President pledges support for Brazilian Indians

The Swiss President, Moritz Leuenberger, meets the indigenous Kayapo Indian chief, Raoni Keystone

The Swiss president, Moritz Leuenberger, has promised to give a "substantial" sum of money to a Brazilian Indian chief, Raoni, to help him preserve parts of his country's fragile rainforest.

At a meeting in Bern on Wednesday, Leuenberger, who is also minister for the environment, agreed to support Raoni, both financially and politically in his bid to protect the tropical forests.

According to Beat Nobs of the environment ministry, Leuenberger’s promise to Raoni further cements Switzerland’s involvement in United Nations’ efforts to implement legal instruments for the protection of forests.

“The forest issue is one of the major unresolved problems in the field of the environment,” he told swissinfo. “Concrete token issues like [Leuenberger’s] are to be seen as part of our general strategy in that field.”

During their meeting, Leuenberger and Raoni discussed the goals of the protection project drawing particular attention to Raoni’s plans, which include the creation of an institute dedicated to preserving Brazil’s vast forests.

“Raoni is embarking on a process to set up a reserve of protected forest area of about 180,000 square kilometres,” Nobs told swissinfo. “This would remain untouched, except for the traditional indigenous use by his own people.

“At the same time he wants to set up an infrastructure in the reserve, both for research purposes and, perhaps, to provide a hospital and schools for the indigenous people,” he added.

As well as welcoming the Swiss funds, Raoni praised Leuenberger for the letter he sent to President George W Bush in April expressing concerns over the US decision not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Raoni says the forest, which is rich in minerals and home to thousands of different species of trees, is threatened by multinationals and logging firms.

He says that these companies are felling trees for commercial use and then mining for gold, without any concern for the environment.

According to the Rainforest Association, around 30 per cent of the rainforest has disappeared over the past seven years. This represents a loss of more than more than 3.4 million square kilometres.

Raoni is the chief of the Kayapo tribe and has been campaigning for the preservation of his homeland in the tropical forests for more than 30 years.

He is also the guard and keeper of the Kayapo reserve and Xingu National Park, which covers an area of rainforest four times as large as Switzerland.

During his lengthy campaign, Raoni has attracted many supporters, one of the most famous being the rockstar, Sting, who championed the Brazilian’s cause at the end of the 80s.

swissinfo with agencies