Ratification of tenure and the conversion of land use in the most impacted Indigenous territories of the Brazilian Legal Amazonia region, between 1985 and 2022

Abstract

In Brazil, the demarcation of Indigenous lands guarantees the dominion of native peoples over their traditional territories. Recent studies have shown that, in addition to protecting the rights of Indigenous peoples, these lands contribute decisively to the conservation of natural environments by forming a barrier to the advance of deforestation. This conflicts with the expansion of agricultural frontiers, logging, and squatting, which are the principal increasing anthropogenic pressures on these areas. Other, less well-documented factors may also affect deforestation patterns on Indigenous lands. In this context, the present study aimed to assess the influence of the advances in the ratification of the tenure of Indigenous lands on the rates of conversion of land use (from natural vegetation to anthropogenic cover) in the five Indigenous lands in the Brazilian Amazonia that were subject to the highest rates of cumulative deforestation in 2023. The hypothesis tested here is that the publication of official acts related to the land tenure ratification process is associated with an increase in environmental degradation, which may reflect a conscious initiative to revert themeasures or retaliate against the demarcation process. The study was based on the analysis of data on land conversion between 1985 and 2022, using the DBEST algorithm to identify changes and trends associated with the periods when the federal Brazilian government published official decrees related to Indigenous lands tenure. The results of the analysis indicated that an association indeed exists between the publication of decrees related to the land tenure process and the conversion rates in the Indigenous lands studied here, supporting the proposed hypothesis. These findings should contribute to the development of more effective public policy for the protection of Indigenous territories.