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Status – Indigenous Territory. Forest Guardians established since 2022.
The Takuara village of the Munduruku territory is located on the shore of the Tapajós River, State of Pará, in the National Forest (FLONA) Tapajós. Territory recognized and supported by the Ordinance no. 568 of May 11, 2016. About 200 people inside the village, being more than 50 families currently. The residential area is concentrated on the banks of the Tapajós River and most of the territory is concentrated in forest.
The Munduruku have lived in the states of Pará, Amazonas and Mato Grosso for centuries and today comprise approximately 14,000 people.29 They inhabit forests on the margins of navigable rivers across multiple demarcated and non-demarcated pieces of land. They are mostly concentrated in the demarcated TI Munduruku, (2,382,000 ha). The territory has been demarcated and registered since 2004. However, frontier towns, such as Itaituba, have long been a hub for illegal activities, including timber exploitation, mining, land-grabbing, and illegal drug trafficking on Indigenous lands. The neighboring town of Jacareacanga is the main gateway into the TI Munduruku and TI Sai Cinza and has become a mineral mining hotspot, including manganese, copper, bauxite, gold, nickel, and tin.3031 Some Munduruku people live in TI Sai Cinza, which borders TI Munduruku but is not yet demarcated. Another smaller area,TI Sawre Muybu, is currently contested. Demarcation has been stalled since 2016. TI Kayabi borders TI Munduruku to the south and runs along the Teles Pires River. Further up the Teles Pires river the construction of the Teles Pires and Sao Manuel hydroelectric dams destroyed sacred Munduruku cemeteries and sites in 2017-2018.32
‘ The violations of the rights of the Munduruku people from the Taquara village have intensified, in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the little supervision by the competent bodies, many non-Indigenous people have stolen several logs of wood from the trees that are illegally felled…[causing] us several material and immaterial damages, since for us, Indigenous Peoples, our territory is not a supermarket where people arrive, fill their carts and leave. I bring as a concern that the violation of rights and the delay of the administrative procedure, tends not only to continue, but to worsen’
Source
Observations on the State of Indigenous Human Rights in Brazil Prepared for United Nations Human Rights Council: Oct.-Nov. 2022 4th Cycle of Universal Periodic Review of Brazil 41st Session of the Human Rights Council
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