Numbers of the Xingu River Basin

• its area extends over 51 million hectares

• is home to 48 municipalities in the states of Mato Grosso and Pará

• is home to 21 Indigenous Lands

• 10 Conservation Units

• 24 indigenous ethnic groups

• is home to species of Amazon and Cerrado

The Xingu River Basin is a reference of Brazilian biological and cultural diversity. Over its 51.1 million hectares in the states of Para and Mato Grosso, it shelters 24 indigenous ethnic groups, who speak over 20 languages and hold ancient knowledge about the regional biodiversity, traditional coastal communities and immigrants from many different regions of the country. Many of his landscapes and environments are known as Amazonian biodiversity hotspots.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the Xingu River Basin has approximately 400,000 inhabitants and is one of the world’s greatest corridors of protected areas. The 21 Indigenous Lands and 10 Conservation Units form a contiguous corridor of socio biodiversity of 28.8 million hectares, which represents 56.3% of its total length.

Created by ISA in 1995, the Xingu Program embraces a wide range of partnerships and joint actions aimed at the protection and sustainability of communities living in the Xingu River Basin and the support for regional environmental development. The actions are performed primarily in four areas: the Xingu Indigenous Park, the Panará Indigenous Land, the springs area of the Xingu River, in the State of Mato Grosso, and in the region of Terra do Meio, in the State of Pará.

Main lines of action

• Promote cultural strengthening of indigenous and traditional communities

• Support the role of indigenous and traditional communities associations

• Supporting traditional communities in natural resource management

• Encourage the practice of family agriculture

• Promoting sources of sustainable income

• Supporting the social and environmental suitability of the farming production

• Promote the protection of water resources

• Developing and maintaining forest carbon stocks in the Xingu River Basin

Xingu River

Besides housing a wide range of aquatic species, the Xingu River extends over an area known for its unique biodiversity. The main rivers of the Xingu Basin are formed in areas of Cerrado and join in the Amazon biome, forming the Xingu River. The Xingu runs entirely within the Amazon biome.

Xingu Indigenous Park and the Indigenous Land Panará

The Xingu Program has a team that works directly with Panará people and the peoples of the Xingu Indigenous Park. The main actions are divided into four areas: protection and enforcement of indigenous land, education, natural resource management, strengthening of associations. The actions are carried out in partnership with communities and associations, such as the Xingu Indigenous Land Association (Atix), and aim to support the role of indigenous peoples and political dialogue with the surroundings.

The Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX) extends over an area of 2.8 million hectares and a perimeter of 920 kilometers, at the north of Mato Grosso State. It is located in an area of ecological transition, consisting of tropical forests at the north and Cerrado at the south. (See on the side map and click it to enlarge). The PIX was created in 1961 and in 2011 it celebrates 50 years of existence. It is the largest Indigenous Land in Mato Grosso and hosts sixteen indigenous ethnic groups: Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Matipu, Nahukuá, Mehinako, Waura (Wauja), Aweti, Kamaiurá, Trumai,Yawalapiti, Kisêdjê (Suya), Kawaiwetê (Kaiabi), Ikpeng (Txicão), Yudjá (Juruna), Naruvotu and Tapayuna - they speak 14 different languages.

The Indigenous Land Panará extends over an area of 500 hectares. Its territory is partly in the State of Pará and partly in the State of Mato Grosso. The Panará were victims of an unsuccessful contact with the Brazilian State, at the opening of the highway “BR-163”, in the 1970s. The process of constructing the road has almost caused the extinction of this people, so in 1975 they were transferred by Funai to the Xingu Indigenous Park. After 20 years in exile, the Panará people regained the area that was still preserved in their former territory and now they live in two villages. (See the Indigenous Lands location on the map above and click on it to enlarge)

Springs region of the Xingu River

The springs region of the Xingu River are around the Xingu Indigenous Park, in Mato Grosso, a region that suffer rapid process of occupation in the last 40 years. (See map next to the location of the springs region and click on it to enlarge). The work of the Xingu Program in this region aims to promote processes of social and environmental adaptation of properties and municipalities in the basin of the Xingu River, and to enhance existing initiatives that have this same purpose. The goal is to build a territorial development model that combines economic production with the conservation of natural resources, and enhancing local environmental diversity.

Several actions of the Xingu Program in this region are conducted through the Campaign Y Ikatu Xingu, an active coalition of interests for the protection and restoration of riparian forests and springs of the Xingu basin in Mato Grosso. The campaign was created in 2004 with the involvement of partners from many different sectors: indigenous peoples, ranchers, farmers, researchers and civil society organizations operating in the region. Their actions are developed to mobilize and coordinate different actors in the municipal, state, national and international levels to ensure the integrity of water resources and warn about the environmental impacts of the use and occupation of that territory.

The 3 lines of action:

• Forest restoration

• Agroforestry Education

• Planning and management of land use

There is also a cross line, called Associations and partnerships – it allows the promoters of the campaign to add new partners and articulate processes of mobilization and fundraising to enable the work. Y Ikatu Xingu means "Save the good water of the Xingu" in Kamaiurá, language of an ethnic group that inhabit the Xingu Indigenous Park.

Terra do Meio

The Xingu Program develops a series of actions towards the consolidation of the protected lands of Terra do Meio, an area that completes the formation of the Xingu socio biodiversity corridor and extends over 28 million hectares, linking the Amazon rainforest with Cerrado. With emphasis on the Extractive Reserves (Resex) ‘Riozinho Anfrisio’ and ‘Iriri’, the work aims to promote the social, cultural and economic sustainability of the local communities through the support for environmental services that maintain biological diversity, water resources and maintenance of carbon stocks, associated with their traditional practices. (See the map location of the area and click on it to enlarge).

The main actions are carried out in partnership with various government institutions, NGOs, associations and communitie and are geared towards increasing the capacity of dialogue and political prominence of the extractors with the society. It also aims to ensure basic infrastructure in the Extractive Reserves, expanding the economic autonomy of the communities and the capacity of their organizations, promoting the conditions for the identification and the traditional practices of natural resources management, and contributing to the process of regularization in protected areas.

Through the Program Xingu, ISA participates on the Movement Xingu Forever Alive (MXVPS), a campaign that closely studies the process of licensing of Belo Monte Hydroelectric Complex in Altamira, in the State of Pará. The MXVPS team analyses the impacts of this construction and disseminates information about the process.

Context

Located in the center of the State of Pará, Terra do Meio covers the territories of ‘Altamira’ and ‘São Félix do Xingu’. It is one of the most important regions for conservation of cultural and biological diversity of Amazon, but it also hosts serious of land conflicts. This area and its current situation are a good scenario to evaluate the actual capacity of government to protect the Amazon rainforest. The region face threats like illegal land appropriation, illegal harvesting of timber and mining.

Terra do Meio is home to a mosaic of Conservation Unities (UCs) and Indigenous Lands (TIs) which occupy an area of 8.582 million hectares. The units cover the region of the interfluves of the rivers ‘Xingu’ and ‘Iriri’, which works as a geographical barrier for the dispersal of a diversity of species, contributing to different biological processes and ensuring the biodiversity flow in this region.

Team of Program

Coordinator: André Villas-Bôas (indigenist specialist)

Adjunct Coordinator: Paulo Junqueira (psychologist)

Adjunct Coordinator: Rodrigo Junqueria (agronomist)

Adjunct Coordinator: Marcelo Salazar (engineer)

Assistant Coordinator: Maria Martha Mota

Cassiano Marmet
Cleudemir Peixoto
Cristina Velasquez
Elisangela Trzeciak de Mesquista
Eric Deblire
Erica Ieglli
Francinaldo Ferreira de Lima
Joanatan Fernandes Rocha Reis
José Nicola Mortorano Neves da Costa
Junior Micolino da Veiga
Kátia Ono
Luciano Langmontel Eichholz
Marcío Luis Silva Souza
Marisa Gesteira Fonseca
Moisés Felix Carvalho Neto
Murilo Passareli
Natália Guerin
Paula Mendonça de Menezes
Renato Antunes Vianna Mendonça
Rita de Cássia Rocha da Silva
Rosalina Alves da Silva Loch
Rosana Gasparini
Sadi Eisenbach
Valéria Priscilla Lourenço Leão de Brito