Brazilian authorities have completed a rare ground operation to protect an uncontacted tribe from violent ranchers in a region of the Amazon with the highest rate of illegal deforestation in the country.

But there are growing fears that unless the remaining steps in the land protection process for the tribe are completed quickly, the territory will never be secured.

Agents from Brazil’s indigenous affairs department FUNAI, Environment Ministry special agents and police officers were dispatched to remove the illegal ranchers – many of whom are armed – from the Kawahiva indigenous territory known as Rio Pardo, in Mato Grosso State.

The operation took place 7th-14th December. Details of the operation were released yesterday by FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indigenous affairs department.

The Kawahiva’s territory lies near the town of Colniza, one of the most violent areas in Brazil. 90% of Colniza’s income is from illegal logging. The Kawahiva are nomadic hunter-gatherers, living on the run to flee the invasions of their forest home.

The remaining members of the tribe are survivors of genocidal violence by invaders exploiting the area’s natural resources. It’s likely the tribe avoids contact with mainstream society due to these attacks, as well as the fear of disease brought in by outsiders. Proper protection of their land is the only way to ensure their right to choose not to make contact with the outside world is respected.

But President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has pledged not to protect any more indigenous land, and campaigners fear that unless the Kawahiva’s reserve is fully protected before he takes office, the process will never be completed.

The Kawahiva became well known in October 2015, when Survival International released footage of a chance encounter with members of the tribe filmed by FUNAI. These images remain some of the most astonishing footage ever seen of uncontacted people.

The process of securing their land began some years ago when the existence of the Kawahiva was confirmed, and the government began to map out their territory for their exclusive use, as is required by national and international law. However, this soon came to a stand-still, leaving the Kawahiva exposed to genocide and extinction.

Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples, then led a successful campaign to demarcate and protect the territory. Fronted by Oscar-winning actor Mark Rylance and backed by supporters in over 100 countries, Minister Eugênio Aragão signed the initial decree creating the protected territory for the tribe into law on April 19th 2016.

In the intervening years, councilors from Colniza have lobbied the Minister of Justice to drastically reduce the size of the Rio Pardo indigenous territory, to allow more loggers, ranchers and soy farmers to move in. However, two years after the decree was signed, the authorities have now removed the invader.

Jair Candor heads the FUNAI team which, supported by public prosecutors and others, is working to protect the Kawahiva territory. He told Survival: “I am so happy, this is my dream. We’ve put in the work and now we’ll reap the rewards… It’s important that people know that we are not the only humans on this Earth – the Kawahiva and other uncontacted tribes are out there, in their forests. We must protect their forest. It’s the only way they’ll survive.”

Stephen Corry, Director of Survival International, said today: “This operation proves that public campaigns can make a real difference in the struggle to halt the ongoing genocide of uncontacted peoples. The recent video of the Last of his Tribe shows how genocides can end – with just one survivor of an entire people. The Kawahiva have experienced terrible trauma in recent decades, but some still survive, and we’re determined they won’t share the fate of so many tribal peoples in the past. If their land is protected they can thrive, like the Sentinelese in the Andaman Islands. But they’re going to need all the help they can get to see the legal process to protect their land completed.”

Notes to editors:

Uncontacted tribes
- There are more than one hundred uncontacted tribes around the world. They’re tribal peoples who don’t have peaceful contact with anyone from the outside world.
- Uncontacted tribes aren’t primitive relics of a remote past. They are our contemporaries and a vital part of humankind’s diversity. They are aware of the outside world, and may engage sporadically with contacted tribes nearby.
- There’s irrefutable evidence that their tribal territories are the best barrier to deforestation, particularly in the Amazon rainforest.
- Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. Whole populations are being wiped out by violence from outsiders who steal their land and resources, and by diseases like the flu and measles to which they have no resistance.
- It is not uncommon for 90% of the population to be wiped out following initial contact.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world’s biggest conservation organizations, is breaking the law in its backing of a conservation zone in the Congo Basin, according to letters released today.

The letters demonstrate that the new protected area, known as Messok Dja, is being created without the free, prior and informed consent of the people who rely on that land for survival, members of the Baka and Bakwele tribes.

The letters also document human rights abuses committed by ecoguards funded and supported by WWF.

According to national and international law, indigenous people must give consent for any project affecting their lands, territories, and resources. Without the consent of the people who rely on the land for survival, the establishment of Messok Dja park is illegal.

Over a hundred people from six villages in Republic of Congo have signed the letters, which also describe horrific violence and abuse by ecoguards funded and supported by WWF.

One letter states:

“WWF came to tell us that they are going to make a new national park and that we will no longer have the right to go in it. But that is our forest and we do not want this park. We know that it means destruction for us and that ecoguards will come and beat people and burn down houses. Many of us have been beaten with machetes and guns by the ecoguards.”

The ecoguard unit in Sembe was set up with the help of WWF and continues to receive financial and logistical support from WWF.

The letters from the Baka people were released today by Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples. Director Stephen Corry said:

“WWF must withdraw its support for Messok Dja immediately. It claims the government is responsible for assigning protected area status to the Baka’s land, but this excuse will not wash: WWF’s own policy (and international human rights norms) say it cannot support a project that the local indigenous people do not want."

Jair Bolsonaro has started his Presidency in the worst possible way for the indigenous peoples of Brazil. Taking responsibility for indigenous land demarcation away from FUNAI, the Indian affairs department, and giving it to the Agriculture Ministry is virtually a declaration of open warfare against Brazil’s tribal peoples.

Tereza Cristina, the new head of the Ministry, has long opposed tribal land rights, and championed the expansion of agriculture into indigenous territories. This is an assault on the rights, lives and livelihoods of Brazil’s first peoples – if their lands are not protected, they face genocide, and whole uncontacted tribes could be wiped out.

This onslaught on Brazil’s first peoples attacks the heart and soul of the Brazilian nation.

The theft of indigenous territories also sets the stage for environmental catastrophe. Tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world and evidence proves they manage their environment and its wildlife better than anyone else.

Indigenous people are already resisting. The Aruak, Baniwa and Apurinã tribes have said:“We don’t want to be wiped out by this government’s actions. Our lands play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity. We are people, human beings, we have blood like you do, Mr President, we’re born, we grow… and then we die on our sacred land, like any person on Earth. We’re ready for dialogue, but we’re also ready to defend ourselves."

Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous leader and vice presidential candidate in the 2018 election, has said: "We will resist. If we’re the first people to be attacked, we’ll also be the first to react."

APIB, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, says:“We have the right to exist. We won’t retreat. We’ll denounce this government around the world.”

Survival Director Stephen Corry said today: “Survival International has stood in solidarity with Brazil’s indigenous peoples for 50 years – for their survival, for the protection of Brazil’s most biodiverse territories, for the health of our planet and for all humanity. We will continue to campaign passionately for their lives and lands to be fully respected and defended.”

An American missionary is being questioned by Brazilian authorities after he allegedly entered the territory of an uncontacted tribe.

Steve Campbell, a missionary with the Greene Baptist Church in Maine, was reportedly questioned by officials from FUNAI, the Brazilian government’s Indigenous Affairs Department, amid reports that he could be tried for genocide.

Mr Campbell is reported in the Brazilian press to have entered the territory of the Hi-Merima tribe, using a local guide who had participated in a recent FUNAI expedition.

He reportedly visited tribal camps that FUNAI had located as part of their work to monitor the uncontacted tribe’s territory.

The news comes just two months after another missionary, John Allen Chau, was killed by members of the uncontacted Sentinelese tribe after landing on their Indian Ocean island to convert them to Christianity.

Mr Campbell has allegedly defended his actions by maintaining that he was teaching members of a neighboring tribe, the Jamamadi, how to use GPS, and that entering the territory of the Hi-Merima Indians was the only way to reach his destination.

President Bolsonaro’s appointment of an evangelical preacher, Damares Alves, as the new minister in charge of indigenous affairs is likely to encourage other missionaries to attempt to contact uncontacted tribes. 

Uncontacted tribes are the most vulnerable peoples on the planet. Whole populations are being wiped out by violence from outsiders who steal their land and resources, and by diseases like the flu and measles to which they have no resistance. 

Stephen Corry, Survival International Director, said today: “Fundamentalist Christian American missionaries must be stopped from this primitive urge to contact previously uncontacted tribes. It may lead to the martyrdom they seek, but it always ends up killing tribespeople.”

Protests against the anti-indigenous policies of Brazil’s President Bolsonaro are occurring in Brazil and around the world to mark his first month in power.

Demonstrators held placards declaring “Stop Brazil’s genocide now!” and “Bolsonaro: protect indigenous land.”

The protests have been led by APIB, the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil, as the culmination of their “Indigenous blood – not a single drop more” campaign, known as “Red January.”

Before he was elected president, Mr Bolsonaro was notorious for his racist views. Among his first acts on assuming power was to remove responsibility for indigenous land demarcation from Brazil’s Indigenous Affairs Department FUNAI, and hand it to the notoriously anti-Indian Agriculture Ministry, which Survival labelled“virtually a declaration of war against Brazil’s tribal peoples.”

President Bolsonaro also moved FUNAI to a new ministry of Women, Family and Human Rights headed by an evangelical preacher, a move designed to drastically weaken FUNAI.

Emboldened by the new President and his long history of anti-indigenous rhetoric, attacks by ranchers and gunmen against Indian communities have risen dramatically.

The territory of the Uru Eu Wau Wau Indians, for example, has been invaded, endangering uncontacted tribespeople there; and hundreds of loggers and colonists are planning to occupy the land of the Awá, one of Earth’s most threatened tribes.

But Brazil’s indigenous people have reacted with defiance. “We’ve been resisting for 519 years. We won’t stop now. We’ll put all our strength together and we’ll win,” said Rosilene Guajajara. And Ninawa Huni Kuin said: “We fight to protect life and land. We will defend our nation.”

APIB said: “We have the right to exist. We won’t retreat. We’ll denounce this government around the world.”

Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said today: “Having suffered 500 years of genocide and massacres, Brazil’s tribal peoples are not going to be cowed by President Bolsonaro, however abhorrent and outdated his views are. And it’s been inspiring to see how many people around the world are standing with them.”

Note to Editors

Actions are taking place across Brazil and in Berlin, Madrid, Milan, Lisbon, London, Los Angeles, Paris, San Francisco, Washington, Zurich and other cities.

Photos will be uploaded here throughout the day.

Survival International – the global movement for tribal peoples – is proud to announce its renowned annual photography competition, welcoming entries from both amateur and professional photographers worldwide.

The competition aims to celebrate photography’s role in raising awareness of tribal peoples, their unique ways of life, and the threats to their existence.

The theme for 2019’s competition is “Tribal Peoples for Tomorrow’s World,” based on a book of the same name by Survival’s Director, Stephen Corry. The book rejects stereotypes of tribal people as “primitive” or “exotic." Their life choices are conscious decisions, ground-breaking, but entirely unrecognized, contributions to the world. We’re looking for images that show they are a key part of human diversity, and that their survival is in everyone’s interest.

The judging panel includes Survival’s Director Stephen Corry, Survival Italy Coordinator Francesca Casella, The Little Black Gallery Co-Founder Ghislain Pascal, and Max Houghton, Senior Lecturer in Photography at the London College of Communication.

The twelve winning entries will be published in Survival’s 2020 calendar, with the overall winner’s image featuring on the cover.

All winning entries will also be published on Survival’s website and social media outlets. You can follow along and post your own contributions with the hashtag #SurvivalPhotoComp2019. Please note that simply using this hashtag does not mean your photo has been entered into the competition: click here for how to enter.

All submitted photographs must have been taken in the last 10 years.

The closing date for entries is 31 May 2019.

All entry details at www.survivalinternational.org/photography

India’s Supreme Court has ordered the eviction of up to 8 million tribal and other forest-dwelling people, in what campaigners have described as “an unprecedented disaster,” and “the biggest mass eviction in the name of conservation, ever.”

The ruling is in response to requests by Indian conservation groups to declare invalid the Forest Rights Act, which gives forest-dwelling people rights to their ancestral lands, including in protected areas. The groups had also demanded that where tribespeople had tried and failed to secure their rights under the Act, they should be evicted.

The groups reportedly include Wildlife First, Wildlife Trust of India, the Nature Conservation Society, the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust and the Bombay Natural History Society.

In an extraordinary move, the national government failed to appear in court to defend the tribespeople’s rights, and the Court therefore ruled in favor of the evictions, which it decreed should be completed by July 27.

The order affects more than 1.1 million households, with experts estimating this could mean more than 8 million individuals will now be evicted – and the number is likely to rise, as some states have not provided details as to how many will be affected.

Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said today: “This judgement is a death sentence for millions of tribal people in India, land theft on an epic scale, and a monumental injustice.

“It will lead to wholesale misery, impoverishment, disease and death, an urgent humanitarian crisis, and it will do nothing to save the forests which these tribespeople have protected for generations.

“Will the big conservation organizations like WWF and WCS condemn this ruling and pledge to fight it, or will they be complicit in the biggest mass eviction in the name of conservation, ever?”

Soldiers have opened fire on a group of Pemon Indians, killing a woman and wounding at least 25 people. Four more Pemon have since died from wounds sustained in the attack. It is reported that some Pemon have been arrested and detained by the authorities.

The shooting took place on 22 February near the border with Brazil. The Pemon of Kumarakapay community (also known as San Francisco de Yuruaní) had set up a road blockade to prevent army troops from reaching the frontier. President Maduro had ordered the border closed to prevent humanitarian aid from Brazil entering the country.

Hundreds of Pemon families have sought refuge in the surrounding forest and hills. A Pemon leader managed to send out a recording as she fled declaring: “This is a war taking place here. They have orders to shoot anyone. Persecution of the capitanes generales [council of Pemon leaders] has started. They came through my community shooting with rifles.”

In response to a petition from the Venezuelan NGO Foro Penal, the Organization of American States has written to the Venezuelan government expressing its grave concern at the situation and requesting that it uphold the rights, and guarantee the safety, of the Pemon people.

There has been tension in the last months between Pemon and the army in response to the increasing militarization of their territory. Last December a Pemon man was shot dead and two Pemon wounded by military counterintelligence troops in an operation to clear illegal goldminers from the area. The operation was to pave the way for the huge Arco Minero Orinoco (Orinoco Mining Arch) project, which would see Pemon and other indigenous territories opened up to large scale mining. Many indigenous communities are deeply opposed to the project, having already suffered the devastating impacts of large- and small-scale mining.

The Pemon people of Venezuela number over 30,000 and live mainly on the Gran Sabana (a spectacular highland area of natural savanna), and in the Upper Caroní basin and lowland Imataca rainforest. There are also several thousand Pemon in neighbouring Guyana and Brazil, where they are often known as Arekuna and Taulepang.

Much of the Gran Sabana lies within the Canaima National Park, an area of 2.4 million hectares, created in June 1962 to protect this unique area. It was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site in January 1994.

For the Pemon, the spectacular flat topped mountains, and waterfalls like the Angel Falls, the highest in the world, are sacred. Many of the plants that grow on top of the mountains are found nowhere else on earth. Biologically diverse, the park also contains a number of endangered species, such as giant anteaters, giant otters and jaguars.

The Pemon cultivate manioc and other root crops like sweet potatoes and yams. Bananas, plantains and pineapples are also grown. This is supplemented by hunting and fishing. Palm trees provide housing materials and fruit. Some Pemon villages on the savanna have set up small scale tourism to earn a cash income.

Pemon lands have been targeted by successive Venezuelan governments for mining and logging, and small-scale goldminers have operated illegally here for years, all of which has had a devastating impact on the environment.

In the 1990s, with support from Survival, the Pemon opposed the building of a huge electricity line and pylons which cut through the heart of their territory to take electricity to Brazil. Despite a vigorous campaign the government pushed the project through.

A major investigation by news site Buzzfeed has today exposed a shocking level of violent abuse by ecoguards and rangers funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The report “WWF’s Secret War” reveals that “the beloved nonprofit with the cuddly panda logo funds, equips, and works directly with paramilitary forces that have been accused of beating, torturing, sexually assaulting, and murdering scores of people.”

Internal WWF documents obtained by Buzzfeed expose repeated cover-ups, and even involvement in an arms deal.

Buzzfeed also reveal that WWF“has operated like a global spymaster, organizing, financing, and running dangerous and secretive networks of informants motivated by “fear” and “revenge,” including within indigenous communities, to provide park officials with intelligence — all while publicly denying working with informants.”

The Buzzfeed team uncovered violence on a massive scale across Asia and Africa, directed at tribal peoples whose lands have been stolen for WWF-backed national parks and tiger reserves.

WWF has consistently failed to tackle the problem, and has refused to suspend its funding or properly investigate the huge number of victims’ complaints.

In 2017 an internal WWF email leaked to Survival showed that the conservation organization regarded the deaths of a young girl and elderly man as a problem of “damage control,” rather than a crime to be investigated.

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today: “This is the scandal that WWF has been covering up for decades. Its supporters’ money is spent on funding violent and abusive ecoguards who assault, torture and even kill tribal people with impunity.

“Will WWF continue with “business as normal” after these truly shocking revelations, or will it, finally, actually address the problem? Its name and logo are for many tribal people synonymous with violence, persecution and fear. WWF has hidden this from its supporters for years, but the truth is now out.

“WWF must now scrap plans to create the proposed Messok Dja National Park in the Congo, which it’s pushing ahead with even though the Baka people who live there strongly oppose it.

“And the way big conservation organizations operate around the world MUST change. If they don’t, conservation itself is doomed.”

Just one day after WWF announced an “investigation” into revelations that the guards it funds have tortured and killed people, Buzzfeed has revealed that WWF commissioned an investigation into similar reports four years ago – and then covered up the findings.

Survival International Director Stephen Corry responds today:

“Buzzfeed is uncovering a horror show involving murder, gang-rape and cover-ups. Their latest report shows how WWF seems pathologically incapable of acknowledging its complicity in human rights atrocities.

“ It’s known for years that the paramilitary units it funds have beaten, tortured and killed, and its response is always the same – a smokescreen of meaningless promises of action, and then carry on as before.

“This time they haven’t even tried to make their response sound convincing. They’ve commissioned a law firm that knows nothing about indigenous people, but specializes in “reputation management”, and even advises clients that “respondi[ng] fully… to all questions put… is not always the best strategy.”

“WWF needs a comprehensive, radical change of direction. It must stop working in areas where it doesn’t have the local people’s consent, compensate its victims, fire the guilty, and put its money and vast resources in the service of the tribal peoples who are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world.”

A new Buzzfeed investigation into WWF has shown that the charity knew local people opposed its flagship project to create a huge national park in the Congo – but hid this from the EU, who had given it €1million for the scheme.

A consultant who WWF commissioned to ask local people, including the Baka hunter-gatherers, their opinion of the proposed Messok Dja National Park found that many opposed it, and “associate this initiative with the rise in repression from eco-guards.”

The consultant’s report, obtained by Buzzfeed, went on to say: “They systematically associate it with the idea that they cannot access the forest anymore.” Locals blamed WWF for the actions of eco-guards and were therefore “very hesitant” to speak to the consultant “out of mistrust.”

These passages, however, were removed from WWF’s submission to the EU, which reported “Overall, communities of the study area remain favorable to the creation of a protected area in Messok Dja.”

Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said today: “This latest investigation by Buzzfeed reveals a conscious attempt by WWF to hide from its funders the fact that many local people were strongly opposed to the Messok Dja park.

“This shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone – all they had to do was go and ask the Baka in the area, which Survival has done repeatedly. They consistently voice their opposition, and have already experienced countless abuses at the hands of rangers funded by WWF.

“The Baka have themselves written to the EU, and to the scheme’s other big supporter, the UNDP, to tell them they oppose the park.

“If WWF has a shred of integrity left it must now announce it’s scrapping its scheme to turn Messok Dja into a protected area, and instead ask the Baka how it can help them to protect the forests they’ve looked after for so long.”

And Michel, a Baka man from Messok Dja, told Survival in 2018: “We have suffered so much. When you go into the forest they beat you, they [park rangers] destroy your house. We just want to be in peace in the forest.”

Park officials in India’s Rajaji Tiger Reserve colluded with poachers in the killing of endangered leopards, tigers and pangolin, according to an investigation by a senior wildlife officer.

The accused officials range from the park director to junior guards. WWF-India boasts that it trained “all Rajaji frontline staff in skills that were vital for protection,” including law-enforcement. It also provided vehicles, uniforms and essential anti-poaching equipment to the guards.

The investigation, reported in India’s Down to Earth magazine, found that not only were officials helping to hunt down and kill wildlife, they also beat and tortured a man named Amit – an innocent villager who was trying to stop the poaching.

Officials are reported to have arrested Amit under false charges, resulting in him being detained for up to a month. He was also beaten and given electric shocks by a wildlife warden and two range officers.

These revelations of serious human rights abuses by guards trained and supported by WWF follow the recent Buzzfeed exposés that WWF funds guards who kill and torture people.

The involvement of those supposed to protect wildlife in hunting is common. A UN report in 2016 confirmed that corrupt officials are at the heart of wildlife crime in many parts of the world, rather than tribal peoples who hunt to feed their families.

Stephen Corry, Survival International’s Director, said today: “Rangers who poach as well as violate human rights won’t surprise those environmentalists who’ve been speaking against fortress conservation for years. Corrupt rangers often collude with poachers, while tribal people, the best conservationists, bear the brunt of conservation abuses.”

The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode, an indigenous people in the heart of South America, has finally secured a key part of its territory after a 26 year struggle.

Ayoreo leaders received the ownership papers to 18,000 hectares of their ancestral land.

Some of their relatives remain uncontacted, and have been seen in this area. They are the last uncontacted indigenous people in the Americas outside of the Amazon, and live in the heart of the Paraguayan Gran Chaco, the forest with the fastest rates of deforestation in the world.

Since the 1970s, Survival has campaigned for the return of the Ayoreo’s land. In 1993 they formally claimed title to an area of 550,000 hectares, a small part of their original lands.

Much of their territory was sold to companies that have deforested the territory to make way for cattle. These include a Brazilian ranching enterprise and a Paraguayan subsidiary of Spanish construction company Grupo San José .

Since 1969 many previously-uncontacted Ayoreo have been forced out of the forest. The fundamentalist American missionary group New Tribes Mission (now Ethnos360) helped organise ‘manhunts’ in which large groups of uncontacted Ayoreo were forcibly brought out of the forest. Many died in these violent confrontations, or as a result of diseases to which they had no immunity.

It is unknown how many members of the Ayoreo currently live in the forest, rejecting contact with outsiders. They rely on hunting and gathering, and travel vast distances by foot to evade the burning and clearing of their land. In 2004 a group came out of the forest, seeking refuge from bulldozers which had destroyed their village and gardens.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights – the continent’s human rights body – has demanded the Paraguayan state take steps to halt deforestation on the Ayoreo’s land and protect their uncontacted relatives from forced contact.

Britain’s charity regulator has launched an official investigation into WWF, in a major blow to the embattled organization.

The inquiry follows an explosive report by Buzzfeed News that revealed that WWF funds, equips, and works directly with paramilitary forces that have been accused of beating, torturing, sexually assaulting, and murdering scores of people.

WWF’s main response to the Buzzfeed exposé has been to commission a law firm specializing in “reputation management” to conduct an “independent review.”

The investigation will examine whether WWF UK conducts proper due diligence to ensure that the grant money it sends overseas does not contribute to violence.

In a statement, the commission said the “atrocities and human rights abuses that were alleged are at odds with everything we associate with charity.”

The news comes just a day before the launch of the new Netflix-WWF series Our Planet, narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said today: “It’s a step forward that the Charity Commission is finally launching an investigation, but we’re not holding our breath. The Commission is only concerned with WWF UK, and has no ability to judge its complicity in human rights violations.

“The most that will happen is that it will require WWF to investigate, which WWF has already said it’ll do. We’ll then have a long wait, ending in a bucket of whitewash.

“WWF has known about these atrocities for years. Let’s not forget that, at this moment, WWF is calling for a new protected area, Messok Dja, which is stealing Baka “Pygmy” land in Congo. What we need is a public outcry against fortress conservation which is so damaging to the planet and its peoples.”

Evidence uncovered by Survival International has revealed that rangers supported by WWF will get BONUSES for arresting people.

The bonus system gives the paramilitary units a clear incentive to arrest as many people as possible. Local people have given countless accounts of arbitrary arrests, and many other abuses, committed by rangers in the region.

The payments are detailed in the funding agreement signed between the EU and WWF for the creation of the hugely controversial Messok Dja protected area in the Congo.

It also details that bonuses will be paid to informants for information leading to an arrest.

WWF has pushed the Messok Dja project despite the strong opposition of the local Baka people, whose lands are being taken for it. Under international law, such projects must not proceed if the local people have not already given their proper consent to the proposal.

A Baka man told Survival: “To us this is like a war, and our forest is now closed off to us. The rangers kill people for money, that’s how they raise their salary.”

A major investigation into WWF by Buzzfeed last month revealed that it “funds, equips, and works directly with paramilitary forces that have been accused of beating, torturing, sexually assaulting, and murdering scores of people.”

Buzzfeed also published internal documents showing WWF knew for years that the rangers had been accused of gross human rights abuses, but continued to fund them.

WWF is now under investigation in the US,UK and Germany.

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today: “WWF’s system means that its rangers are paid more – by EU taxpayers – for every person they arrest. Imagine the outcry if this applied to law enforcement officers in the EU! Policing is not selling cars, and shouldn’t operate on a “commission” basis.

“Everyone who’s looked into it knows what the Baka and other local people have been telling us for years, that they’re constantly being arrested – and frequently beaten up, tortured and worse. Now we know there’s actually an incentive for the rangers to mistreat them.

“It goes without saying that the real poachers, in league with corrupt guards and officials, get away scot-free – as usual.”

A shock investigation for Dutch TV has revealed WWF’s involvement in sterilization programs around national parks.

The hugely controversial policy to reduce human populations around protected areas has been condemned as “utterly unethical” by Survival International Director Stephen Corry, who said: “Can you imagine WWF promoting the sterilization of women living around national parks in Europe or the US? The fact they consider it acceptable in India and Africa is racism, pure and simple.”

The investigation has also uncovered evidence that WWF personnel were not only aware of the existence of a shoot on sight policy in India, which used the phrase “kill the unwanted,” but made no attempt to change it.

The report, titled “Victims of WWF” has aired on Zembla, the Netherlands’ main investigative TV series.

Also on the program, rangers at India’s notorious Kaziranga National Park admit they are still authorised to shoot people on sight, despite government denials that such a policy exists.

WWF Netherlands were due to be interviewed for the program, but cancelled without giving a reason. The organization is one of the main backers of the proposed Messok Dja protected area in the Congo, which is going ahead without the consent of the local people. Messok Dja was recently the subject of a Buzzfeed investigation.

Survival International, which has been fighting against human rights abuses occurring in the name of conservation for decades, has approached WWF ambassadors and celebrity backers for comment.

India’s 100 million tribal people, known as Adivasis, are already reeling from a double blow:

- A recent Supreme Court decision, currently paused, orders the eviction of up to 8 million of them from India’s forests.

- Government plans to amend the colonial-era Indian Forest Act, leaked to the press in March, include a huge program of militarization of India’s forests; forestry department officials authorised to shoot people, and given virtual immunity from prosecution; and the ability to extinguish existing Adivasi land rights.

Tribal people in India, Brazil and Colombia are in the front line of what campaigners have called “the biggest global assault on indigenous rights for fifty years.”

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today: “Each month seems to bring fresh revelations of just how far WWF is prepared to go to promote “fortress conservation.”

“Shoot on sight policies, sterilization programs for villagers living near national parks – these are signs of a movement that’s completely lost its sense of ethics in pursuit of a hardline anti-people agenda.

“It’s tragic for the innocent people caught up in these abuses – and utterly self-defeating for conservation in the long term.”

A new investigation has uncovered further revelations of WWF-linked abuses of local people in the name of conservation. It’s the THIRD major exposé this year since Survival International drew attention to the organization’s funding of an illegal conservation project.

In Forest of Fear, part of Channel 4’s Unreported World series broadcast in the UK on May 31, reporter Ade Adepitan investigated WWF’s plan to create a protected area in the Congo against the wishes of the local people.

“Something has gone very badly wrong here,” said Adepitan after interviewing the Baka people living in the area of the proposed Messok Dja park.

Survival International is campaigning in partnership with the Baka tribe to stop the scheme, which the Baka don’t agree to, and which is therefore illegal.

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today: “The Unreported World documentary adds new evidence to what Survival has been saying for years. WWF’s activities fund abuse and intimidation. It’s the same story from the Congo to India – the theft of tribal peoples’ land and relentless persecution in the name of “conservation.”

“This pursuit of an outdated, colonial-style ideology, often carried out in partnership with the very corporations who are destroying the world’s rainforests, is wrecking millions of lives. It’s not saving the rainforests, and it’s not even saving the iconic species big conservation organizations have been using for decades to fundraise.

“But this ideology is so entrenched, and the vested interests are so powerful, that it’s going to take a global outcry to change it. We’re fighting to decolonize conservation, for tribes, for nature, for all humanity.”

A meeting taking place in Delhi tomorrow could determine the fate of eight million tribal people and other forest dwellers in India.

The talks between states and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs follows February’s hugely controversial Supreme Court order to evict millions of people whose land rights claims have been rejected.

The next Supreme Court hearing in the case will be on 24 July, when the court may once again order the eviction of millions of people. This comes at a time when India’s tribal peoples are facing an unprecedented assault on their rights.

India’s new Minister of Environment and Forests, who has spoken in support of shoot on sight policies, will also try to push through a draft amendment to the British-era Indian Forest Act. The proposed changes have been described as even more draconian than the original.

The draft amendment, which was leaked to the press, was drafted by senior forestry officials, lawyers and the CEO of WWF-India, Ravi Singh. The new act includes:

- A huge program of militarization of India’s forests and tiger reserves, with thousands of officials routinely armed.
- Forest Department officials given the right to shoot people to “prevent” forest offences and enjoy virtual immunity from prosecution.
- Forest officers given the right to shoot, search, seize property, and arrest citizens, while the burden of proving innocence would lie with the accused.
– The undermining of groundbreaking legislation that sought to redress the historical “injustices” to India’s tribal peoples. State governments able to take away forest rights, in the name of conservation.

In India’s Kaziranga National Park a similar level of militarization and impunity for guards resulted in 50 people being shot dead in three years and a 7-year-old boy maimed for life. A recent Dutch documentary highlighting abuses and evictions in Kaziranga, along with WWF’s support for the park, is now available in English worldwide.

The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples has criticized the Supreme Court order, saying: “The basic premise of this ruling, which treats tribal peoples as illegal residents of the forest, is wrong—Indigenous Peoples are the owners of their lands and forests.”

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today: “Colonial conservation took three or four generations to steal the lands of about 10-15 million indigenous people throughout the world. India is now looking to steal the lands and livelihoods of a further 8 million tribal and other forest dwellers in a few months, and to shoot them if they try and go back. The militarization of India’s forests is being done under the guise of a law, drafted with WWF, supposedly in aid of conservation. One of the most massive human rights violations in the world is being planned, with almost no voices outside India raised in opposition.”

Up to 10,000 goldminers have invaded Yanomami lands in northern Brazil, spreading malaria in the region and polluting many of the rivers with mercury.

Although most Yanomami are in contact with non-indigenous society, one uncontacted group is known to live in the area being invaded, and authorities are investigating signs of up to six other uncontacted communities living there.

The massive influx has been blamed by local indigenous leaders for the deaths of four children already. They say the miners are building settlements and airstrips, emboldened by President Bolsonaro’s support for land invaders, and constant attacks on indigenous people.

Some mining camps are just a few miles from uncontacted Yanomami.

The Yanomami association Hutukara estimates the number of miners at up to 10,000. They also report devastation to the fish and game they rely on for their livelihood.

The Yanomami are pushing the government to remove the miners. Earlier this year Brazilian Indians led the biggest ever international protest for indigenous rights, after President Bolsonaro effectively declared war on them and their rights.

The 35,000 Yanomami straddle both sides of the Brazil-Venezuela border. 20% of the Yanomami population in Brazil died from diseases brought in by goldminers during a previous gold rush in the late 1980s and early 90s.

After a long international campaign led by Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Survival and the CCPY (Pro Yanomami Commission), Yanomami land in Brazil was finally demarcated as the ‘Yanomami Park’ in 1992. The Yanomami territories in Brazil and Venezuela together form the largest forested indigenous territory in the world.

Davi Kopenawa, known as “the Dalai Lama of the Rainforest” said: “Four of our rivers – the Uraricoera, Mucajaí, Apiaú and Alto Catrimani – are polluted. It’s getting worse, more miners are coming in. They’re not bringing anything [good], they’re just bringing trouble. Malaria has already increased here, and killed four of our children.”

Survival International Director Stephen Corry said today: “Bolsonaro’s racism has tragic consequences – and the gold rush underway in northern Brazil is just one example. It’s devastating the Yanomami people, who were attacked and massacred thirty years ago during the region’s last bout of gold fever. Bolsonaro’s happy to stand by and watch as the people die and the forest is destroyed – only a public outcry in Brazil and internationally can stop him.”

A new investigation by Buzzfeed News has revealed:

- WWF-backed rangers gang-raped pregnant women, murdered one villager and tortured others in the Congo
- WWF cut short an investigation into the atrocities, and tried to cover it up
- The charity asked its partners to treat the findings in “a non-public fashion”
- WWF failed to disclose the investigation’s report to a Congressional committee investigating whether US aid money funded human rights abuses

Survival International’s Director Stephen Corry said today: “More shocks about WWF, more proof that the abuses being committed by WWF-funded rangers are even worse than already reported. And that they will go on and on until WWF’s funders finally pull the plug on this corrupt and totally discredited organization.

“If anyone still harbored any hopes that WWF was serious about actually changing its ways, this should comprehensively demolish them.”