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June 6, 2023

ndigenous rights are federally recognized under the Brazilian constitution enacted in 1988, with land rights explicitly protected and mandated for demarcation (which provides an explicit land/property boundary and ownership designation) under Article 231. With an estimated Indigenous population of 900,000 and identified Indigenous lands representing a significant portion of Brazil’s land mass. Article 231 and its mandate is important for Indigenous self-determination, reparations from centuries of colonization, and ecological conservation.

Identified Indigenous lands represent about 13 percent of Brazil’s land mass, which is equivalent to about 106.7 million hectares, focused primarily in the Amazon, which come out to 462 different recognized lands.1 During the 1970s, a political movement around pro-Indigenous rights raised the profile for Indigenous and environmental issues, organized by an Indigenous rights coalition that included domestic and international non-governmental organizations, activists, and leftist politicians. Decades of struggle for recognition domestically, combined with an international advocacy campaign, culminated in the 1988 Constitution, which acknowledges that Indigenous peoples are the original inhabitants of Brazil.

Specifically, Article 231 of the 1988 Constitution recognizes “Indigenous people as the first and natural owners of the land and guarantees their right to land.”2 Through the Constitution, the federal government is mandated to demarcate land, which provides a formal guarantee, including protective status, as well as make efforts to preserve traditional Indigenous lands through formal legal land tenure processes. Since 1988, Brazil has made further international commitments to Indigenous land sovereignty, including being a major supporter and signatory of the 1989 ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Rights3 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) in 2007.4

More:
https://www.sdg16.plus/policies/constitutional-land-rights-for-indigenous-people-in-brazil/