Supporting Tenure Security and ‘Good Living’ of Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon

The Amazon is the world’s largest continuous tropical forest area, storing some 73 billion tonnes of carbon. The Brazilian Amazon represents 60 percent of the entire Amazon region. More than 22 percent of the Brazilian Amazon is officially demarcated as Indigenous territories, and research has shown that these titled Indigenous territories are considerably better protected and managed than other lands and serve as major carbon sinks. However, because of a lack of recognised land rights, these territories are under threat from land grabbing, illegal mining, and other illegal activities. 

This project with Tenure Facility helps solve that problem by supporting actions, in partnership with the Brazilian Government Indigenous Peoples’ Agency (FUNAI), to advance the demarcation processes of three Indigenous territories covering 730,530 hectares that are home to five different Indigenous Peoples. While the funding flows through Tenure Facility, the project is led by Podáali, the Indigenous Fund of the Brazilian Amazon, in collaboration with the Coordination of the Indigenous Organisations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB).

In addition to demarcation, the project:

• Supports Indigenous communities in these territories to design and implement Life Plans, ensuring development aligns with their own priorities and traditions.
• Finances women-led, sustainable livelihood enterprises across four territories to bolster economic empowerment and resource stewardship.
• Leads to the development of a proposal to the Amazon Fund to unlock additional finance for Indigenous community development.

Together, these activities aim to secure land rights, strengthen local governance and livelihoods, and leverage larger-scale funding to protect one of the world’s most vital carbon sinks.