Faces covered in white dust and chisels in hand, marble sculptors in Myanmar say the hills that have given them a livelihood for generations are disappearing, as large companies reap the rewards of the prized white rock.

The deafening sound of cutting and grinding machines, punctuated by the tapping of hammers and chisels, echoes around the hills next to Sagyin village, north of Mandalay.

The mounds, lined with jagged edges from where huge chunks have been hewn, are the country's prime source of white marble -- cherished as far back as the reign of King Mindon Min in the 19th century.

Ko Lay, his wife and their four children have carved a niche for themselves as the go-to sculptors for animals, making around $360 for each elephant, lion or tiger figure.

As he fashions the haunch of a three-metre-tall feline that will one day guard the entrance to a Buddhist pagoda, he explains how important the hills are to everyone living in their shadow.

"The entire village relies on them, but we're worried they'll disappear soon," the 48-year-old tells AFP, his whole body whitened with dust.

Like others here, he points the finger at shadowy Chinese and military-linked companies, who were granted decades-long licences over swathes of land under the previous government.

Locals have always regarded the marble-rich slopes as their own and accuse the outsiders of plundering their resources with explosives and excavating machinery.

"We want our mountains back," says Ko Lay.

- 'Destroy the hills' -

Around 80 percent of the village of some 2,000 households work in the marble business, but people fear they are being pushed out.

The big companies will "destroy the hills until they're gone," bemoans 55-year-old Soe Win.

"We want at least to share the hillsides, but locals are hardly given any leases."

In recent months, a few dozen plots have been allocated to the villagers, says Eunt Soe Yin from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation.

"They can mine and sculpt, providing they have a licence... They can do whatever they like," he says.

But craftsman Nyunt Wai has not heard about the leases and is sceptical that locals will see dividends any time soon.

He learnt to work with marble from his parents and grandparents from the age of 14, and has built up a clientele as far away as Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia.

Now aged 61, the spritely and bespectacled artisan puts the whiteness of his teeth down to marble dust.

Taking a break from delicately etching long eyelashes on the face of a marble Buddhist monk, he explains how companies push up the price of raw materials, blocking out locals.

"The village's blood streams through these hills... but I'm worried for future generations."

Brazil indigenous protesters defy court, resume roadblock
Novo Progresso, Brazil (AFP) Aug 19, 2020 - Indigenous protesters in Brazil defied a court order Tuesday and resumed a roadblock of a key highway through the Amazon rainforest, demanding help against the new coronavirus and an end to illegal mining and deforestation.

Brandishing bows and wearing traditional feather headdresses and body paint, dozens of protesters from the Kayapo Mekranoti ethnic group have been blocking highway BR-163 through the Amazon rainforest since Monday morning.

They briefly lifted their roadblock Tuesday afternoon after a federal judge ordered them to allow traffic through.

But they said they were only retreating temporarily for "humanitarian reasons," since some of the drivers caught in the long line of trucks that formed outside the northern town of Novo Progresso had medical conditions.

Later Tuesday, they resumed their roadblock, vowing to stay put until the authorities agreed to discuss their demands.

"We closed the BR again, and this time we don't have a date or time to reopen it," indigenous leader Mudjere Kayapo said in a statement released by the Kabo Institute, an indigenous rights organization.

He said the protesters had no intention of leaving until the federal agency for indigenous affairs, the health minister or indigenous health secretary and a representative from environmental regulator IBAMA showed up.

The highway is an important artery for farmers in Brazil's agricultural heartland to ship corn and soybeans, two of the country's main exports, to the river ports of the Amazon and beyond.

On Monday night, federal judge Sandra Maria Correia da Silva ordered the protesters to end the roadblock, citing the damage to the region's economy.

She imposed a fine of 10,000 reals ($1,800) a day if the protesters fail to comply, and ordered federal highway police to remove the blockade if necessary.

A lawyer for the protesters is appealing the court injunction, the Kabo Institute said.

The highway, which was built during Brazil's military dictatorship (1964-1985) to develop the Amazon region, was fully paved earlier this year.

The protesters say the project damaged the surrounding environment, and are demanding compensation.

They also want more help from far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's government to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit especially hard among native groups.

In Brazil, 21,000 indigenous people have been infected and 618 have died of COVID-19, according to the Brazilian Indigenous Peoples' Association (APIB), which accuses Bolsonaro of turning a blind eye to the problem.

Brazil has the second-highest number of infections and deaths in the pandemic, after the United States: nearly 3.5 million and 110,000, respectively.

The protesters are also demanding the government act to stop encroachments on their land by illegal gold miners and deforestation in the Amazon, blamed mainly on farming and ranching.

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Increasing indigenous property rights could help save the rainforest
Washington DC (UPI) Aug 11, 2020
To protect the Amazonian rainforest, new research suggests full property rights for tribal lands be extended to Brazil's indigenous communities. For the study, researchers at the University California, San Diego, used satellite data of vegetation coverage in the Amazon rainforest to study deforestation patterns between 1982 and 2016. Scientists compared the results of their mapping efforts with Brazilian government records of indigenous property rights. The analysis, detailed Tuesday in ... read more