vironment and their society, by logging and the sudden influx of money. Indeed, the Surui have now expelled lumbermen from their reserve, deciding that logging was not in their interests. Similarly, one Kayapo group is reported to have "banned" cars after a child was severely injured by a jeep bought with lumber money. But encouraging as that might be, the dilemma is still there: the desire for consumer goods may not be to the liking of ecologists, and it is certainly inimicable to the long-term health of the forests, but it is a reality, and so long as it remains so, the Indians will attempt to earn money in whatever way they can. Nor is money required just for consumer goods: to establish land-rights the Indians need lawyers, who do not come cheaply, and to win some degree of economic independence from FUNAI, whose integrationist policies have proved disastrous, the Indians need a source of income that they can control.

In that context, marketing forest products, using traditional techniques, is a preferable route to earning money via lumbering or, worse still, working in the city. Indeed, many anthropologists see such marketing schemes as the only hope of preserving Indian culture. But I have my doubts.The truth is that sustainable production and consumerism are incompatible goals. The one relies on limiting demand, the other on increasing it. Indeed, so long as economic growth (and calling it "sustainable growth" does nothing to change its fundamental character) remains the object of our economic activities, Amazonia will always be under the axe. Consumer goods do not appear by magic. Their production depends on recovering the very mineral resources that lie beneath Amazonia and whose exploitation inevitably involves the further opening up of the forests — with all the destruction that this entails. "Zoning" the forest may limit the destruction in a small way but it will not prevent it, for it is a policy that is still geared to the growth-oriented development programmes that are at the root of deforestation and, indeed, the poverty that feeds upon it.

Setting aside Amazonia for extractive reserves is a step in the right direction, but it will only postpone the inevitable i f the "outside" world continues to pursue the devastating goal of further growth. The solution must surely lie not in surrendering further to the lure of the market, but in systematically disentangling ourselves from its clutches. In that respect, the saving of Amazonia relies as much on the international community turning its back on

62

growth, reducing the consumption of consumer goods, and adopting policies that reverse current economic trends as on any measures that can be taken within Brazil itself. For it is not just Brasilia and the Brazilians who will have to change, but Washington, London and consumers throughout the industrialized world.

Adios Amazonia?

But such thinking has yet to enter the political agenda in the industrialized countries, outside of the fedgling Green parties, let alone in Brazil. There, the destruction of Amazonia is still seen by the authorities as resulting from "poor planning" rather than the policies that underlie that planning: and the further development of Amazonia is still an Act of Faith for the majority of the population. Indeed, so far as the Government is concerned, the Indians are little more than a nuisance, not least because of the international publicity which their cause attracts. Integration is still the order of the day: as Fernando Mesquita, the Government spokesman on the environment, told the Financial Times' reporter at Altimira, "The environment is not an isolated problem. There are 220,000 Indians in Brazil, but in the largest/ave//a in Rio de Janeiro alone, we have 300,000 extremely poor people and 10 per cent of them are armed."

Such thinking will not change overnight, but it received a direct (and public) challenge at Altimira. Indeed, in that respect, it is no exaggeration to call the Indians' gathering "historic". Not only did it cement a powerful alliance between indigenous rights groups, environmentalists and the Indians themselves — an alliance that looks set to continue, with further gatherings planned throughout the year in the run-up to Brazil's elections — but it gave voice to a vision of the future, based on traditional ways, that does not accept the need for industrialization as its starting point. As Paiakan put it: "You ask me how we will produce electricity without the Altimira dams. You should be asking me whether we even need electricity." If such ideas are able to fill the ideological vacuum that now exists in Brazil — a country as bankrupt of ideas as it is of money — then there is indeed hope for the future.

But time hangs like a sword of Damocles over Amazonia and its people. For time is one thing that neither the Indians nor the forests have to spare.

The Altimira gathering is over and I am sitting on the verandah of the local Catho­

lic mission, overlooking the Xingu. "A country is only civilized i f it has tea at 4 o'clock", remarks John Papworth selfmockingly, putting down a pot of Earl Grey tea, brought all the way from England. He pours the cup and welcomes Maria Aparecida from CIMI, an indigenous rights group, to the table. " I have some terrible news," she says, " I have just heard that 100 Yanomami have been killed by garimperos. They burnt the village and forced all the women and children to leave." Her voice is shaking and there are tears in her eyes.

The sun goes down, bringing this year's burning season a day closer, and with perhaps 800,000 square kilometres set to be destroyed. The day of reckoning — perhaps as little as ten years away—edges closer by the minute.

Adios Amazonia. Adios. Unless all of us take action now. And there is no better place to start than right here at home. • HOW you can help. Support The Ecologist's million signature campaign calling for an Emergency Assembly of the United Nations to address the problem of deforestation by implementing a radical strategy as outlined in The Ecologist's, A Plan to Save the Forest (Vol I7, Nos 4/5). For further details and petition forms, write to: ECOROPA, Henbant, Crickhowell, Powys, Wales, UK.

• Support the Indians. TheEcologist, through The Ecological Foundation, has sent £3000 to the Union of Indian Nations in Brazil to help the Indians organize further gatherings and ensure that the process started at Altimira continues. If you wish to contribute, please send your cheque to The Ecologist, Station Road, Sturminster Newton, Dorset.

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The Ecologist in 1985 are now echoed in the National Geographic — and the multinational Development Banks are paying attention." International Rivers Network Newsletter

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The Ecologist, Vol. 19, No 2, 1989.