AMAZON WATCH - Brazil's Indigenous Tribes Are Being Hunted by Murderous Cattle Ranchers

30.10.13

AMAZON WATCH - Brazil's Indigenous Tribes Are Being Hunted by Murderous Cattle Ranchers: The issue of tribal land rights is nothing new. Over the 1950s and 60s cattle ranches seized tribal areas to supply international demand for beef and, later, farmers went on to make fortunes out of soybean plantations. The 1988 Brazilian constitution was meant to end ranch exploitation by stipulating the exclusive rights of tribal groups to their lands. Handily for farmers and corrupt politicians, their borders weren't mapped out in law and over the past few decades lawyers and anthropologists have had to push relentlessly to get ancestral land recognised. Progress has been incredibly slow – last year, for example, of the 600 tribal demarcation plans pending, only seven territories were mapped.