Analysis of data from the Geo-Yanomami group shows that, in addition to mining, the territory also has records of deforestation. The problem is driven by advances of agribusiness.

The advance of the agricultural frontier in the east of Yanomami Indigenous Territory (TIY) and the rise in deforestation: Total elimination of native vegetation in a given area, generally followed by occupation with another land cover or land use.alerts in its surrounding area increased the immediate risk to the health of local populations, according to a new survey (read more below). Agribusiness’s interest in the territory is nothing new, but it has intensified in recent years, despite several complaints made by indigenous organizations.

According to Yanomami leader Davi Kopenawa, the cattle ranches that have invaded the east of the indigenous territory were first denounced by the Hutukara Yanomami Association almost 10 years ago. However, many of the invaders remain in the region and, in some cases, new deforestation alerts indicate that their grazing areas are expanding.

“We often denounce the farms that are destroying our land, but the authorities don’t listen,” says Kopenawa, president of the Hutukara, the main indigenous entity in the region, created in 2004 to defend the physical integrity of the TIY residents and all of their natural resources.

The authors mapped out how forest degradation: Partial and gradual elimination of forest vegetation for the selective extraction of wood and other natural resources. It can also occur due to fire and climate change. and deforestation have advanced in the TIY in recent years. Unlike deforestation, which is the total elimination of native vegetation in a given area, forest degradation is the partial and gradual elimination of vegetation in a process that can occur, for example, from selective logging, fire, edge effects and drought.

In the case of the Yanomami Indigenous Territory, changes in vegetation cover through a combination of deforestation, mining and burn scars were measured by Deter, a rapid surveying system for alerts of evidence of forest cover change in the Amazon. The analysis concluded that over 729.45 km² had changes of this type between 2017 and 2022. The researchers evaluated the entire period available for analysis by Deter, a monitoring system that was created shortly before, in 2016. The TerraClass System, responsible for qualifying deforestation in Brazil’s Legal Amazon, also indicated that between 2017 and 2020, new areas in the eastern region of the reserve were transformed into pasture.