selchieproductions:

• In Ethiopia, the Gibe III Dam is a proposed, gigantic hydroelectric dam that will flood the Lower Omo Valley area and displace thousands of indigenous groups, while destroying several unique cultures. This dam is funded by European companies and the Ethiopian government as well. Read more about it here and write an upset letter to the Ethiopian PM here

• On the 5th of March, members of the Oglala formed a human road block and refused to let trucks with material for the Canadian tar sands pass through their lands on the Pine Ridge Reserve, asking for the companies to respect the treaties and stop contaminating the planet. The protest was led by two Lakota grandmothers called Renabelle Bad Cob Standing Bear and Marie Randal. Read more about it here.

• Ranchers in Rondônia and other parts of the Amazon have used gunmen and still continue to use gunmen to attack indigenous peoples in the areas where they have their farms. Today, Brazil is home to the largest numbers of uncontacted tribes, many descendants of indigenous people who were enslaved and later escaped during the Brazilian rubber boom.  Today these people risk being wiped out entirely as farmers use pesticides to kill the trees in the area and don’t mind attacking indigenous peoples and killing them in order to set an example. You can read more about a number of uncontacted indigenous groups here.

• Although India’s Supreme Court in 2002 ordered that the highway through the Jarawa’s reserve on the Andaman Isles should be closed, it remains open – and tourists use it for ‘human safaris’ to the Jarawa. Recently it was revealed that the local police accepted bribes and forced Jarawa women to dance seductively in front of tourists who treated them as little more than exotic animals. Poachers also enter the reserve. In 1999 and 2006, the Jarawa suffered outbreaks of measles – a disease that has wiped out many tribes worldwide following contact with outsiders. Read more here.