“My dream is to see Indigenous Peoples with their rights protected, respected, fulfilled,” Joenia Wapichana said in an interview with Mongabay.com earlier this year. As the head of FUNAI, the Fundação Nacional dos Povos Indígenas, she is one of several Indigenous peoples and others who are working on getting land demarcated in Brazil. She is pictured here with fellow female Indigenous leaders Célia Xakriabá and Sônia Guajajara. This week, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva echoed calls for the demarcation of Indigenous territories in the Amazon during his visit to the Raposa Serra Do Sol Indigenous Territory. “We need to quickly try to legalize every land whose (demarcation) studies are almost finished so the Indigenous can take the land that is theirs,” Lula said at the 52nd general assembly of the Indigenous peoples of the State of Roraima, according to an article by NBC News. What is demarcation? Demarcation is the legal process in Brazil by which the boundaries of an Indigenous Peoples’ territory are defined to secure their clear title to their homelands. It has been regarded as a way not only to preserve Indigenous rights but a way to protect for future generations one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. “After an Indigenous community presents a land claim, the government's Indigenous affairs agency Funai consults with specialists - coordinated by an anthropologist - to determine the community's size and the area needed for them to maintain their way of life, from food supplies to language”, notes Context News. Some of the territories pending a presidential authorization began the demarcation processes decades ago. And during the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, the process was halted and marked for Indigenous Peoples a significant threat to their lands. Extractivist industries capitalized on the lack of protections for Indigenous Peoples and illegally mined, logged and fished on Indigenous lands without major consequence. How does protecting Indigenous land protect nature? In 2020, a study found that Indigenous territories in Brazil's Amazon with full property rights experienced a 66% reduction in annual deforestation from 1982-2016 compared with land outside their borders. Sources: Context News: https://bit.ly/408KC7a NBC News: https://nbcnews.to/42oQUkX