The Three Pillars of the Kayapo Project

Territorial Monitoring and control

The objective of this program is to maintain the ecological and cultural integrity of Kayapo lands by preventing invasion and predatory exploitation by illegal goldminers, loggers, fishermen and ranchers. Program components are:

• • Remote sensing/satellite image analysis
  • Border guard posts located at key access points and manned by Kayapo guards
  • Kayapo border patrol expeditions 
  • Overflight surveillance to detect incursions and ground-truth remote sensing data 
  • Training workshops for Kayapo youth

sustainable enterprise 

The Kayapo NGOs work to develop sustainable economic enterprises for their communities that generate equitably distributed income, fit with Kayapo culture and conserve the primary forest ecosystem upon which Kayapo society depends. Sustainable enterprises include:

• • Brazil Nut
  • Cumaru Nut (Tonka Bean)
  • Handicrafts
  • Farinha (manioc flour) production
  • International Field Course
  • Sport Fishing

institution building

The three Kayapo NGOs are Kayapo outposts in a foreign world. They are poles of function in outside society such that the Kayapo are able to obtain, administer and effectively implement support for their cause as well as organize to defend their rights. Their NGOs set a place at the table for the Kayapo in national society -without which they would have been trampled by frontier society long ago.