Greenpeace commends the Deni for protecting their land from
illegal logging Manaus, Brazil, 18 October 2001: After a two
year struggle supported by Greenpeace, Missionary Indigenist
Council (CIMI), and Operacao Amazonia Nativa (OPAN), the Deni
Indians of the Brazilian Amazon won formal recognition of their
rights to their traditional land. The land will now be held for
their sole occupation and use, and industrial exploitation, such
as logging and mining, will be prohibited. The Decree, signed by
Brazil's Minister of Justice Jose Gregori last week, was
officially published on October 16 in Brasilia. The Deni's land
is inhabited by 670 people and spans 1,530,000 hectares in the
remote southwest of the Amazon. According to the Brazilian
Constitution, all Indian lands should have been demarcated by
1993 and the Deni themselves were first promised this in 1984.
Of the 580 Indian territories identified in Brazil, only 360
have been formally demarcated. In 1999 Greenpeace first learned
that the Malaysian logging gi