Brazil: Three years on, uncontacted Mamoriá Grande tribe remains unprotected

This month marks three years since conclusive evidence was found of a previously unknown uncontacted tribe’s existence, yet the Brazilian government has done little to protect the people or their territory at Mamoriá Grande in Amazonas state – putting them both at enormous risk. 

Evidence collected by FUNAI, the Brazil Government’s Indigenous Affairs Agency, included hunting shelters, pottery, woven baskets, and bows. It points to a group of several dozen hunter-gatherers living close to the Purus River region, in the western Amazon. 

Very little is known of the uncontacted people – except that they are extremely vulnerable to violent attacks or even accidental contact with outsiders. They lack immunity to Western diseases and could be killed by a flu virus or bacterial infection. Many settlers live in the area and fish, hunt and take forest produce from the tribe’s territory.

In 2021 the regional FUNAI team requested an urgent Land Protection Order to cover the region where the tribe lives. They sought a base for a team to monitor and protect the forest while gathering information for the purposes of permanently recognizing the tribe and its land. They also asked that a “health cordon” be established to prevent the spread of disease. But those requests were ignored by the national FUNAI office – then under President Jair Bolsonaro’s control. 

In 2022, Survival, alongside Indigenous organizations, denounced FUNAI’s slow response. It was hoped that when Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's government came to power that a Land Protection Order would be quickly signed – it’s an emergency measure which prohibits invaders and protects Indigenous land – as permanent demarcation can take decades.

That hope was misplaced – as Lula’s government has not taken the necessary action.

Fiona Watson, Survival’s research and advocacy director, said today: “We are deeply concerned about the current government's inertia in protecting the territory of the isolated Indigenous people of Mamoriá Grande. The people are in a highly vulnerable situation. FUNAI urgently needs to sign the Land Protection Order and demarcate this land as Indigenous territory and thus fulfill its legal obligation to protect the territory of these Indigenous people.”