In a video produced by the Raoni Institute (IR), Chief Raoni Metuktire speaks about the importance of ISPN's strategy for promoting Productive Eco-social Landscapes (PPP-ECOS), which operates primarily through support for socio-environmental projects involving traditional peoples and communities and family farmers.
The Raoni Institute had a project approved in the Amazon Call for Proposals of the PPP-ECOS program, launched last year. The IR initiative involves Kayapó women in a participatory way, empowering them through the strengthening and socioeconomic autonomy of the cumaru production chain and promoting improvements in family quality of life.
With the expansion of the Cumaru Management Plan, a species harvested in the Capoto/Jarina Indigenous Lands (Mato Grosso), women will directly benefit and, indirectly, hundreds of other indigenous people will benefit through training workshops, exchanges, proper seed management, and enrichment of fields and orchards. Furthermore, the processing of Cumaru will result in increased commercialization of this crop for the cosmetics industry, consolidating another sustainable economic alternative for the Kayapó people. These actions will also increase the effectiveness of surveillance in their territories and enhance the value of the living and conserved forest.
“This support is very good not only for the Roni Institute and the Kayapó villages, but also for other [indigenous] relatives we support. This project cannot stop. Thank you very much!”, Raoni emphasizes.
About Raoni Metuktire
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Raoni Metyktire, the great leader known as Chief Raoni, was probably born in the early 1930s in an old Mebêngôkre (Kayapó) village located in the Kapôt Nhinore region, on the right bank of the Xingu River, in the northeast of the state of Mato Grosso. During his youth, the Mebêngôkre lived in semi-nomadic villages, without peaceful contact with the surrounding society. In 1954, when the Mebêngôkre people established definitive contact with white people, Chief Raoni was approximately 24 years old and played a fundamental role in the pacification process of several villages. At this time, he met the Villas Boas brothers, from whom he learned to understand some Portuguese and to become aware of the non-indigenous world. From then on, Raoni became the main interlocutor between the Mebêngôkre and national society.
Throughout his life, Chief Raoni has been a protagonist in numerous struggles in favor of indigenous peoples and the Amazon, becoming internationally recognized as a legitimate leader and spokesperson for environmental preservation. In 1978, he was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, and in 1987, after meeting Sting, he achieved international notoriety. In the 80s and 90s, he played a fundamental role in the demarcation of the Mebêngôkre territories, the Menkragnoti Indigenous Land, one of the largest continuous blocks of tropical forest in the world and which still constitutes the largest barrier against deforestation in the eastern portion of the Amazon, in addition to participating in the demarcation process of territories of several other peoples. He played a strong role in the Constituent Assembly in 1987 and 1988 alongside the indigenous movement, which resulted in the inclusion of the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples in the 1988 Federal Constitution. In 1989, he managed to mobilize the world press to cover the "First Meeting of the Indigenous Peoples of the Xingu," in Altamira (PA), against the construction of the Xingu Hydroelectric Complex (which included the Kararaô plant, which would return years later as the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Plant), resulting in the abandonment of the project. In the 90s and from 2000 onwards, Chief Raoni made numerous trips around the world and gained the support of important international leaders and personalities, which resulted in the raising of international funds for the demarcation of Brazilian indigenous lands, as well as raising public awareness of the need to protect the Amazon rainforest and its native populations.
Starting in 2018, facing a dramatic national political scenario for Indigenous peoples and the environment, Raoni once again took the front line in the fight for the rights of Indigenous peoples and the defense of the Amazon rainforest. A new campaign was launched in 2019, where Chief Raoni warned the world about deforestation in the Amazon and the threats from agribusiness, miners, and loggers exploiting the forest, seeking support to guarantee conditions for territorial protection and the sociocultural strengthening of his peoples. In January 2020, Raoni convened a historic meeting of leaders of forest peoples, in which he reiterated the importance of their unity against attacks and setbacks to Indigenous and environmental rights and policies.
Together with other Mebêngôkre indigenous people, Raoni founded the Raoni Institute in 2001, a non-governmental organization that has been strongly involved in defending the interests of indigenous communities, strengthening the protection of their territories, and developing activities that promote the sustainable use of biodiversity and reduce their vulnerability to involvement with predatory activities.
Currently almost 90 years old, Chief Raoni is a living symbol of the struggle for life, for the protection of nature, and for the defense of indigenous peoples and human rights. He is a symbol of dignity, simplicity, and honesty, respected and applauded around the world for his legacy and life story.
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