People of the Rainforest

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Why are forest people well adapted to living in the tropical rainforest?
Through thousands of years of natural selection forest people have evolved to be smaller than people who do not live in the rainforest. They also sweat less because theforest's high humidity means that sweat cannot evaporate, making sweating a poor way to cool off. Forest people also drink less water because their food contains a lot of water.

Forest people have accumulated a great wealth of knowledge about the forest and have learned how to live in the forest without damaging it. They know how to use thousands of edible, medicinal and poisonous plants and how to grow crops in the forest's poor soil. They also know how to hunt and fish without driving the animals to extinction.

The world's rainforest are home to many tribal people. This is one of the least-recognised facts about rainforests Tragically, most of the native societies of the rainforest have already been destroyed. In Brazil alone, 87 tribes were wiped out in the first half of this century. In the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya, the military is estimated to have killed up to 150,000 tribal people under the guise of counter-insurgency measures.

More than 1,000 rainforest cultures still exist, but nearly all of them face a grim future due to the development plans of the ruling elites in their countries and international development agencies. Their lands are being taken, their basic rights disregarded, and often even their very existence is being ignored. These rainforest cultures are storehouses of great knowledge.

From them we can learn to live sustainably, within the limits required by the planet's ecosystem.
Rainforest cultures have successfully lived in rainforests for thousands of years.

Not only are forest-dwelling cultures losing their forests -- they are also losing their younger generations to whom they wish to pass on their traditional knowledge. With the incursion of western civilisation, the young have come to aspire to the wealth of the western world and all its technology, whilst disregarding their elders' wisdom.

Here is some more information about three of the larger and more well-known tribes:

The Pygmies

This Pygmy woman is food outside her hut, with her baby cradled on her back. Mbuti and Baka Pygmies live in the rainforests of Central America. Traditionally they live by hunting and gathering food.

The Huli

The Huli are one of the many tribes that live in the remote highland forests of Papua New Guniea. They live by hunting, gathering plants and growing crops. Men and women live seperately, in large group houses. The men decorate their bodies with colored clay and wear elaborate headdresses for ceremonies.

The Yanomami

One of the largest groups of Amerindian people in South America is the Yanomami. Their village life is centered around the yano, or communal house. The yano is a large, circular building constructed of vine and leaf thatch, which has a living space in the middle. This picture shows Yanomami men eating a meal.