References

Here we find a recent increase in deforestation within ITs that coincided with a decrease in the protection and rights of indigenous people. We can now answer that: (1) there was a significant trend towards an increase in the area of forests deforested inside and outside the ITs between 2013 and 2021, with an important intensification in the 2019–2021 period, (2) within the ITs, deforestation increased significantly by 195% between 2019 and 2021, (3) in the 2019–2021 period, deforestation advanced 30% from the borders to the interior of the ITs and (4) about 96 million tons of CO2 were emitted due deforestation between 2013 and 2021 in the analyzed ITs.Based on our findings, we believe these territories will remain vulnerable without policy action to combat illegal deforestation in these territories and enforce the constitutional rights of indigenous peoples to protect their lands. For this, we present below a set of recommendations that can be adopted to achieve this objective by federal and state decision-makers:

Although economic activities are not allowed inside ITs, these territories have recently been threatened by illegal mining41,42. Our findings showed that inside the ITs, deforestation notice26 classified as mining areas increased from 1% in 2016 to 14% in 2021. However, the most worrying point is that only in half of the 2022 year, mining is already equivalent to 19% of all deforestation notices26 in the analyzed ITs. Recent environmental setbacks, which include political speech, can explain the increased illegal mining activity in ITs23,32, besides the possibility of regulating commercial mining in these territories41,43,44. Combined with setbacks, the rise in the gold price in recent years has increased pressure on these protected areas; in the 2019–2021 period, the gold price increased more than 30%, reaching up to $65 g−1, the highest value of the last ten years (https://goldprice.org). In addition to the environmental impact, the anthropic advance on indigenous territories also serves as a vector of diseases, such as malaria, associated with illegal mining activities, which may decimate indigenous peoples along with their culture and knowledge45,46,47.

We found that outside ITs, deforestation increased significantly at a rate of 900 km2 year-1 (p < 0.05 and MK = 28; MK is the Mann–Kendall test statistic), or an increase of 137% in the 2013–2021 period

Thus, to accurately diagnose deforestation dynamics in the Brazilian Amazon ITs, we used two official remote sensing datasets and statistical analyses to perform a space–time assessment of deforestation in indigenous territories within the Brazilian Amazon biome between 2013 and 2021;

Deforestation has increased by 129% inside ITs since 2013, followed by an increase in illegal mining areas. In 2019–2021, deforestation was 195% higher and 30% farther from the borders towards the interior of indigenous territories than in previous years (2013–2018). Furthermore, about 59% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within ITs in 2013–2021 (96 million tons) occurred in the last three years of analyzed years, revealing the magnitude of increasing deforestation to climate impacts.

ITs are crucial in reducing carbon emissions and mitigating global climate change

cost-effective strategy for conservation10,11,14. Furthermore, global protected areas, including ITs, could improve carbon sequestration

we used official remote sensing datasets to analyze deforestation inside and outside indigenous territories within Brazil's Amazon biome during the 2013–2021 period