Environment

Massive Amazon protected area ‘hanging by a thread’ due to illegal dirt road

A new illegal road seeks to link two Brazilian deforestation hotspots and would cut the Xingu Socio-Environmental Corridor in two

Massive Amazon protected area 'hanging by a thread' due to illegal dirt road
Illegal dirt road threatening the Xingu Corridor. Photo: Courtesy of Rede Xingu +

Longer than the distance between New York and Miami, Brazil’s Xingu River is one of the tributaries of the colossal Amazon River and forms a basin of more than 500,000 square kilometers, spanning two states. 

The vast majority of the river’s course is flanked by the so-called Xingu Socio-Environmental Corridor, an unbroken chain of contiguous protected areas, including state forests, conservation units, and indigenous territories. Measuring approximately 1,000 kilometers from north to south, it is one of the largest of its kind in the world.

But the recent appearance of a narrow dirt road in the corridor’s heart poses an existential threat to the entire region.

First spotted by environmental NGO Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and their Rede Xingu+ monitoring project, the 42-kilometer road provides a link between two frontiers of forest destruction in the northern Brazilian state of Pará. If left unchecked, it could cleave the Xingu corridor in two.

Consistently ranking among the top five Brazilian municipalities in terms of total deforestation, São Félix do Xingu and Novo Progresso are rife with illegal gold mining and logging, and are situated on either side of the Xingu corridor. The recently...

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