s constitutional right to their traditional lands.

Thu, 09/06/2007 - 09:16 Urgent Action - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Puyo, Ecuador: Gloria Ushigua and Rosa Gualinga, two indigenous leaders, were attacked on Sunday August 26, after months of receiving death threats for their efforts to protect the territory of the Zapara people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. They were beaten until unconscious, thrown in the trunk of a car, and later, apparently, left for dead.

Indigenous groups are threatened as Peru gears up for an energy boom.

POROTOBANGO, PERU

Raised in palm huts deep in the Peruvian Amazon, Gregorio Torres never imagined that below his home was something called natural gas.

Now his Machiguengua Indian settlement in this rain-forest river clearing has solar-powered radio gifted by an international oil company, corrugated tin roofs, T-shirts with company logos, and a shelf of Western medicine.

But this incipient natural-gas boom is bringing new worries, too.

For the last 15 years my family and I have been close to the Ayoreo in the Paraguayan Chaco. I wrote my thesis on their learning and knowledge-sharing practices, my brother is currently writing on their concept of territory and maps and my dad is working full time supporting the life projects of the Ayoreo Peoples as ethnical collectivity to be self-reliant in the context of modern society. More information here: www.iniciativa-amotocodie.org

Land purchase campaign for the yet uncontacted Indians in the Chaco Area of Paraguay by the Organisations Friends of People close to Nature (registered with the UN)

Dear Friends and Supporters,

URGENT CALL FROM THE MAYAN ELDERS OF GUATEMALA
Through the ancient techniques of divination and tools of prophecy, the Mayan elders are calling forth to humanity at THIS TIME to pay closer attention to the messages being sent forth by the mother earth and to immediately take the actions they have been calling for, to unite in an effort to bring balance again upon our planet. The recent destruction that manifested in Indonesia is predicted to now occur rapidly upon five continents of the earth.

France plans the ethnocide on three indigenous tribes in French Guiana

Open protest letter to the Minister of Ecology and Sustainability, France
M. Serge Lepeltier (ministere@ecologie.gouv.fr)

France violates:
a) Article 8 of the Convention on Biological Diversity
b) Directive 76/464/EWG and Directive 80/86/EWG of the European Environmental Law.
c) Articles 1, 5 and 7 of the International Declaration about the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnical, Religious or Linguistic Minorities.

France plans the ethnocide of three indigenous tribes and account for the genocide on the Wayana indians in French-Guiana.
A report by Thierry Sallantin and "Friends of Peoples close to Nature".

FRANCE VIOLATES;
Article 8 of the Convention on Biological Diversity
Directive 76/464/EWG and Directive 80/86/EWG of the European Environmental Law.
Articles 1, 5 and 7 of the International Declaration about the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnical, Religious or Linguistic Minorities.

is a warning for the Brazilian government and for international entities. The guarantee of the security and integrity of the Cinta-Larga Indians and their lands, under the threat of being invaded again by diamond diggers, is the theme of a campaign launched on the Internet. The campaign's objective is to alert authorities and the Brazilian government, as well as the UN, the OAS and Amnesty International, of the recurrent violations against the rights of this indigenous people.