Indians blog to defend against illegal logging along the Brazil-Peru Frontier · Global Voices
Jose Murilo

The Ashaninkas are the largest indigenous group in the Peruvian Amazon and differently from the majority of the South American original dwellers, their cultural identity is greatly preserved. Apart from being among the native nations of the continent connected with the traditional use of Ayahuasca, the Ashaninkas are specially known for their use of beautiful cotton robes, or cushmas, which are woven by the Ashaninka women for the men of their tribe. Cushmas are an Ashaninka's most prized possession and there is a very long tradition of giving and exchanging cushmas and cloth with nyomparis (or trading partners) which linked distant Ashaninka villages into cycles of meetings, collaboration and resource sharing.
Accounts from the beginning of the last century tells about some Ashaninka groups that escaped from the Peruvian “caucheiros” [rubber tappers], and today a few hundred of them live on the Brazilian side of the border. There are stories about the braveness of  the skilled warriors who expulsed the wild Amahuakas from the area around the Amonia River in the Upper Juruá. These few groups achieved the ownership of their land in the 90s, after many decades of struggle against the successive waves of colonization, and nowadays they strive to engage in activities that can help them to communicate with the world, and better defend their land and their culture from their current enemies.
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It's been a month since the blog of the Ashaninka Society of the Rio Amônia (Apiwtxa), has been decrying that workers from the Peruvian company Venao Forestal had illegally crossed into Brazil, and were now logging mahogany and cedar there. On a recent expedition to supervise the border, the Brazilian Ashaninkas were received with death threats from a task leader of the Peruvian company, which raised some worries about the possibility of violent clashes in the region. The power of the Internet and the blogs for outreach and networking have recently been discovered by some of the young leaders of these communities, and this fact is surely making a difference in the present struggles faced by their people.
Tenho um amigo que pra mim é uma espécie de guardião, um guardião da fronteira. Ele mora no Alto Juruá, na comunidade Apiwtxa, é da etnia Ashaninka. Seu nome é Benki Piyãko. Há alguns dias recebi um email dele contando um caso sobre o qual ele não tinha ainda muitas informações, mas que o deixou bastante preocupado. Para os que não estão acompanhando os últimos acontecimentos na fronteira acreano-brasileira e peruana, continua a invasão das nossas florestas por madeireiras peruanas. Há um verdadeiro cerco se formando. A Terra Indígena do Benki e seu povo já vem há anos sendo vitimada, e a triste novidade é que a invasão chegou a Reserva Extrativista do Alto Juruá, no seu flanco oeste e sul (cf. postagem “Cerco na fronteira”). Pois bem, houve uma ação do Ibama e do Exército na fronteira, quando prisões foram feitas. Todo o trabalho sujo das madeireiras peruanas envolve alianças suspeitas (quais seus termos?) com povos indígenas que vivem na região. Há coisas como madeireiras financiando planos de manejo de comunidades indígenas, que depois a elas venderão suas madeiras. Um dos tenentes do Exército relatou ao Benki que um morador da Reserva Extrativista, que atuara como guia naquela expedição, estaria sendo ameaçado de morte por “índios peruanos”, que o teriam procurado em sua casa. O caso, do pouco que se sabe até o momento, não teve maiores desdobramentos, mas deixou o guardião em estado de alerta. “Como líder da comunidade Apiwtxa vejo que isso é um jogo sujo da empresa Venao [empresa madeireira] por estar manipulando nossos parentes indigenas para entrar em conflito com o nosso País brasileiro ameaçando pessoas e comunidades”.
Guardião – A Flora
What makes this case notable, however, is that Venao Forestal has been FSC certified by SmartWood, which awarded the certificate in April 2007 after an evaluation in September-October 2006. According to OlyEcology, “Forestal Venao is infamous in Ucayali, Peru for their indifference to laws, indigenous people, and the rainforest environment. They have built an illegal, non-state sanctioned logging road from the banks of the Ucayali to the Juruá basin on the Brazilian border. This is no small skid trail, but a network of roads whose main trunk extends over 120 kilometers”.
The blog from the Ashaninka Society of the Rio Amônia (Apiwtxa) has been the instrument for announcing that the group would  “take immediate action to stop the advance of this exploitation”, and the intention to “appeal to international courts to protect Brazilian sovereignty, their territory, the preservation area, and the still existent biodiversity of the region.” It is important to follow what will be done in a certification system which certifies a company deserving the blacklist.
Da nossa parte, exigimos ser consultados desta vez, algo que não aconteceu antes da SmartWood/Rainforest Alliance ter concedido a certificação à Forestal Venao, em abril deste ano. Esperamos que, com a confirmação das atividades ilegais da Forestal Venao em Território brasileiro, assim como no Peru, a sua certificação seja imediatamente cancelada, conforme compromisso assumido pela Alliance.
Forestal Venao investigada no Peru e no Brasil – Apiwtxa
The Ashaninka are so intimate with the forest that they see their own clothing as akin to the plants covering of the earth. The young Ashaninka leader Benki Piyãko actively uses the latest Internet tools to reach out to the world, giving a global voice to the forest and the wisdom of his people, as the following eloquent message testifies.
Images: Incabocla