Brazil demarcates land for isolated indigenous people after decades
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Funai agents in Brazil spent June and July 2026 physically marking the boundaries of the Kawahiva do Rio Pardo Indigenous Territory.
The 411,000-hectare area in Colniza, Mato Grosso, protects the Kawahiva people, an isolated indigenous group. Funai first confirmed the Kawahiva’s presence in 1999 and began the land demarcation process in 2001, but illegal land grabbers and loggers repeatedly invaded the territory, receiving only temporary protection.
To complete the demarcation, agents cleared a path along the territory’s perimeter and installed around 140 markers. According to Jair Candor, coordinator of the Madeirinha-Juruena Ethno-environmental Protection Front, this practice mirrors how landowners typically establish their property lines in the region. In 2023, a farmer cleared between 4 and 5 hectares of the indigenous land, claiming they were unaware of any markers identifying it as protected territory.
Now that the physical demarcation is complete, the process moves to homologation, which requires a decree from President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. However, the Presidency stated the government is waiting for rulings from the Supreme Federal Court regarding a legal principle known as the “temporal marker”, which would use October 5, 1988, as a cutoff date for recognizing indigenous lands, before proceeding with further recognitions to ensure legal certainty.
Candor believes that if the territory remains free from invasion, the Kawahiva will thrive, as monitoring expeditions show the forest provides enough food for their survival.
