The headwaters of the Xingu River begin in the state of Mato Grosso in central Brazil where the Cerrado, a biologically diverse wooded savannah, meets the Amazon rainforest. This transition zone is a sacred place for thousands of Indigenous people who inhabit the 10,000 square-mile Xingu Indigenous Reserve. The Reserve is home to more than 4,000 people from 14 Indigenous nations – including the Aweti, Kaiabi and Waura -- each with a distinct language and cultural tradition. Another 10,000 Indigenous people, including the Kayapo, Panara and Xavante nations, live along the river in areas outside the Reserve.
Indigenous reserves like Xingu make up more than 20 percent of the Brazilian Amazon and account for nearly 70 percent of its protected areas. According to Stephen Schwartzman of Environmental Defense, “Where Indian land begins is where deforestation ends.” Kayapo and Parana warriors protect Xingu’s boundaries with knives and clubs, preventing illegal loggers from entering. But neither legal protections nor armed warriors impede all threats to Indigenous peoples.
Soy plantations and nearby cattle ranches dump topsoil and toxic chemicals such as Roundup into the Xingu’s headwaters. The pollution flows directly into the Xingu Indigenous Reserve. Letícia Yawanawa, an Indigenous organizer with the Committee for the Rights of Women and Children in Brazil, says, “The river is huge, filled with fish, but now because of the plantations, the fish are dying, and the people who live along the river…eat the fish and get sick, and there are not enough fish anymore. The kids especially get sick, with diarrhea, fever and some even die.” 1
Jurandir Siridiwe Xavante, director of a Xavante cultural organization based in São Paolo, blames U.S. agribusinesses for the environmental and cultural devastation of the Xingu River Basin area. “Our people are suffering because companies like ADM, Bunge and Cargill deforest our land and poison our water,” he says. “They say that they are not deforesting, but they are. Every time I return to my community, I see new forest being cleared and burned.”
Communities both in and outside the Reserve have called for tougher restrictions on soy production in the headwater area, including the use of buffer zones. The Xingu Indigenous Land Association explains, “We indigenous peoples wish to live and to breathe the Xingu River. Its waters are the source of our life and we don’t want to die.” However, ADM, Bunge and Cargill have refused to honor the communities’ call for buffer zones along waterways or to mandate a reduction in the use of harmful chemicals.
