Experts double estimate of unknown Amazon tribes

Published on 18/01/2007 00:08

INDIAN groups surviving in Brazil's Amazon rain forest are far more numerous than previously believed, but they risk extermination at the hands of loggers and miners, experts say.

A study by Funai, the Brazilian government's national Indian foundation, estimates that around 67 Indian groups live in isolation from the outside world, up from previous estimates of around 40.

"With the rate of destruction in the Amazon, it is amazing there are any isolated people left at all," said Fiona Watson, campaigns co-ordinator with Survival International, an advocacy group for tribal peoples.

Funai reviewed old and new discoveries of footprints, abandoned huts and other signs of human life in the thicket of the world's largest rain forest.

"There are still vast unexplored areas and new indications of (Indian groups)," said Marcelo dos Santos, head of Funai's department of isolated Indians.

Brazil is likely to have the world's largest number of uncontacted tribes, Ms Watson said. Most live as they would have when Portugal's Pedro Cabral became the first European explorer to land in Brazil in 1500. Most hunt with blowpipes or bows and arrows.

Government policy is to avoid contact with isolated Indians unless they are in extreme danger.