In January we were back in TI Pimentel Barbosa, in the heart of Xavante territory in Mato Grosso. Led by Chief Dadá and joined by advisory board member Marco van de Ree and Executive Director Tom Wheeler, we continued building out what a Treesistance guardian programme looks like in practice.
TI Pimentel Barbosa is one of seven Indigenous Territories of the Xavante people. Spanning around 329,000 hectares and home to 26 villages, the territory is an oasis of nature in the Cerrado, surrounded by expanding soyfields and increasing external pressure.
The Cerrado is one of the world’s most threatened biomes. Around Pimentel Barbosa, pressure from agribusiness expansion, pasture burning, illegal mining, deforestation, and escalating climate impacts continues to grow. Scientific studies have described the region as one of the areas with the highest annual fire activity globally, showing the scale of the challenge facing both the territory and the people who protect it.
Treesistance has been working alongside the Xavante since 2024, supporting organisational strengthening, local guardianship systems, fire-management strategies, and early-warning capacities. The collaboration builds on the decades-long relationship between Dutch biologist Frans Leeuwenberg and the Xavante, and began with a first Forest Guardian training led by Chief Dadá Borarí.
Since then, Treesistance has supported multiple assemblies and trainings, helping to foster collaboration among the villages and equip local teams with the tools and technology needed to monitor and protect their land.
During the January visit, the team saw the progress made since the start of the collaboration. A central guardian base has now been established, creating an operational heart for a wider territory-wide monitoring system. From this base, four guardian groups are being organised to protect different zones of the territory.
The programme is also introducing practical monitoring tools, including drones, camera traps, and other technology that can help guardians extend their reach deeper into the territory. These tools support the collection of information, strengthen the evidence base, and help connect traditional knowledge with modern monitoring methods.
For Treesistance, this work is not a short-term intervention. It is a multi-year commitment built on trust, learning, and co-creation. Every guardian programme is different, and the strength of the model lies in co-designing support with the communities themselves, based on their needs, priorities, and lived experience of defending their land.
The work happening now in Xavante territory lays foundations for generations to come: strengthening territorial defence, supporting cultural continuity, and helping safeguard a region whose ecological health is vital not only to the Xavante, but to the wider world.
