Recent Campaigns

Aw tribes of Brazil
The Aw tribes are traditionally hunter gatherers who have been living in the rainforests of
Amazon for centuries. Hunting is the primary occupation of these indigenous tribes of Brazil.
These Aw tribes still live uncontacted in the forest and hunt with bow and arrows. These
tribes are nomadic hunter-gatherers and as such they are always on the move. But they dont
wander aimlessly, they have formed a close bond with their land and know where to go and
when to go. They have a symbiotic relationship with nature here and they cannot conceive of
moving on leaving the place of their ancestors behind.
Brazil is rich in natural resources and 600 km to the west of Aw territory lies the Carajas
mine with around seven billion tonnes of iron ore. It is the largest iron ore mine on the planet.
Trains as long as 2kms run throughout the day, to and from the mine. The railways apart from
displacing and rehabilating several tribes including Aw have also brought along with it
outsiders hungry for land, work and the game animals that are easily poached from these
tribes lands.
The land lived in by the Aw tribes are legally protected, but with the advent of railways in
the region it also eased the way for criminal logging gangs to come here and earn big money.
The government is barely present here and it was only the resistance of the tribes and the
rainy season that slowed the progress of these logging gangs. These logging gangs and
ranchers in three decades had destroyed over 34% of the legally-protected land inhabited by
Aw tribes.
In 2012, Survival International to support the cause of the Aw tribes and protect them
launched the Save the Aw campaign. Survival International brought the issue to national
and international prominence. It got celebrities to further endorse their cause. It sent
documents and made pleas to both the Brazilian and UK government highlighting the
rampant destruction of the land of these tribes and the subsequent threat to the lives of Aw
tribe. The solution to the issue was simple protect the land and the tribe will survive. Over
57,000 messages, online petitions and photos showing support from people in 38 countries
were sent to Brazils Minister of Justice to bring an end to this and protect the Aw tribes and
their land. In 2014, these efforts finally paid off and bowing to the campaign, the government
sent in hundreds of troops to remove the loggers. Logging roads were mapped, loggers camps
and sawmills were located and destroyed, loggers were expelled. The Aw could live in peace
once more.

Save the Aw campaign with people protesting in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri Hills

Niyamgiri hill range in Odisha is an area of densely forested hills, deep gorges and cascading
streams. The Dongria Kondh tribe farm on the hills fertile slopes and worship the mountain
god Niyam Raja and the hills he presides over, including the 4,000 metre Mountain of the
Law, Niyam Dongar. They live in small villages scattered throughout the hills. These tribes
consider them the royal descendants of Niyam Raja and have expert knowledge of forests and
wildlife in the area. Dongria Kondh tribe has been living here since centuries in perfect
harmony with Niyamgiri hills maintaining the rich biodiversity in the area.
For the last decade the Dongria Kondh tribe has however been living under the constant
threat of mining by Vedanta Resources, a London-listed former FTSE 100 mining company
which was Awrded the project to mine bauxite worth around $2billion present under the
these hills. Vedanta had plans to create an open-cast mine at Niyam Dongar, violating their
place of worship and God and disrupting its rivers in the process. Even before Vedanta
received permission to mine, it started work on the conveyor belt and built a refinery in the
town of Lanjigarh. The conveyor built would bring bauxite directly from the hills to the mine.
Permission to build the refinery was given by the government on the condition that no forest
land would be used. Vedanta however completely violated this condition and annexed 60
hectares of forest land from the tribal communities displacing over a hundred Majhi Kondh
families to a settlement of concrete houses circled with barbed wire, in the process. These
tribes lost their source of livelihood and were forced to work as labourers for Vedanta or
depend on handouts.
Vedantas own plans stated that mining would continue for 16 hours a day, 6 days a week for
23 years. The mine would have caused irreversible damage to biodiversity in the region
placing enormous burden on forests and wildlife.
Dongria protested with the support of Survival international who lobbied the Indian
government, as well as the UK, for the mine to be stopped. Survival International provided
legal advice, sent researchers to the areas, created a film called Mine on the Dongrias
struggle that went viral online. It sent reports to the United Nations and OECD highlighting
the damage the mine would be causing. The lobbying done by Survival International proved
very successful with the UK government coming out with a statement saying did not respect
the rights of the Dongria Kondh, and did not consider the impact of the construction of the
mine on the [tribes] rights.
The Supreme Court told Vedanta in 2013 that it is up to the Dongria Kondh tribe to decide
whether to allow mining on the mountain. The Dongria tribe voted unanimously against the
mine in the referendum ordered by the Supreme Court leading to cancellation of the project.

Protest in London outside Vedanta head office during their AGM.

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