An Indigenous organization bringing together 16 Mẽbêngôkre-Xikrin villages of the Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous Territory in Pará, Brazil, for rights, territorial management and ethnodevelopment.
Village in the Trincheira Bacajá Indigenous Territory, Sept 2026 · Photo: Ousadia Marketing for the Berê Xikrin Association
The Xikrin call themselves Mẽbêngôkre, “people of the water hole”. Most villages lie along the Bacajá River, and at the center of each one stands the Ngàb, the warriors’ house, the political space where the village makes its decisions.
Founded on October 23, 2018, the Berê Association represents 16 of the 53 villages in the Indigenous Territory and coordinates the Berê Xikrin Socio-biodiversity Network, with projects in forest restoration, culture, income and territorial protection.
“I think that if the forest keeps disappearing, our future disappears too.”Beptok Xikrin, Pytakô village · Xikrin Life Plan, 2021 (translated from Portuguese)
Sources: Population Profile of the Association’s 16 villages (Sept 2026) and Annex 1 of the Restaura Amazônia project.
A project proposed and led by the Association: restoration with agroforestry systems, value chains for cacao, Brazil nuts, babassu and menire handicrafts, Xikrin fire brigades and Environmental Agents, and care for the villages’ water.
About the project Restaura Amazônia
Building the Ngàb, the warriors’ house, the political space where each village makes its decisions and learns from the Kubengêt.
About the project Warriors’ House
Young people from five villages trained to record fish catches and track changes in the Bacajá River after Belo Monte.
About the project Fish MonitoringLiving with the forest, together with the forest and for the forest.
In the first field stage, families map the restoration areas and survey soil, water, seeds, value chains and social cartography. The Restoration Plan will be delivered by December.
The assembly validates the project’s message and the villages’ consent for communication, following the Xikrin consultation protocol.
Selected among eight organizations in Call 3 of Restaura Amazônia, Berê begins a 48-month project funded by the Amazon Fund/BNDES.
Support strengthens territorial protection, rituals and income from the forest, with decisions in the hands of the villages.