Brazil renews protection of little-seen Amazon tribe for six months

An undated image of two male members of the Piripkura tribe during an encounter with a FUNAI (Indigenous National Foundation) unit before they returned to live in the Amazon forest, Rondonia state, Brazil. Survival International/Bruno Jorge/Handout via REUTERS

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The only two known male members of the Piripkura tribe in Brazil live in isolation on ancestral lands the size of Luxembourg in the Amazon rainforest, resisting decades of invasion by loggers and cattle ranchers.

Brazil's indigenous affairs agency Funai renewed a protection order on Friday for the 242,500-hectare (599,230-acre) area in western Mato Grosso state. But the renewed protection will last just six months, unlike the three-year extensions granted for the territory since 2008.