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Another problem that assails Guajá security is the constant threat of land invasions. Deforestation and the presence of poachers on the Alto Turiaçu and Caru Reserves have reduced their land area and dwindled game populations. The Guajá are adjacent to a large-scale development project that affects no less than 40 indigenous communities (Treece 1987). This project, known as the Greater Carajás Program (Projeto Grande Carajás in Portuguese) began in the 1980s and is primarily linked to the extraction of precious minerals in the Carajás mining range of Pará state. These minerals are transported along the project's railway, which extends from the mine to the port town of São Luís in Maranhão, covering a distance of approximately 910 kilometers. This railroad attracted a large number of migrants to the region, giving rise to a number of settlements along its route. Invariably, this boost in population has spawned a large number of land invasions from neighboring hamlets. The Carajás railway has driven local game population away from the vicinity of Post Awá, on the southern limits of the Caru Reserve as the noise sounding from freight and passenger trains can be heard from long distances.

As the new millenium is underway, the Guajá face an uncertain future as the noose tightens around them - not to mention that the Indian Service resists partnerships with researchers, NGOs, and other interested parties that could otherwise cushion the impact of contact with outsiders. The Guajá were recently removed from the status of "isolated" Indians and currently find themselves in the most common category of Indian, as defined by FUNAI. That is, they have recently been shifted to the status of Indians "in contact", a situation which translates into withered FUNAI support as they no longer receive the special attention that is normally given to newly contacted groups. Furthermore, the partnership forged between FUNAI and the mining company responsible for the Carajás venture Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), forged in 1988, has recently expired, leaving the Guajá more vulnerable. This partnership extended special assistance to the Guajá, and other Indians along the Carajás railway, in the areas of health, security, education and productive activities. Of the U.S. $300 million the mining company obtained from the World Bank and European Economic Community to construct the Carajás railroad, U.S. $13.2 million were earmarked for these projects, including the demarcation of the Awá Reserve. These funds have recently expired and there is still no sign of demarcation in sight. Plans for a renewed partnership have been discussed but to date nothing has materialized. As it happens, the mining company is only providing intermittent and palliative support to the Guajá in the form of medicines and other small favors and services. Thus, this situation does not constitute a commitment on the part of CVRD, as no substantial mechanism or formal support program aiming to guarantee and maintain the well-being of indigenous groups in Carajás sphere of influence is being implemented. Meanwhile, the Guajá have been submitted to a forced assimilation as their relations with FUNAI are assymetrical, being hierarchical, authoritarian and paternalistic. This lopsided relationship has also generated internal inequalities among the Guajá. FUNAI favors some individuals over others and uses this mechanism as a way of establishing more control over their communities. In this manner, emergent leaders are benefited with better goods, services and health care. Equality between the sexes is also waning as FUNAI interacts more with the men of the Guajá community, excluding women from most of the decision making processes.

The NGO Survival International (SI) recently denounced the Guajá's situation at the United Nation's Commission of Human Rights and the UN's special rapporteur on
indigenous peoples specifically mentioned their case in his report to the commission. SI also lobbied the World Bank and CVRD over the failure to demarcate the Awá Reserve and the fact that the funds for demarcation expired in 2001. Subsequent to their pressure the World Bank agreed to reinstate the Guajá's case or obtain funds from other sources, yet as long as the political will to address this problem remains nil the Guajá and other groups in the region will continue to feel the pressure and impacts of unbridled development.