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Barbara Arisi

The black jaguar and the guardian of the forest

Por Amazônia Real Publicado em: 26/10/2021 às 16:45

Por Maycon Melo e Barbara Arisi

Two illegal hunters were arrested in the municipality of Arame, 476 kilometres from the capital São Luís do Maranhão last Wednesday (20) for killing a black jaguar last week inside the Araribóia Indigenous Land in the municipality of Amarante do Maranhão in the state of Maranhão, Brazil. A video posted on the social media by the hunters where they mockingly show an enormous jaguar that had been slaughtered is circulating in the country, shocking those who watch it. The hunter, besides having committed the crime of killing a wild animal (a crime provided for in Law 9.605/98 and punishable by six months to one year of confinement and a fine), also made a threat: “if you do not want to die, do not risk yourself in front of me, if I did this with such an animal here, imagine with a guardian”.

The “guardian” to which the hunter refers in his speech is the indigenous group created by the Guajajara people for the protection and surveillance of their own indigenous territory (IT) and who monitor the ethno-environmental conservation areas in an attempt to contain and combat the presence of deforestation, fire and invaders with a lot of dedication but little or no financial support.

The image of this splendid animal killed in such criminal way is only the tip of the problems in this Amazon region. For over a decade, the indigenous peoples who live there – the Guajajara people who live in the Araribóia Indigenous Land; the Gavião people, in the Governador Indigenous Land; and the Krikati people, who live in the territory that bears their same name – have been denouncing the invasion of their territories.

Deforestation, fires, the presence of illegal hunters and gatherers, as well as the advance of illegal agribusiness activities in these Indigenous Lands have culminated in a scenario of environmental collapse, conflicts and death.

Indigenous from the Guardians of the Forest group against illegal logging in the Governador Indigenous Land, in Maranhão (Photo courtesy of Maycon Melo/MMA/UniCEUMA)

In 2019, Paulo Guajajara was killed during a loggers’ ambush. Paulo was part of the group Guardians of the Forest and he was killed while monitoring his own territory on the same date that a delegation of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) was holding a public demonstration in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as part of the campaign “Indigenous Blood: Not a Single Drop More”.

The Guardians of the Forest group are also called the Territory Watchers, a territorial management policy which is replicated in other Amazonian indigenous territories. The creation of such groups of indigenous guardians was motivated by necessity, due to the inaction and sluggishness of the public agencies that have the attribution of watching over the conservation, security and protection of the indigenous people, plants and animals that live in the ITs.

With little or no support, the forest rangers do a dangerous job that should not even be theirs, they do it because there is no one to do it and indigenous lands are their home where they live with their families and communities. The guardians are constantly risking their lives by crossing paths with criminal and dangerous men, like these hunters who killed the black jaguar. It is difficult to watch the video without being shocked by yet another macabre scene in Brazilian history. The hunter threatens the guardians of the forest as if he were going to go unpunished, as we bare witnesses when listening to the material that circulated on social networks.

Paulo Paulino “Bad Wolf” Guajajara, Guardian of the Amazon in the centre, was killed by loggers. (Photo Survival International)

Last Friday (22), the Civil Police showed the pictures of the skin of the black jaguar and the weapons and ammunition seized after the arrest of the hunters in Arame (MA), they will be part of the criminal process to which they will respond. The hunting of animals such as the black jaguar, an endangered animal, according to the Brazilian Institute of Environment (IBAMA) is a crime provided for in Brazilian law since 1967.

The threat to indigenous people is also a crime. It is tragic to remember and think that both the dead black jaguar and Paulo Paulinho Guajajara were killed trying to defend their territory, this magnificent forest that is the Amazon rainforest. It makes us sad to think how we watch with astonishment the increasingly accelerated destruction of this forest, precious in bio and socio-diversity, which is being burnt, deforested, riddled and destroyed by mining, agribusiness and pasture companies and enterprises.

People like these hunters are the small criminals in a world of big crimes committed by much more powerful people and equally guilty for the death of jaguars, rivers and so many indigenous people, they leave behind them a devastated land full of death, blood and only the skin and traces of magnificent beings like the jaguar. As anthropologists, we have learnt from the Gavião and the Matis indigenous peoples that the power of the jaguar continues in the forest, well, at least while there is a forest…

Women during a ritual of the Gavião Pyhcop Catiji people at the TI Governador in Maranhão (Photo courtesy Maycon Melo/MMA/UniCEUMA)
Indigenous people of the Gavião Pyhcop Catiji people in the Governador IT in Maranhão (Photo courtesy of Maycon Melo/MMA/UniCEUMA)
Seizure of illegal timber in the Governador Indigenous Territory, in Maranhão (Photo courtesy of Maycon Melo/MMA/UniCEUMA)
Seizure of illegal timber in the Governador Indigenous Territory, in Maranhão (Photo courtesy of Maycon Melo/MMA/UniCEUMA)
Seizure of illegal timber in the Governador Indigenous Territory, in Maranhão (Photo courtesy of Maycon Melo/MMA/UniCEUMA)

The image of the jaguar’s skin at the police station that opens this article is by the Civil Police of Maranhão.

Maycon Melo is a professor at the MSc Program in Environmental Studies, at Ceuma University, São Luís do Maranhão, Brazil.

Barbara Arisi is currently a lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and Amsterdam University College, in the Netherlands, and columnist for Amazônia Real, independent journalism site where this article originally is published in Portuguese and in English.

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"É trágico lembrar e pensar que tanto a onça-preta morta como Paulo Paulinho Guajajara morreram assassinados tentando defender seu território, essa floresta magnífica que é a floresta Amazônica."

Amazônia Real

A agência de jornalismo independente e investigativo Amazônia Real é uma organização sem fins lucrativos, criada por jornalistas mulheres em 20 de outubro de 2013, em Manaus, no Amazonas, Norte do Brasil. Sua missão é fazer jornalismo ético e investigativo, pautado nas questões da Amazônia e de seu povo. A linha editorial é voltada à defesa da democratização da informação, da liberdade de expressão, da liberdade de imprensa e dos direitos humanos. ([email protected])

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1 Comentário

orestes alarcon disse:
27/10/2021 às 06:35
Barbara, parabéns pela matéria…difícil e importante tarefa de fazer a defesa da floresta e da vida silvestre nessa Amazônia que todos amamos e sabemos da sua importância para o Brasil e o mundo. VIVA A AMAZÔNIA VIVA A ONÇA PRETA !!! Tamos juntos
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