Drought, Fire Bring Food Shortage to Indigenous Peoples in North
4/7/98
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Title: Drought, Fire Bring Food Shortage to Indigenous Peoples in North
Source: Agence France-Presse
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 4/7/98
BRASILIA, April 7 (AFP) - The fires are out in northern Brazil but nearly
22,000 Macuxis and other Indians may go hungry because fire or drought
destroyed their crops, the head of the National Indian Foundation (Funai) said
Tuesday.
"Nearly 22,000 have been affected by the drought and fire that has scorched the
state in the past two months," said Sullivan Sylvestre Oliveira, head of Funai.
"The fire destroyed most of the Macuxis Indian family farms, the huts of some
tribes and certain parts of the forest where they hunt," he said.
"We have enough food reserves for 10 days but we need 177 tonnes of food for
the next two months, and that could cost the state three million dollars," he
said.
Environment Minister Gustavo Krause said the fire in the savanna and jungle of
far northern Roraima state, which is slightly larger than France, had burned
itself out with help from torrential rains.
"There were no victims," he said, although the blaze is believed to have burned
an area the size of Belgium.
About 44 percent of the state is set aside for seven indigenous groups. The
32,000 sedentary Macuxis are the largest group while one of the smallest is the
Yanomami, a semi-nomadic group that lives in the forest.
Krause also announced the creation of a program to preserve the Amazon jungle
that includes the creation of a data bank and the formation of volunteer
firefighting brigades.