Brazilian Indigenous leader links land demarcation to climate action

Kaingang, co-founder and executive director of the National Network of Indigenous Women Warriors of Ancestral Wisdom (ANMIGA) and a member of the Kaingang people of southern Brazil, said climate solutions require Indigenous participation. She credited the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva with withdrawing invaders from Indigenous lands and said illegal mining in Yanomami territory had fallen by 98%. Indigenous lands and local communities, she said, hold about a third of the carbon humanity cannot afford to lose.

She urged Brazil’s planned roadmap to halt and reverse deforestation and forest degradation by 2030 to incorporate Indigenous and traditional communities’ knowledge. Kaingang described Lula’s actions as a reversal of former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s dismantling of territorial protections. Lula was reelected last month with support from 608 of Brazil’s 658 Indigenous polling places, according to the source article.

Indigenous Peoples Minister Eloy Terena, a member of the Terena people, told Brasil de Fato on Sunday that the government is preparing to approve dozens more Indigenous land demarcations before the end of 2026. During Lula’s third term, the government has recognized 20 Indigenous lands, declared 21 others and established 31 reserves, Terena said.

Protests across Brazil have criticized the pace of demarcation amid continued violence and encroachment by agribusiness. Terena linked reported murders, vehicle attacks and threats to poison drinking water in attacks on Guarani Kaiowá communities in Mato Grosso do Sul to the failure to secure ancestral territories. More than 150 technical working groups are advancing demarcation procedures, he said, while warning that political and judicial resistance, backed by agribusiness and other destructive interests, cannot be overcome by executive action alone.