Land Protection Orders... Uncontacted tribes in danger

Update

At the beginning of 2023 Brazil's new government announced a change in policy, so that all the uncontacted tribes' territories previously under temporary Land Protection Orders had their protection extended. It was a major victory for the campaign, which has therefore ended, and this page has consequently been archived.

Authorities in Brazil are planning to scrap a vital safeguard for uncontacted tribes in Brazil – Land Protection Orders (LPOs).

These emergency orders are used to protect uncontacted tribes’ territories that have not been through the long process of official demarcation.

LPOs make it illegal for loggers, miners and other invaders to enter the tribes’ lands. Without this protection, the forests would be completely destroyed – and the tribes who look after them and depend on them to survive could be wiped out.

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Why LPOs matter

The orders have to be renewed every few years. But anti-indigenous politicians and ranchers have hatched a secret plan to scrap them so they can steal these lands for ranching, logging, mining, and more. If they succeed, it could result in the extermination of whole tribes in a massive and illegal land grab.

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LPOs are shielding seven uncontacted tribes’ territories...
and 1 million hectares of Amazon rainforest

These Orders regularly expire, and on each occasion powerful agribusiness interests can oppose their renewal. One has already expired without being renewed, leaving the uncontacted tribe living there without any protection at all.

© Bruno Jorge
Piripkura men Tamandua and Baita, photographed during an encounter with a FUNAI unit. The two men, who are nephew and uncle, have had sporadic interactions with the local FUNAI team, but returned to live in the forest. Their territory is shielded by the Land Protection Orders, but at imminent risk of being overrun by loggers and landgrabbers.

 

Scrapping LPOs is all part of President Bolsonaro’s deliberate policy to destroy the country’s indigenous peoples and take their land for “economic development.”

Your support is vital if the orders – which are all that stand between these uncontacted tribes and certain death – are to be saved.

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Update:
-  On March 17, 2022, FUNAI renewed the emergency Land Protection Order for the Piripkura Indigenous Territory. On June 2, 2022, FUNAI renewed the emergency Land Protection Order for the Pirititi Indigenous Territory. On June 21 2022, FUNAI renewed the emergency Land Protection Order for the Ituna Itatá Indigenous territory for three years. Pirititi and Piripkura were renewed for only 6 months, which is not enough time to remove all invaders nor to finalize the full demarcation of the territories.

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