Brazil begins land demarcation for uncontacted Kawahiva after 27-year wait

More than 27 years after confirming the existence of one of the Amazon’s most vulnerable hunter-gatherer communities, Brazil’s government has started demarcating the Pardo River Kawahiva Indigenous Territory, granting enhanced protection to these uncontacted people.

The decision to delineate the 410,000-hectare (about 1 million acres) area spanning the states of Mato Grosso and Amazonas in northwestern Brazil was confirmed last week by the National Indigenous Peoples Foundation (Funai). However, the process remains fraught with difficulties due to legal challenges from agribusiness-linked groups and the upcoming presidential election in October.

Despite severe threats from armed groups tied to agricultural expansion, land grabbing, illegal logging, and mining, some isolated indigenous people show signs not only of survival but of thriving in the Amazon. Anthropologists and experts argue that the Kawahiva’s survival depends on clear territorial demarcation and physical markers to establish conservation zones that shield them from economic exploitation.

Demarcation of the Kawahiva territory on the Pardo River—home to about 290 Kawahiva people—has taken 27 years, since experts first confirmed the existence of this uncontacted community in 1999. Activists say progress was only possible thanks to Funai agents like Jair Candor, whose jungle expeditions were crucial for identifying and protecting the Pardo River Kawahiva.

"Funai must be valued by Brazil as an agency responsible for about 14% of the national territory," said Beto Marubo, an indigenous leader from the Javari Valley, commenting on the agency’s work and the environmental reserves under its control. He noted that indigenous lands have recorded the lowest deforestation rates in the Amazon in recent years. "The Kawahiva indigenous land is an example of an area that, despite very high rural violence, has not been deforested for two years."

Political, legal, economic, and logistical obstacles have delayed the new demarcation, while agribusiness-linked groups opposing demarcation have filed multiple legal challenges to block progress. "The entire region where the Pardo River Kawahiva live is under pressure from a clear effort to expand the agricultural frontier," said Renan Sotto Mayor, a federal prosecutor heading the National Office for Isolated Indigenous Peoples. "There are huge economic interests in that area."

Indigenous leaders warn of the difficulties Funai and the federal police face in ensuring safety for isolated indigenous people, agency staff, and geodetic markers (fixed physical reference points) during and after the demarcation process. "In this indigenous territory, there has been a massacre of landless workers, as well as other deaths related to land conflicts," said Elias Bigui, former general coordinator for isolated indigenous people at Funai, now an indigenous affairs expert at the Observatory of Isolated Peoples. "We need to strengthen Funai’s workforce to protect isolated indigenous people."

Funai says it is planning buffer zones to prevent environmental degradation at the territory’s edges. "A buffer zone extending beyond the territory’s boundaries creates a protective area between indigenous land and deforested areas," said Lúcia Alberta Baré, Funai’s president. Sotto Mayor and activists continue to push for faster demarcation of other lands inhabited by uncontacted people, such as Piripkura, Ituna-Itatá, and Jacareúba-Katawixi.

Priscilla Oliveira, senior research officer at Survival International, argues that the Brazilian government should accelerate demarcations until the Pardo River Kawahiva land receives official recognition, which requires the president’s signature. Brazil should also convert land-use restrictions into full demarcation in other areas and step up identification and protection of isolated people who lack formal safeguards. "According to the government, there are 115 isolated groups, but only 29 are confirmed. There is a long list of groups that may or may not still be there, and they need territorial protection," Oliveira said.

In October, Brazil will hold a presidential election. Opinion polls show a tight race between left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro, a senator and son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of plotting a coup. "Protecting indigenous lands must be a state policy," Baré stressed. "No regression can be allowed under any government that comes to power in our country."