Indigenous territory (Brazil)

[8] Critics of the system say that this is out of proportion with the number of Indigenous people in Brazil, about 0.41% of the population;[9] they argue that the amount of land reserved as TIs undermines the country's economic development and national security.

[17][18] Under the current legal framework, the initial identification and definition of potential TIs is the responsibility of FUNAI, the government body in charge of Indigenous affairs, who commission an ethnographic and geographical survey of the area and publish a proposal.

If approved, FUNAI begins physically demarcating the new TI and the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform undertakes the resettlement of any non-indigenous occupants.

[4] In 2008 the Supreme Federal Court issued a high-profile decision in favour of the continued territorial integrity of Raposa Serra do Sol in Roraima.

Settlers had protested their deportation from the TI, arguing that the reserve undermined Brazil's national integrity and the state's economic development, and proposing that it be broken up.

According to this view the 1988 Constitution's approach towards Indigenous peoples' right to land is overly idealist, and a return to a more integrationist policy is favoured.

[10][11] Elements in the military have also expressed concern that because many TIs occupy border regions they pose a threat to national security – although both the army and police are allowed full access.