A group of warriors from Brazil’s indigenous Ka’apor tribe tracked down
illegal loggers in the Amazon, tied them up, stripped them and beat them
with sticks.
Tired of what they say is a lack of sufficient government assistance in
keeping loggers off their land, the Ka’apor people, who along with four
other tribes are the legal inhabitants and caretakers of the territory,
have sent their warriors out to expel all loggers they find and set up
monitoring camps.
Last year, the Brazilian government said that annual destruction of its
Amazon rain forest jumped by 28 percent after four straight years of
decline. Based on satellite images, it estimated that 5,843 square
kilometres of rain forest were felled in the one-year period ending July
2013.
The Amazon rain forest is considered one of the world’s most important
natural defences against global warming because of its capacity to
absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide.
Rain forest clearing is
responsible for about 75 percent of Brazil’s emissions, as vegetation is
burned and felled trees rot.
Such activity releases an estimated 400
million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year, making
Brazil at least the sixth-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide gas.
Source: Agencies
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