"His commitment also brought him enemies": Weimar Human Rights Prize for peaceful resistance against the dangerous timber mafia in Brazil

This year's winner of the Weimar Human Rights Prize, Benki Piyãko, is a key figure of the intrepid resistance of about 1,000 Ashaninka-Indians in the Brazilian state of Acre against the machinations of the timber mafia and drug traffickers. Because of his commitment, he received several serious threats was attacked with a machete after he returned from a lecture tour in Germany in 2009. In his lectures, Benki Piyãko reported about the problems of the indigenous peoples who are living in voluntary isolation and about plans for oil production on indigenous territory in neighboring Peru. Preparatory work for oil and gas exploration had also begun in Acre.

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) had proposed Benki Piyãko for the Weimar Human Rights Prize, hoping that the award could bring more recognition for his nonviolent protest and in order to help protect him from life threatening attacks. The timber mafia is an immediate danger. Under the leadership of Benki Piyãko, the indigenous people inspect their forests and report cases of illegal logging. The threats of the loggers – who try to transport the precious stolen wood across the border to Peru undisturbed in order to sell it there – must be taken very seriously. The area is only accessible on foot, by canoe or from the air.

In 2012, Dr. Eliane Fernandes Ferreira (the STP's expert on Brazil) was able to witness shots fired near the house of Benki Piyãko as an attempt to intimidate him. Since the late 1990s, he no longer dares to visit his Ashaninka relatives in the Peruvian State of Ucayal, for this is where the timber traders and drug traffickers live who threaten him. 

The 39-year-old was selected as a future shaman and political representative of his Ashaninka community Apiwtxa when he was still a child. His grandfather raised him to become the outstanding leader he is now, with his award from Weimar. Between 2005 and 2007, the trained forester was the Environment Secretary for the surrounding region of the river Juruá in the state of Acre. In 2007, he founded the "School of Knowledge" Yoreka Ãtame, where the indigenous and non-indigenous people of the region are taught the basics of sustainable and environmentally friendly forms of economic activities in the rainforest and where young people are involved in reforestation programs.

The State of Brazil officially recognized the territory of the Ashaninka-group around Benki Piyãko as late as in the 1980s. The community was given a land title and is now able to manage the territory itself. The indigenous community soon realized that they would not be able to survive if they were to isolate themselves from the outside world, so they are trying to find ways to establish a peaceful coexistence with their non-indigenous neighbors.