The forest area protected by the Kayapo, who occupy five contiguous and legally ratified indigenous territories in the Xingu River Basin, holds immense conservation value. Their lands comprise the last large block of forest that survives in the southeastern Amazon.  Kayapo territories are large enough to sustain ecological processes and healthy populations of endangered and threatened Amazonian species such as white-lipped peccary, jaguar, blue-winged macaw, lowland tapir, neotropical otter, chestnut-throated spinetail, Trees species especially require large intact landscapes to maintain their populations. In addition, over 1,500 species of fish can be found within the Xingu River running through the Kayapo territories.

Kayapo indigenous territories sequester one billion or more tons of carbon. Without Kayapo presence this carbon would long ago have been released to the atmosphere by ranchers. In a world where global warming is becoming increasingly alarming, the conservation of large tracts of undisturbed forests is ever more important.

The warrior ancestors of today’s Kayapo who inhabit the block of five contiguous Kayapo territories in the south of Para and north of Mato Grosso states were contacted in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Government officials and missionaries managed to approach them during the 1960’s by introducing prized items from the outside such as metal tools and pots. Soon the Kayapo’s desire for such items and many others including guns, fishing gear, radios and boats overcame their tendency to make war on all outsiders and among themselves. They also needed medical care to treat introduced diseases that were decimating them. The Kayapo, therefore, became “pacified”.

However, they continued to defend their lands from invasions by ranchers, loggers and colonists. During the 1980s and early 1990’s, Kayapo leaders pressured the government to officially recognize and demarcate considerable sized tracts of their traditional lands. In 1989, the Kayapo became internationally renowned when their resistance stopped World Bank funding of a mega-dam project on the Xingu River near Altamira.

Today, the Kayapo live in more than 30 mostly small communities located on rivers throughout their territories. Outside pressure to access Kayapo land and natural resources continues to build. Kayapo territories are located in the midst of one of the world’s most intense deforestation zones; the southeastern Amazon region known as the “arc of deforestation.”  Cattle ranching, soybean plantations, logging, mining, road-building and urban development have resulted in clearing of millions of hectares of natural forest in the region. Furthermore, this region of Brazil suffers from weak governance, corruption, lack of law enforcement and violent land conflict.

The Kayapo People are the traditional stewards of the Amazon’s southeastern rainforest, and have preserved the ecological integrity of these lands for over thousands of years. By continuing traditional practices, including the sustainable harvest of Brazil nuts, the Kayapo preserve their culture and the rainforests. These brings greater autonomy and a sense of well-being for the Kayapo people, and the irreplaceable ecological benefits of the Amazonian rainforest for all life on Earth.