EQUATORIAL REGIONS --- PEOPLE

PEOPLE

Various tribes of people live in the tropical rainforests, such as: the Pygmies in central Africa, the Lumad peoples in the southern Philippines and the Amazonia Indians of South America. Whilst some are keen to trade high value forest products such as: animal hides, feathers, and honey with agricultural people living outside the forest, others prefer to remain elusive - it is believed that there are 67 different uncontacted tribes in Brazil and 44 on the island of New Guinea, for example. Different tribes of rainforest people live different lifestyles: Some are nomads, which means that they move from place to place. They chop down trees to make small clearings and then spread the ashes to make the soil fertile for a while before moving on to a new patch, in a way of farming called slash and burn. Some are hunter-gatherers, which means that they have a central camp and hunt animals and gather food from around them in the forest, such as: nuts, fruit and honey. Many people who live in rainforests find that using boats on rivers is the easiest way to travel around.