A newly released ISA book presents an overview of the main threats to indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation

Organized by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), the book presents a current overview of the threats to peoples in voluntary isolation, and the fragility of their territories before the expansion of deforestation and enterprise development. It also contains chapters on the specific situations and challenges some peoples are faced with, thanks to the indispensable collaboration of various civil society researchers and professionals with long histories in the regions described, as well as indigenous partners who share their territories with isolated peoples and are today crucial for the protection of these groups.

Invasions, prospection, deforestation and fires have spiked in the Amazon since the election of Jair Bolsonaro. Under this scenario, all indigenous peoples are under threat, but some groups are in an extreme situation: isolated indigenous peoples. These are peoples who refuse contact with non-indigenous people and intrinsically depend on the forest for survival.

An ISA survey shows that the recent fires which have been devastating the Amazon have also reached territories inhabited by these groups. Since July, there have been 3,699 fires on territories with a presence of isolated peoples. The hardest hit territories are Rio Preto-Jacundá Extractive Forest (Florex), with 1,538 fires; Araguaia National Park (Parna), with 239 fires; Terra do Meio Ecological Station (Esec), with 188 fires; Xingu Indigenous Park, with 179 fires; and the Kayapó Indigenous Land, with 160 fires.

Download a free copy of the English translation of the book from the ISA webpage.

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