Official marking of land for Brazil’s uncontacted Kawahiva people begins after 27-year wait

More than 25 years after the existence of one of the Amazon’s most vulnerable nomadic hunter-gatherer communities was confirmed, the Brazilian government has begun demarcating the Pardo River Kawahiva Indigenous territory , giving greater protection to the uncontacted people. The demarcation of the 410,000-hectare (1m-acre) territorylocated between the states of Mato Grosso and Amazonas in north-west Brazil , was confirmed by the National Indigenous Peoples’ Foundation (Funai) last week. But the process remains fraught, with legal challenges from groups linked to the country’s agribusiness sector, and the forthcoming presidential election in October. Although highly threatened by armed groups linked to the expansion of farming, land grabs, illegal logging and mining in the region, some isolated Indigenous peoples are showing signs not only of surviving but even thriving in the Amazon . Screengrab from a video showing an Indigenous man in the uncontacted Kawahiva’s territory in the Brazilian Amazon. Photograph: Funai Yet anthropologists and experts say the Kawahiva’s survival relies on land being clearly mapped and physically marked to establish protected natural sanctuaries, which will help shield them from economic exploitation. The go-ahead for demarcation of the Kawahiva do Rio Pardo Indigenous territory, home to about 290 Kawahiva people, has taken 27 years, after specialists first proved the existence of the uncontacted community in 1999. …