Tong Tana - Bruno Manser Fonds

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Canada respects the rights of indigenous Inuit people Canada makes a start ! rg – Since 1.4.99 the Inuit, formerly known as Eskimos (raw meat eaters), were granted a politically self-contained territory within Canada. With an area of around 2 million square kilometres (approximately 50 times bigger than Switzerland) and with around 27 000 dwellers, the new territory named “Nunavut” (our land) is extreme sparsely populated. From the 56 000 Inuit living in Canada, 23 000 now live in Nunavut. The landscape is stamped by lakes, tree-free polar prairie and plains and cliffs on the Arctic coast. Nunavut has been tagged as one of the world’s most promising mining areas. There are big deposits of resources like zinc, lead, silver, gold and diamonds that are already partially exploited. Through the transfer of prospecting rights, the Inuit receive from the Canadian government over the next 14 years a total of 1.15 billion dollars. Apart from that the government will take over 90% of the territory’s expenses in the next years. The Inuit’s culture has changed a lot in the past years: monies provided to them by the government up to social housing assisted to the Inuit’s estrangement from their traditional lifestyle. Nomadic camps and dog sleighs have been replaced by permanent housing estates and motor sledges. The official language will indeed be Inuktitut, and although not only the well educated inhabitants often prefer English, many The Inuit hunt in kayaks traditions are preserved specially by the elders. Because of the language barrier the younger Inuit find it hard to discuss with their grandparents. Demand for drugs and other consume-possibilities is spreading. NUNAVUT, our Land Map: NZZ Tong Tana Published by Bruno-Manser-Fonds (BMF) Society for the peoples of the rainforest Heuberg 25, CH-4051 Basel, Switzerland Telephone ++41(61)261 94 74 Fax ++41(61)261 94 73 E-mail: info@bmf.ch Internet: www.bmf.ch Donations: Switzerland/Liechtenstein: Post account: 40-5899-8 Coop Bank account,4002 Basel, Acct. 421329.29.00.00-5 France: La Poste, Strasbourg, Acct. CCP 2.604.59T Germany: Deutsche Bank, Lörrach (BLZ 683 700 34) Acct. 1678556 Editor: John Künzli, Bruno Manser Authors: Bruno Manser (bm), Roger Graf (rg), John Künzli (jk), Ruedi Suter (rs), David Koechlin (dk), Dominik Bucheli (db) Photos: B. Manser, BMF, Zoo Zurich, D. Koechlin, IUCN, E. Bruenig, Keith Snow Drawings: B. Manser Translations: Robert Gogel, M.-A. Dodd (French), Barbara Jäckli, Sara Moylan, (English), J. Künzli, B. Manser (German) Edition: 6200 (4000 German, 1500 French, 700 English) Appears trimesterially Please note: Voluntary contributions are very welcome and very needed ! Thank you! Printed by Gremper AG, Basel 8
Speaking of wood: Amazon Ban on timber felling in Brazil a farce rg – Brazil’s Minister of the Environment, Jos‚ Sarney Filho, has partly lifted the ban on timber felling in Amazon due to pressure from the logging industry. Clear cutting continues unhindered. According to the secret service, eighty per cent of Brazil’s timber exports are from illegal sources. The remaining 20% are cut by the 377 registered logging companies which possess logging concessions for over 16 000 square kilometers. Not all by far adhere to the guidelines for reforestation and careful logging techniques, as the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” dated April 9, 1999, writes. The Malaysian timber companies WTK and Samling and the Chinese enterprise Tianjin reportedly have already bought several million hectares of forest for future logging. According to the “NZZ” all experts agree that the environmental controls have become more strict in Brazil. Whether this is sufficient to put a stop to the “timber sharks’” handiwork remains to be seen. The Amazon forest is disappearing faster than assumed rg – As reported by “Nature” in April 1999, the rainforest is disappearing faster than assumed. A study questioned 1, 600 people, especially owners of sawmills and Lowland tapir land owners. Additionally, aerial photographs were taken from aircraft. The researchers stated that their results were by far more reliable than the satellite photos used until now. According to the newest calculations about 44 000 square kilometers (the area of Switzerland) of rainforest were destroyed during the past year. This is almost three times the official Brazilian estimate. A split up rainforest becomes species-poor rg – Behind the front of the loggers and slash-and-burn farmers remains a rag rug landscape of patches of more or less intact forest with clear-cut and burned areas between them. Many of these small and isolated fragments are subsequently bought by environmental organisations or by the state and placed under protection. Very small areas, however, are not able to maintain the original biological/ species diversity, as the journal “Biological Conservation” (No. 89/1999) reports. Scientists investigated the number of mammals living within two large (each about 20 000 hectares), two medium-sized (about 2000 hectares each) and two small (about 200 hectares each) rainforest fragments on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Whereas all 36 expected species of mammals were found in the large areas, 30–31 species remained in the medium-sized areas and only 22–23 species were left in the smallest areas. Especially large species with low population densities roaming through large territories such as jaguars, pumas and lowland tapirs were missing in the small forested areas. Boundary effects are also especially detrimental for the small areas where a change in the temperature and wind regimes causes the microclimate inside the forest fragment to change and to foster forest fires. 9
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