For 40 years, the Xavante people have held firm against the tide of agriculture spreading across the Brazilian savanna. Their secret? Taking care of the land together.
A new study shows that the Pimentel Barbosa Indigenous Territory in Mato Grosso has kept its forests, wetlands, and native grasslands almost completely intact since 1986. Right next door, the land has been transformed — chopped up by highways and turned into soybean fields and cattle ranches.
Researchers are calling the territory an "island of biodiversity in a sea of monoculture." The study, published in the journal Geocarto International and awarded for scientific merit at the State University of Campinas, tracked changes from 1985 to 2024 using satellite data from the MapBiomas Project, a network that maps land cover across Brazil.
The territory covers 329,000 hectares — roughly the size of Rhode Island. About 2,400 Xavante people lived there in 2022, according to Brazil's national statistics institute. When the Xavante obtained official recognition of their land through Decree 93,147 in 1986, the landscape inside and outside their borders looked similar. Today, that picture has flipped dramatically.
"Initially, there was ecological continuity between the interior and exterior of the indigenous land, but over time, the surrounding area became fragmented by agricultural expansion, while the interior remained relatively preserved," said Anderson Targino Ferreira, a researcher who worked on the geotechnology and statistical analysis for the study.
The researchers identified three phases of transformation in the surrounding region. From 1985 to 1995, native vegetation still dominated. Between 1996 and 2012, deforestation accelerated as pastures spread. Since 2013, the area has been consolidated into large-scale soybean cultivation and industrial cattle farming. Major highways BR-158 and BR-163 cut through nearby lands as Brazil extended its agricultural frontier.
Lead author Isabella Coelho de Oliveira spent time living among the Xavante, participating in their daily assemblies called Warã and working alongside community members. "During my visits, the community leaders shared how they maintain their territory through collective practices and a deep connection to the land," she explained.
Professor Vicente Eudes Lemos Alves, who supervised the research, said the contrast supports the concept of "territorial islanding" — preserved areas that survive as refuges amid landscapes transformed by economic development.
"You only need to travel from south to north along BR-158 to notice that contrast," Oliveira noted. "On one side lies the preserved indigenous land, with the forest still standing; on the other, areas completely deforested for soybeans and cattle."
The study highlights how indigenous land management can maintain ecological stability even as development presses in from all sides. For the Xavante, protecting their territory is not just about conservation — it is about preserving a way of life that has sustained both people and nature for generations.