Spetial debate on Isolated Indigenous Peoples (08.17.17)

The special debate on isolated indigenous peoples at the recent SALSA conference in Lima inspired an article in Science News by Barbara Fraser

The recent SALSA conference in Lima featured a special debate on isolated indigenous peoples. Peruvian-based journalist Barbara Fraser interviewed international specialists on the topic who attended the event and published an article in Science News pointing out how large-scale development and infrastructure projects in the Amazon are edging in on the territories of some of the most isolated and vulnerable indigenous peoples in the world:

“Development projects in the Amazon Basin—including dams, roads, and oil and gas operations—are encroaching on forests that are the last refuges of thousands of indigenous people who continue to shun contact with the outside world, according to a study that estimates the tribes’ locations. Antenor Vaz, formerly of the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) in Brasília, the Brazilian government’s indigenous affairs agency, combed a wide range of records to map confirmed or reported locations of isolated groups in seven South American countries… Vaz, former assistant director of FUNAI’s office for people in isolation or initial contact, presented the maps at a conference of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America held here last month.”

Read the full article at Science News.

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