On the evening of Feb. 12, a teenager from an isolated Indigenous group voluntarily made contact with people in a fishing village in the western Brazilian Amazon, according to Brazil’s Indigenous agency, Funai. He returned to his land on Feb. 15.

The young man is likely part of an isolated Indigenous group in the Mamoriá Grande Indigenous Territory, only confirmed in 2021 after researchers found vases, food vestiges and baskets following accounts from neighboring Indigenous groups.

In December 2024, Funai decreed a temporary protection order over the land. The territory’s demarcation is not yet completed, a step experts say is urgent to ensure permanent protection.

The Indigenous territory, and the Bela Rosa fishing village where the teenager appeared, are nestled between the rural towns of Lábrea and Pauini in the south of Amazonas state. Both municipalities are hotspots for deforestation and wildfires as the Amazon’s “arc of deforestation” pushes farther north.

“The direct cause [for the contact] is difficult to determine with certainty at this stage, given the information we have today. It would be premature for me to state definitively whether it is linked to environmental factors,” Marcos Tosta, the head of Funai’s coordination for isolated and recently contacted Indigenous peoples, told Mongabay in a voice message.

“What we do know is that, in recent times, we have seen an increase in contact situations due to factors directly or indirectly related to climate change,” Tosta added.

The Lábrea municipality is one of the Amazon’s newest deforestation frontiers, with 10% of its forest cover, or 643,000 hectares (1.6 million acres) lost between 2001 and 2023, according to data from Global Forest Watch. In 2024, Lábrea had the sixth-highest count of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon, with more than 3,700 fires detected by satellites.

“Last year, the smoke was so intense it reached Indigenous territories far from the fires. Even in the nearby Juma territory where there were no fires, the smoke affected their health. If the smoke got there, it likely reached [Mamoriá Grande] too,” Priscilla Oliveira, a researcher with Survival International who was in the region until Feb. 10, told Mongabay by phone.

According to both Funai and Survival International, an Indigenous rights advocacy organization, there is mounting pressure on the forest from illegal hunting, land speculation, fishing and fire in surrounding regions. Logging and pastures are less likely as the area is hard to reach.

Mongabay analyzed deforestation alerts via Global Forest Watch and identified recent forest clearings and even an airstrip within close proximity to the Mamoriá Grande Indigenous land.

“Historically, contact has meant genocide for isolated Indigenous peoples,” Oliveira said. “There is an urgent need for the Brazilian government to map and monitor their territories, enforce protection measures and ensure demarcation. We don’t want history to repeat itself.”

Banner image: A teenager from an isolated Indigenous group voluntarily made contact. Image courtesy of Survival International.