In recent days we’ve had news of the violent persecution faced by the solitary survivor of an uncontacted Brazilian tribe.

Still taken from Corumbiara by Vincent Carelli in which we see FUNAI officials trying to establish contact with the Indian, who backs off refusing contact.

Living alone, doubtless haunted by memories of his tribe’s massacre, he hides from outsiders on a patch of rainforest surrounded by cattle ranches. He grows basic crops and attempts to survive unnoticed.

Despite his past and his plight, the man’s existence in this segment of forest adds up to lost earnings for some local rancher, making the land, and the man, a target.

It’s not far-fetched to suppose that there is a price on his head, with thugs at large plotting to collect that fee. It’s the sort of scenario that other Brazilian tribes know all too well.

And so it is that this quiet survivor of a wiped-out people teeters on the edge, as those around him with their eyes on his land move in with ruthless zeal.

For a lighter take on climate change and events at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference (‘COP-15’) you can watch a ‘televised’, rapped debate between Al Gore, Lord Monckton and presenter Robert Foster.

The debate pokes fun at Monckton’s views on climate change and Gore’s proposals to stop it, but makes the serious point that indigenous people, despite having a ‘60,000 years track record in ecology’, have been left out of climate change negotiations.

‘At what stage will we consult that missing voice?’ Foster raps. ‘In April an indigenous summit met in Anchorage pledging knowledge to enable us to handle this [climate change]. We have technology, but lack philosophy. How’s 60,000 years track record in ecology? To give COP-15 any kind of relevance, shouldn’t we invite the world’s true environmentalists?’

Foster’s last question echoes concerns expressed by Survival in its latest report ‘The Most Inconvenient Truth of All: Climate Change and Indigenous People’.

Jacir de Souza, a Makuxi Indian from Brazil, has won the 2009 Chico Mendes Environment Prize, awarded by the Ministry of Environment.

One of Brazil’s most courageous and dedicated indigenous leaders, he campaigned for 30 years for the successful recognition of Raposa-Serra do Sol, the Land of the Fox and Hill of the Sun, home to the Makuxi and other tribes.

Despite meeting popes and presidents and travelling the world advocating for his people’s rights, Jacir has always remained deeply rooted in the land and especially his community, Maturuca which sits high in the mountains near the Guyanese border.

It was here he developed his vision for the future based on strengthening indigenous identity, organisation and economic self-sufficiency.

Survival has worked with Jacir and the Indigenous Council of Roraima, which he founded, for many years.

The prize is named in honour of Chico Mendes, the rubber tapper who organised protests to stop the destruction of the Amazon for cattle ranches.

Mendes lobbied for the creation of ‘extractive reserves’ where rubber tappers could harvest rubber trees and make a living without harming the forest.

Testament to his legacy are the many sustainable reserves in the Amazon today. He was brutally gunned down outside his house almost 21 years ago.