- A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who establish cattle ranches and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory, home to the last two known isolated Piripkura people, have seen some success with tree cover loss in 2025 down.
- While there was very little deforestation from 2024-2025, authorities told Mongabay that 1,000 cattle left by the invaders still remain in the territory, and they have still not received authorization from the federal government to remove them.
- The presence of cattle encourages ranchers to enter the land to care for them, said sources, though some remain there legitimately.
- Authorities have implemented a succession of land use restriction orders since 2008 to prevent the entry of land grabbers, though a recent court decision has provisionally allowed some ranchers to remain in the Indigenous land until the conclusion of the demarcation process.
A crackdown by the Brazilian government on land-grabbers who cleared primary Amazon forest for ranching and other agricultural activities in the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is yielding some results, with satellite analysis by Mongabay indicating a decline in deforestation. But one tricky problem remains, according to government agents and Indigenous rights organizations: removing their cattle.
The 242,405-hectare (598,995-acre) Piripkura Indigenous Territory in west-central Brazil’s Mato Grosso state is home to the last two — known — Indigenous Piripkura people in voluntary isolation. According to Jair Candor, the coordinator of the Funai unit that protects isolated Indigenous groups, a third Piripkura person left the land and married into another tribe, the Karipuna, several decades ago. Funai, the country’s Indigenous affairs agency, has not yet ruled out the possibility that more isolated people live there.
Ranchers coming in with their cattle to graze land have contributed to a large share of forest loss here. According to data from Global Forest Watch, the area lost a total tree cover of 1,769 hectares (4,371 acres) in 2021 — equivalent to 2,500 soccer fields — representing the largest increase since 2004, when the area lost was almost double (3,276 hectares, or 8,095 acres). Since the spike in 2021, due to successful operations by government agencies, deforestation has declined substantially, and despite a slight increase in 2023, losses remained far below 2021 levels and continued to decrease in 2024 and 2025. By 2025, tree cover loss had fallen to 106 hectares (262 acres).
While deforestation has slowed and the invaders have mostly gone, an agent from IBAMA, Brazil’s environmental agency, who has coordinated several operations in Piripkura and still works in the region, said they have been struggling to get authorizations from Brasília to remove the estimated 1,000 cattle that have been left behind. This, they said, offers a cover of legitimacy for ranchers to keep coming back.
The tricky problems with cattle
In 2021, the year that saw the greatest spike in deforestation, agents from IBAMA and police officers from the National Force conducted an operation to combat land invasions in the territory. The territory was under a succession of land use restriction orders, which prohibits unauthorized individuals from entering, but people seeking land to graze and farm continued to enter.
Since then, there have been multiple operations, and Funai’s Madeirinha-Juruena Ethno-environmental Protection Front unit — responsible for locating, monitoring and protecting isolated and recently contacted Indigenous communities — maintains permanent territorial monitoring and enforcement actions through an Ethno-environmental Protection Base installed in the region.
“Things have slowed down considerably in the last two years,” said the IBAMA agent, who requested anonymity due to security concerns. “Many areas have been abandoned [by the invaders]; many areas have regenerated.”
But, they said, there’s been difficulty getting authorizations from the federal government to initiate an operation to remove the hundreds of cattle that remain.
“In the previous government, we were unable to make progress, and now we are at the end of [President] Lula’s government and we still haven’t managed to make progress in seizing the animals,” they said.
This is likely because the number of animals in Piripkura is small compared to other invaded Indigenous lands, such as the Apyterewa Indigenous Territory in Pará state, the Ibama agent said. The cattle that remain in Piripkura are cared for by their owners who take advantage of the fact that Funai’s base is in the south, and that access to the animals is from the north. To prevent their entry, a base would need to be placed in the north of the Indigenous land, they said.
“The presence of these animals [in Piripkura] prevents the regeneration of illegally deforested and encourages land grabbers to remain in the area,” they added. “Therefore, their removal is important.”
In addition, some of the remaining cattle belong to ranchers who were there before the ban and actually have been allowed to stay.
A cycle of protective orders
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) told Mongabay that even though a land use order restriction order has been in place since 2008 to prevent outsiders from entering the land, a recent court decision has provisionally allowed some ranchers — and thus their cattle — to remain in the Indigenous land until the conclusion of the demarcation. Those who have a court injunction can continue their agricultural activities, as well as those who operated before the restriction order was put in place and have all the necessary documentation.
Mongabay tried to reach out to the Mato Grosso Cattle Breeders Association (ACRIMAT) and the Mato Grosso Nelore Breeders Association (Nelore MT) but was unable to receive a response by time of publication.
The land use restriction order has been in place since 2008 to protect the isolated people from contact, access to resources and the spread of diseases. The precautionary measure has been renewed every few years since, the most recent being in 2025. While it is meant to allow time for the formal demarcation process to be carried out, as recent Mongabay reporting has shown, they’re often renewed many times over for years while the formal land titling stalls, and they aren’t always effective at protecting isolated peoples’ lands from invaders.
Brazilian federal public prosecutor Daniel Luís Dalberto, head of the office for recently contacted Indigenous peoples and those living in voluntary isolation, told Mongabay in a recent interview that while the legal measure is important, it should have “a short time frame, until the Indigenous territory is demarcated as quickly as possible,” and should be accompanied by other state protection measures, such as monitoring work and operations to combat crime.
The orders are only meant to be precautionary, he added, and demarcation should follow soon after.
Despite the series of land use restriction orders, it hasn’t been enough to stop invasions which IBAMA agents said were carried out by land grabbers. The IBAMA agent told Mongabay via WhatsApp that deforestation is driven by an expectation among invaders that the restriction order won’t be renewed.
“Whenever there’s any movement in the legal process, it seems like people are tempted to go back in,” they said. This was echoed by Priscilla Oliveira, a senior research officer for Survival International, who told Mongabay via WhatsApp that deforestation increases due to the expectation that these areas will be opened up for exploitation.
“The real problem is that there is only an injunction against the land,” said the IBAMA agent. “The government needs to define this once and for all. Officially recognize the Indigenous land, demarcate it. That would put an end to these invasions.”
According to recent research published by Operation Native Amazon (OPAN), an Indigenous rights NGO in Brazil, there is a high concentration of mining permits awaiting approval around the Piripkura Indigenous Territory, primarily for copper, a highly prioritized critical and strategic mineral in Brazil considered essential for advanced defense systems and the renewable energy transition.
“Another concern regarding these processes is the large number of artisanal mining permits occupying the main rivers that drain the Indigenous land,” Ricardo da Costa Carvalho, an Indigenous rights expert at OPAN and co-author of the report, told Mongabay over email. “If authorized, these artisanal mining activities will be carried out using barges, which will be located along the riverbeds, often upstream from the indigenous land, representing a potential risk of future degradation of the water quality used by the people in voluntary isolation.”
The MPI spokesperson told Mongabay via email that in February 2026, Funai, IBAMA and the National Force carried out an inspection and found new deforestation within Piripkura territory associated with the opening of illegal roads, the formation of pastures and the use of heavy machinery for forest suppression. Satellite imagery analyzed by Mongabay also confirms the opening of roads and maintenance of pastureland.
As a result of the government operation, agents identified and disabled tractors used for illegal deforestation and expanded the state presence in the area, which contributes to discouraging new invasions and reducing the recent advance of environmental degradation.
Banner image: A herd of cattle in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state. Image by Brian Henderson via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0).
Cite this article
Aimee Gabay (2026). Brazil curbs Amazon deforestation in Piripkura, but ranchers’ cattle linger. Mongabay Conservation news. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321585Credits
