Indigenous Peoples
Posted: 10-Oct-2002; Updated: 23-Aug-2007
People have lived in and used forests throughout human history. Regions that we often think of as "wilderness" or "pristine nature" have in fact been inhabited over the long term.
The Amazon, for example, probably had a higher population before 1500, when Europeans first arrived, than at any time since until the last few decades. Large parts of the indigenous population died from diseases introduced by European colonizers, so that areas that appear "pristine" today were once inhabited over the long term. Many scientists think that low-level human occupation of forests may actually increase species diversity, by creating small-scale ecological disturbances.
Indigenous peoples - peoples like American Indians, the original inhabitants of the Americas before European colonization - reside in much of the world's remaining tropical and old growth forest. Indigenous peoples often stand to lose the most from predatory development, such as illegal logging, agricultural colonization, or industrial plantations and agriculture, and therefore are critical allies for conservationists.
The map of indigenous lands and forest in Central America complied by anthropologist Mac Chapin and published by National Geographic is a good example of how indigenous populations and forestation are connected. Where forest remains in most of Central America, is also where indigenous groups that have preserved distinct cultures, languages and identities, live.
Indigenous peoples in Brazil (only about 0.2% of national population) have over the last thirty years won official recognition of their rights to 20% of the Amazon - an area twice the size of California, and the largest expanse of tropical forest under any form of protection anywhere.
