In Brazil, the tribe that replants its forest: “Soon, the trees will grow, and with their shade, the animals will return too!”

Armed with brush cutters, 15 young men from the indigenous Maxakali people tackle the tall grass that has engulfed banana and cashew trees, Annatto trees and pigeon peas planted on the slope of a hill in the Mucuri Valley, a vast area covered with grasslands located in the northeast of Minas Gerais, in eastern Brazil.

The task seems daunting. The noisy machines stir up clouds of crushed grasses that frighten insects and sting eyes, despite protective goggles. And the grasses are tenacious. Their stems get caught in the propellers of the machines' engines, forcing the young men to regularly untangle them and delaying the release of the trees, which, little by little, finally reappear.

This indigenous people of 2,629, best known for their ritual chants and ability to preserve their language, have undertaken the reforestation of their territory, once covered by the Atlantic Forest. Supported by a team of researchers from the Opaoka Institute, which specializes in socio-environmental issues, and thanks to public funding of 8 million reais (1.24 million euros), 30 members of the community are now being trained in agroforestry.

First contacted by Portuguese settlers in the 16th century, the Maxakali—who refer to themselves as “Tikmũ'ũn” (“we, men and women”)—once comprised several groups that roamed freely through the rich rainforest of southern Bahia and eastern Minas Gerais, on which they still depend for their livelihood. But the advance of colonization, combined with conflicts with other indigenous peoples, forced them to consolidate and settle in five small villages in the northeastern Mucuri Valley in the 18th century.

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