At least two Piripkura people live in the forests of Mato Grosso without regular contact with the outside world. A new Brazilian court order gives ranchers and other non-Indigenous occupants 120 days to leave their territory and take their cattle, machinery and belongings with them.
The ruling matters because the Piripkura Indigenous Territory is protected as the home of people living in voluntary isolation. Contact can put their health and safety at risk, while outside ranching and land clearing threaten the forest they depend on. Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, Funai, has not ruled out the possibility that more isolated Piripkura people live there.
The federal judge’s decision, issued Oct. 7, reverses an earlier ruling that had allowed some occupants to stay until the land’s demarcation process was complete. The territory has been under a special protection regime since 2008 to keep outsiders from entering. A 2025 court decision had provisionally let certain ranchers remain, relying on a rule in the Marco Temporal law about occupants’ rights while land demarcation and compensation claims were unresolved. In December 2025, Brazil’s Supreme Court struck down that law as unconstitutional.
The latest order gives occupants time to leave voluntarily and remove workers, animals, equipment and other movable property in an organized way. Anyone who remains after the deadline can face a daily fine of 500 Brazilian reais, about $93. Funai will oversee the operation, with support from Brazil’s environmental protection agency, IBAMA, and security agencies if needed. Prosecutors said forced removal, including police assistance, may be considered for those who do not comply, but that voluntary departure is the priority to reduce the chance of confrontation.
The decision followed inspections that found fresh signs of illegal activity. One recent inspection attributed 36.83 hectares, or 91 acres, of unauthorized clearing to a rancher. Reports in the case file also described clandestine airstrips allegedly used for drug trafficking inside the territory, raising fears of violence and unwanted contact. During a joint inspection, Funai and IBAMA agents encountered members of GEFRON, a specialized border security unit; three people were later arrested in the western Colniza region.
The territory has faced pressure from land grabbing and cattle ranching for decades. In 2021, it lost 1,769 hectares of tree cover, an area about the size of 2,500 soccer fields and the largest loss since 2004. Deforestation declined after government enforcement efforts, but the new findings show that the danger has not disappeared.
Public prosecutors Daniel Luis Dalberto and Guilherme Fernandes Ferreira Tavares called the order an important step for protecting the Piripkura and recognizing the special legal safeguards owed to people living in isolation. They stressed that carrying out the ruling requires care beyond a typical land repossession. With Funai leading the process and 120 days for occupants to leave, the next test will be whether the order can be enforced while keeping the Piripkura safe from contact and conflict.