Children dancing in the Indigenous Ashaninka village of Tsirotiari along the Ene River in Peru's central Amazon region. © Neil Giardino

Dear Jack,

2023 has been a year of tremendous highs and dangerous lows for the world’s Indigenous peoples, and for Survival’s campaigns alongside them.

A new era in Brazil, after the horrors of former-President Bolsonaro, brought a ray of hope for the Indigenous peoples we work with. So too did successes in our campaigns, like the defeat of the 'Genocide' Bill in Peru, and a marked reduction in violence against the Baka people in the Congo.

But Indigenous peoples have also faced ferocious attacks - from governments, corporations, big conservation organizations, agribusiness and others - on their rights, lands and lives. 

In the face of these challenges, we’ve been operating with greater intensity than ever before. In just one year, we launched three new campaigns: for uncontacted Hongana Manyawa people threatened by nickel mining in Halmahera Island, Indonesia; for the Shompen of India’s Great Nicobar Island, whose peaceful island home is scheduled to be turned into the “Hong Kong of India”; and the Blood Carbon campaign, highlighting how carbon offset greenwashing schemes are making millions from Indigenous people’s land while destroying their way of living.

Nomadic Hongana Manyawa family. Photo taken during early contact. © Survival

It's your generous support – despite the cost of living crisis – that has made all this possible, and together we achieved some tremendous victories in 2023:

After intensive lobbying by Peruvian Indigenous organizations, backed by almost 13,000 of you who sent campaigning emails, the Peruvian Congress scrapped a bill infamously known as the Genocide Bill. If approved, it could have decimated uncontacted peoples by opening up their land to exploitation by powerful gas and oil interests.

In the Congo, the Baka people of Messok Dja have told our researchers that the level of violence perpetrated against them by WWF-funded rangers has dramatically decreased after our campaigning. 

Meanwhile, after concerted Survival lobbying, the French government scrapped its plan to fund the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where atrocities against the Batwa people were documented. 

In Brazil, the Supreme Court rejected the 'Time Limit Trick'. This proposal would allow the theft of vast areas of Indigenous lands if Indigenous people cannot prove they were living there on the day the Brazilian Constitution was signed in 1988. The Brazilian Congress just passed the “Bill of Death” which includes the Time Limit Trick provision, among other extreme anti-Indigenous measures. We hope the Supreme Court will intervene and overturn this genocidal law, against which almost 35,000 of you sent emails to members of Congress.

Last year's Uncontacted Tribes Week broke all previous records, as supporters took 21,000 campaign actions.

But this year you broke them again, with a grand total of 28,000 actions during the week!

Survival is a movement powered by tens of thousands of people from all corners of the world. Your actions make possible not only our successes, but all our ongoing work alongside Indigenous peoples for their lands, livelihoods and survival.

Thank you for standing with Survival in 2023. If you can, please consider donating before the year ends. For anyone living in the US, this is your last chance to make a tax-deductible gift to support our vital work!

P.S. There is still time to buy our stunning "We, the People 2024" calendar from the Survival shop! 

Caroline Pearce
Director