On the International Day of Indigenous Peoples, ISA analysis shows that in the last 35 years these populations have protected more than 20% of native vegetation in Brazil
“Forests need people, just as people need forests.” This is the summary of a new study by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), which proves with data the fundamental role of Indigenous and Traditional Peoples as guardians of Brazil's forests.
According to the analysis, in addition to high social technology in traditional forest management, the presence of Indigenous Peoples expands governance over territories and promotes important socio-environmental contributions to recovering degraded areas.
The results show that Indigenous and Traditional Peoples are responsible, together, for the protection of one third of the forests in Brazil. In the last 35 years, Indigenous Lands alone have protected 20% of the total national forests.
The ISA study also revealed that Indigenous Lands and Extractive Reserves showed better performance in protecting forests when compared to fully protected Conservation Units or Environmental Protection Areas (APAs). Traditionally occupied territories also function as barriers against deforestation.
Currently, 40,5% of Brazilian forests are protected in the national system of protected areas, which includes Indigenous Lands, Quilombola Territories and Conservation Units. However, protected areas with the presence of Indigenous Peoples and traditional populations – Indigenous Lands, Quilombola Territories, Extractive Reserves and Sustainable Development Reserves – protect a third, about 30,5% of forests in Brazil.
In the four types of territories, the rates of forest preservation and regeneration are higher compared to other categories of protected areas. On the other hand, the alternation cycles between deforestation and regeneration in the same area are smaller, which reveals an intensity of landscape management that does not degrade the forests.
The high levels of preservation revealed by the study are due to the set of knowledge and practices of Indigenous and Traditional Peoples in forest management. According to Antonio Oviedo, coordinator of the ISA Monitoring Program, this result is only possible because these peoples have ways of living with nature that reflect the essence of any environmental conservation strategy.
“Indigenous peoples and traditional populations have other conceptions of nature and, consequently, other ways of interacting with the environment. The knowledge of these peoples and their management practices are mixed with the landscapes. In addition, traditional occupation modes promote barriers against deforestation and favor forest regeneration,” he explains.
Indigenous Peoples = standing forest
Throughout the national territory, not only in the Amazon, it is possible to observe the role of Indigenous Lands in protecting forests.
In the last 35 years, Indigenous Lands have acted as major barriers against forest degradation.
See the chart below and understand the role of indigenous populations as vectors of preservation, by region:
Bolsonarism
The demarcation of Indigenous Lands has been one of the most effective strategies to protect the forest. However, in recent years, especially during the government of Jair Bolsonaro, no Indigenous Land has been demarcated – not even protected with the support of the State.
The abandonment scenario is reflected in the high rates of deforestation in the interior of Indigenous Lands. In the last three years, there has been a 138% increase in deforestation, compared to the three previous years (2016 to 2018) of the current government, according to data from Prodes. analyzed by ISA.
On the other hand, the dismantling of environmental agencies further amplified the setbacks. The National Indian Foundation (Funai) lost 21,5% of its resources, as pointed out study from ISA and UFRJ. Between 2018 and 2022, there was a reduction of almost a quarter of the resources allocated to the agency, from R$ 715,7 million to R$ 561,6 million.
“It is urgent to resume the process of demarcation of Indigenous Lands. Furthermore, it is necessary to create public policies to strengthen the protection and management of protected areas, as well as for the environmental restoration of buffer zones”, says Oviedo.
Indigenous Peoples in Brazil
Indigenous Lands in Brazil occupy 13,7% of the national territory, with 610 indigenous lands. Of these, 487 are approved or reserved, while the rest await the completion of the recognition process.
The largest concentration is in the Amazon, with 329 Indigenous Lands demarcated, followed by the Atlantic Forest, with 144; the Cerrado, with 99; the Caatinga, with 39; the Pampa, with nine; the Pantanal, with six and the Coastal and Maritime Zone, with only two demarcated Indigenous Lands.
Currently, there are 256 Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, speakers of more than 150 different languages. They are peoples with an endless number of complexities and distinctions among themselves. To find out who are the Indigenous Peoples in Brazil, visit.
How was the study done?
The study was carried out using land use maps prepared with the dataset from the MapBiomas collection for the period 1985 to 2020.
To determine the degree of effectiveness in the maintenance of native vegetation in protected areas, indices were calculated that express the preserved area or that did not change throughout the historical series, the area in regeneration or the anthropized area that regenerated and returned its classification to vegetation. native, the area in rotation or the alternation between native vegetation and deforestation, and the intensity of management or the ratio between the duration of anthropization of an area by the number of years since the first anthropization.
The MapBiomas project is a multi-institutional initiative to generate annual maps of land cover and use from automatic classification processes applied to satellite images. The complete description of the project is in the link. The collection used in the present work was 6.
What does the study help us to understand?
Understanding the trajectory of native vegetation in protected areas allows planning forms of interaction to promote processes of protection and natural regeneration.
Thus, the maintenance of forests does not necessarily require a policy of total intervention, but it can arise from the involvement of human activities compatible with ecological processes.