INDIGENOUS RESERVES CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT
(Projects BR0878)
The project is part of WWF's overall strategy of promoting conservation through management of natural resources and supporting traditional peoples as stewards of their own land
ndian reserves are of crucial importance for conservation in
Brazil because they represent a larger area than that of the national
system of protected areas. WWF is working with indigenous groups
in three reserves in the Amazon and Cerrado regions to improve
management of the key natural resources they depend on for survival
- game and fish, subsistence crops, agroforestry, and nontimber
forest products such as rubber. The project is part of WWF's overall
strategy of promoting conservation through management of natural
resources and supporting traditional peoples as stewards of their
own land.
In the Pimentel Barbosa Reserve in the Cerrado, WWF is working
with the Xavante Indians to implement a game management system
to ensure that subsistence hunting is sustainable. The principal
researcher, Dutch biologist Frans Leeuwenberg, has been accepted
by the Xavante as an apprentice hunter and he has trained three
young Xavante to help gather data.
The research team has gathered valuable information on Xavante
hunting methods - the most heavily hunted species, the main hunting
periods, the hunting range, and the nutritional and spiritual
importance of certain animals. The study has shown that as the
Xavante have become less nomadic and rely more on subsistence
agriculture, their hunting range has decreased from the entire
reserve (400,000ha) to a 25 km radius around the village. The
Xavante are now planning to cut a trail to the north of the village
in order to open up new areas for hunting and reduce pressure
on the areas currently overhunted.
In the Rio Jordão Indian Reserve in Acre, where about 1,200
Kaxinawá Indians live, WWF is studying natural resource
use to help the Indians boost their income from rubber processing
and handicraft production. The rubber tappers are being helped
to reduce production costs and improve marketing through the Kaxinawá
Association of the Rio Jordão, one of the oldest indigenous
cooperatives in the region. Efforts will also be made to improve
the organizational capacity of the cooperative and establish a
rotating credit fund for the purchase of rubber and handicrafts.
Meanwhile, WWF is gathering detailed information on hunting activities
to determine whether certain species are being overhunted.
Subsistence farming methods are also being analysed to see how
production of crops (including fruit, manioc, corn, peanuts, and
beans) can be boosted.
Elsewhere, WWF is working with the Tikuna Indians to study the
use of local fisheries in order to draw up a resource management
plan.
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