A federal judge in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state has ordered individuals, along with their employees, animals, machinery, equipment and movable property, to leave the Piripkura Indigenous Territory within 120 days. The Oct. 7 ruling reverses an earlier, contentious decision that allowed certain people to remain in the territory until the conclusion of the demarcation process. The new ruling comes after Funai, Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency, and Brazil’s environmental protection agency (IBAMA) discovered clandestine airstrips for drug trafficking and new deforestation associated with cattle ranching inside the territory. A judge has set a daily fine of 500 Brazilian reais (about $93) for those who remain after 120 days. Since 2008, the area has been under a special protection regime to prevent outsiders from entering the land, though a 2025 court decision provisionally allowed some ranchers to remain. This decision was based on a provision of the contentious Marco Temporal law which stated that, until an Indigenous territory’s demarcation is completed and compensation for improvements made in good faith has been paid, non-Indigenous occupants retain certain rights to possess and use the land. In Dec. 2025, Brazil’s Supreme Court struck down the Marco Temporal Law, declaring it unconstitutional. The territory is home to at least two Indigenous Piripkura people who live in voluntary isolation. Funai has not yet ruled out the possibility that more isolated people live there. The new ruling “represents a very important step forward for the protection of the Piripkura, both for its practical effects and for the recognition…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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