RIO PINDARÉ INDIGENOUS TERRITORY, Brazil – Under the emerald canopy of the Amazon rainforest, Janaína Guajajara peered into a murky pool of water barely larger than a bathtub. Along its margins, delicate buriti (Mauritia flexuosa) seedlings sprouted from the soil. “This here was totally dry before – but the plants have restored it,” she said, waving to the fledgling palm trees. “They’ve rescued it.” The humble pool, tucked in a patch of forest in the Rio Pindaré Indigenous Territory, in the Brazilian state of Maranhão, is actually a crucial part of a much bigger water system in this region. Almost invisible to the untrained eye, it forms a trickle of water that snakes past us on its way to the Pindaré River a few miles away, which is fed by these headwaters in the rainforest. Janaína Guajajara, from the Novo Planeta Indigenous village in the Rio Pindaré reserve, walks in the rainforest near a spring that her community restored. For the Guajajara people, these springs hold spiritual significance and guarantee the health of the rivers they depend on for fishing, bathing, drinking and cultural rituals. Image by Ana Ionova for Mongabay. To the Guajajara people who have lived here for centuries, these springs hold deeper meaning. “They are sacred,” said Arlete Guajajara, an Indigenous leader in the Rio Pindaré reserve. “They belong to the spirits of our ancestors. This is where they go to rest.” The rivers and streams fed by these springs are also necessary for the survival of…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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