Guardians of the Land: Conserving Frontiers of Indigenous Territory

Sustainabilty Problem Communication - Link to Comic Strip 

 

Panel 1:

Indigenous groups have lived with nature for generations, mothering, nurturing, and cultivating the land. They use generational knowledge and sustainable methods to become the ‘Guardians of our land.

Panel 2:

However, their home and their land is becoming a prime spot for deforestation, mining and meeting the demand of increasing food supply.

Panel 3:

Driven by large corporations and money-driven businesses, they face conflict of interest, power dynamics and a constant exploitation of their land.

Panel 4:

Indigenous Representative: ‘These lands are our heritage! You are taking away our home and our culture!’

Government Representative: ‘Sacrifice is needed – we need the land for the growing population to breed cattle for food.’

Panel 5:

Wildfires creep on indigenous groups’ frontiers of land. Indigenous groups try to convince authorities to use traditional fire management. Whilst Smith et al. (2021) found this integration optimistic, government funding is a barrier for success.

Panel 6:

The Brazilian government has recognised indigenous groups’ rights since the early 1900s. However, as a result of no legal recognition, they have faced illegal logging and mining invading their land. In 1988, Brazil introduced a new constitution to legally recognise indigenous groups, which since, has been adopted by the UN. These rights include land titles, land rights for use, and also recognition of their cultural heritage (BenYishay et al., 2017).

Panel 7:

Young individual: ‘Where are all the animals? What happened to our home?’

Older individual: ‘Our home is destroyed, but others’ still stand – we need to protect what is left, so generations after us can keep the land and our knowledge alive, as well as our culture.’

Panel 8:

Indigenous groups are forced to protest for their rights, after their land is depleted. Economic growth can’t equal land degradation.

References:

BenYishay, A., Heuser, S., Runfola, D. and Trichler, R. 2017. Indigenous land rights and deforestation: Evidence from the Brazilian Amazon. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. 86, pp.29-47.

Smith, W., Neale, T. and Weir, J.K. 2021. Persuasion without policies: The work of reviving Indigenous peoples’ fire management in southern Australia. Geoforum. 120, pp.82-92.