Endangered Tribes

Endangered Tribes
On his annual trips to Africa, Mike Sarnitz hunts with the Bushmen and uses
bow & arrow in order to learn from these last hunters and gatherers

The most endangered tribes in the world on a view

Bushmen
The indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are variously referred to as Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa,Kung, or Khwe (see the Nomenclature section for more details). The Bushmen are part of the Khoisan group. Though related to the traditionally pastoral Khoikhoi, they were traditionally hunter-gatherers. Starting in the 1950s, and lasting through the 1990s, they switched to farming as a result of government-mandated modernization programs as well as the increased risks of a hunting and gathering lifestyle in the face of technological development.

There is a significant linguistic difference between the northern Bushmen living between Okavango (Botswana) and Etosha (Namibia), extending into southern Angola on the one hand and the southern group in the central Kalahari towards the Molopo, who are the last remnant of the previously extensive indigenous San of South Africa.

Photo © Survival

The Awá Tribe
The small tribe of Awá is currently regarded as the Earth’s most endangered tribe as their territory are being invaded by vast groups of illegal loggers, settlers and ranchers. The tribe is regarded as one of the last truly nomadic groups of Brazil with uncontacted numbers estimated to be around 60. Due to the rapdly shrinking forests, the tribes-people are facing a constant threat of extinction. There have even been reports of Brazilian experts referring to the condition as a case of “genocide”.

photo © returnofthecapturedspirits.com

Rio Pardo Indians - Mato Grosso, Brazil
This is another threatened tribe in the western Brazilian Amazon whose lands are being invaded by groups of illegal loggers. Due to such constant encounters, the tribe members are always on the move. This has not only affected their ability to cultivate crops but also affected their population as the women have even stopped giving births.

photo © Ruedi Suter/Survival

The Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians:
Residing within the vast expanse of the dense Chaco forest from Paraguay to Bolivia and Argentina is the threatened tribe of Ayoreo-Totobiegosode Indians. The Totobiegosode have faced continual invasions of their lands with their greatest threat reportedly being a Brazilian firm, Yaguarete Porá.

Indians between the Napo and Tigre Rivers, Peru:
According to Survival reports, the tribespeople living between the Napo and Tigre Rivers are caught in the middle of Peru’s oil boom.

Indians of the Envira River, Peru:
Just like the Awá and the Rio Pardo Indians, the Indians of the Envira River in Peru are facing a constant threat of extinction owing to the invasion of illegal loggers.

JGI’s research contributes to the world’s longest-running field research on chimpanzees, it was Dr. Goodallwho began it in Gombe, 1960. Wild chimpanzees found in Africa, where of the 54 countries on this continent of, chimpanzees inhabit central and west Africa in the greater numbers. Chimpanzee numbers that once ranged in the millions, have been reduced to less than 340,000 in the last years.
Today the work expands, serving primatologists around the globe. This research provides the daily lives of chimpanzees research, has developed a deep knowledge of the lives and behavior of over 200 chimps, providing understanding and essential information for the conservation of chimpanzees thus contributing to a myriad of other scientific discoveries.


Panthera is the only organization which is devoted exclusively to the conservation of the world’s 40 wild cat species and their ecosystems, which sustain people and biodiversity.

Panthera ‘s goal is to develop and implement global strategies for the seven species of big cats: cheetahs, leopards, jaguars, lions, pumas, snow leopards and tigers.

Panthera partners with local and international NGOs, scientific institutions, local communities, governments around the globe and citizens, wanting to help ensure a future for wild cats.

IUCN harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its Member organisations and the input of 18,000 experts. Regions of operation ASIA, EASTERN AND SOUTHERN AFRICA, EASTERN EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA, EUROPE, MEDITERRANEAN,MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN, OCEANIA, SOUTH AMERICA, WASHINGTON D.C. OFFICE, WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA, WEST ASIA.
The Species Survival Commission work independently to build knowledge on the status of species and threats to them, to provide advice, developing policies and guidelines, facilitate conservation planning. SSC catalyses conservation action, enabling IUCN to influence policy in biodiversity conservation.

WCS's goal is to conserve the world's largest wild places such as Africa, Asia, Ocean and the Americas.
WCS maintains its historic focus on the protection of species while developing a plan to engage with a rapidly changing world. WCS discovers the natural world through science, which helps to engage and inspire decision-makers, communities, to take action with us to protect the wildlife and wild places. WCS continuesto set the bar for science, conservation action that has driven our success in protecting wildlife and wild places, adhering to core values of respect, accountability and transparency, innovation, diversity and inclusion.

The International Crane Foundation works to conserve cranes and the ecosystems, watersheds and flyways around the world. Provide knowledge, leadership and inspiration to engage as many people as possible in resolvingnumerous threats to cranes and their habitats.

WCN protects endangered species around the world by supporting wildlife Conservation Partners, granting scholarships, and supporting projects.
17 Conservation Partners and the grantees of our Wildlife Funds devote their lives to protecting wildlife. WCN investsin projects aimed at protecting a threatened species beyond a singular country. The Funds focus on collaboration,encouraging everyone to work together to save wildlife. Wildlife Funds identify ideas from any institution designed to stop a crisis and recover wildlife populations.

IEF goal is to create a sustainable future for elephants, generating and effectively investing resources to support elephant conservation, education, research, and management programs around the world. Through passion, expertise, knowledge, IEF inspires and engages people to ensure a vibrant future with elephants everywhere.

$500,000 support for the elephant conservation around the world, adding to the over $6.7 million total invested in conserving elephants since our inception in 1998.

   The mission of the IEF is to support and operate elephant conservation.

The mission is to secure a future for elephants, sustaining the beauty and ecological integrity of the places they live, promoting man’s delight in their intelligence and the diversity of their world.
Projects across Africa, focussing on radio-tracking elephants and community conservation carrying out rigorous studies of elephants, including elephant collaring, sophisticated elephant tracking techniques. The mission of STE is to secure a future for elephants in harmony with people, to plan conservation of elephants and their environment through research on movements, ecology, and behaviour.


       The conservation of the African Elephant runs through the rangelands from the Mau-Mara-Serengeti and Kwale as well as Lamu landscape (Lamu-Ijara).

     The Species is listed as ‘vulnerable’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, red list of threatened species and ‘threatened with extinction’ on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed species.

WWF-Kenya’s African elephant conservation strategy focuses on mitigating against human elephant conflict, improving livelihoods, securing and expanding elephant range, empowering community rangers as a key strategy in boosting elephant conservation.