THE POISON AND THE ANTIDOTE

摘要

In the late 1930s, Brazilian dictator Getulio Vargas initiated a state-led inarch into the country's unmapped hinterland with a view to opening it up to development. At the heart of the Mato Grosso state, the expedition carried out by the three Villas-Boas brothers unexpectedly culminated, in 1961, in the creation of the Xingu National Park: enamoured with the landscapes and fascinated by the indigenous tribes, they fought for the area's protection. Today, the soya-bean farms and cattle ranches that surround and suffocate the reserve have isolated it as a belittled oasis of green that sees its climate degraded and its resources evaporating. The village of Kisedje had to relocate closer to the centre of the park due to health issues among its population caused by the use of agrochemicals in plantations on the fringes of the park and the contamination of rivers.