World Notes Brazil

Though most of the 22,000 Yanomami Indians living in Stone Age conditions in South America are not aware of it, their survival has been a cause for conservationists and anthropologists for 20 years. Responding to their recent campaign, Venezuela in June set aside a 32,000-sq.-mi. preserve for the Yanomami.

At the end of October, Brazil's President Fernando Collor de Mello had been expected to do the same thing when he designated 71 protected areas for other indigenous peoples. Instead, under pressure from the military and mining interests, Collor postponed his decision. Several weeks later, he changed course again. He announced that 36,000 sq. mi. of Amazon rain forest adjoining the Venezuelan sanctuary will be set aside for the undisturbed use of the Yanomami, who roam freely across the area.

Leaders of the nonprofit Commission for the Creation of the Yanomami Park were jubilant, praising Collor for his courage. "This is the best news of my life," Claudia Andujar, the commission's coordinator, said last week. The Yanomami, the largest tribe still living in a primitive state in the Americas, offered no comment.