Website of the day: Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust

Emily, Sue and Patrick, three of the trustees from the IPCST came along to Andy Kimbrell’s outstanding presentation at the Gaia Foundation on Wednesday 19 September.

It is a small and apparently very efficient charity which works for the Indian tribal people in Brazil in the catchments of the Xingu and Araguaia rivers in the States of Mato Grosso and Pará.


They are looking to Wild Law – and indeed any law – to help protect the integrity of the reserves and to protect the tribal peoples whose way of life depend on it.

Both are under severe threat to the extent of becoming unviable as a result of encroachment, logging, serious contamination of the catchment upstream, and conflicts with non-indigenous settlers.

The water problems are caused by a massive sediment load due to deforestation, to the extent it is no longer possible to see fish – the main food – to spear them.

In addition there is a health problem with sewerage carried in from settlements outside the reserve.

Patron of the charity is Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, Science Director of the Eden Project in Cornwall, and a former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.



Start here to get an overview, including bios on the interesting lives of Emily, Sue and Patrick, then browse from there for details of the projects, satellite photos showing the problem etc:

http://www.ipcst.org/about.htm#members


There is also a short document on the impact of climate change which is worth visiting for a graphic satellite image showing the desolation outside the reserve. It reminds us:

‘Deforestation contributes 75% of Brazil’s total greenhouse gas emissions; despite Brazilian people having a relatively small individual carbon footprint, Brazil is the world’s fourth largest climate polluter.’

at:

http://www.ipcst.org/images/HoB_ClimateChange.pdf


IPCST’s work is featured extensively on the BBC’s Portuguese website which is highly recommended even for non-speakers for the stunning photos (em imagen). Find them at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/portuguese/forum/story/2007/08/070808_projetoxingu17.shtml



Any legal expertise that might help with the predicament of these endangered peoples, a fast disappearing part of our global heritage and of the Earth community, would be greatly appreciated.


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