Yanomami Mobility and Its Effects on the Forest Landscape

Abstract

The Yanomami are a hunter-gatherer and gardener people with high mobility, which influences the regeneration of forest in agricultural clearings. Increasing contact with the wider Brazilian and Venezuelan societies may lead to sedentarization. Population groups and clearings were mapped in the Yanomami Land in Brazil using four mosaics of Landsat images from within a two-year period. The mosaics were separated by intervals of 7 years. Few groups were sedentary, and most of these maintained alternative residences. The Yanomami cleared 16,856 ha (0.17% of the Yanomami territory in Brazil) over the 21 years covered by this study. Individuals in mobile groups deforested more than those in sedentary groups, but secondary-forest regeneration occurs mainly in clearings made by mobile groups. Permanent settlements had impeded regeneration of 48% (2,025 ha) of the area cleared prior to 1988. Access to health care has led to population growth but has not increased sedentarization.