Grain ports double amid Amazon’s soy expansion

In 2022, the Institute of Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc), an NGO, released a three-part animated web series entitled “Tapajós, a brief history of the transformation of a river,” denouncing how the expansion of grain farming has drastically changed the landscape of the Tapajós region of Brazil’s Amazon.

Located in the south of the northern Brazilian state of Pará, the area — named after the grand Tapajós River, one of the main tributaries to the Amazon River — has become a crucial part of the country’s expanding agricultural frontier. 

The award-winning animated series includes narration from three residents of the small town of Mirituba, on the banks of the Tapajós, and tells the story of how the region has endured a commercial transition that threatens traditional ways of life in what was once an isolated part of the Amazon.

Now, in 2024, a study by human rights organization Terra de Direitos has been able to chart just how much the region has changed with the influx of soy and corn plantations, and the transport infrastructure that goes along with them. Between 2013 and 2023, the number of ports on the Tapajós River — either in operation, under construction, or planned — has more than doubled, with a total of 41 now dotted across the river, from the municipalities of Itaituba to Santarém.

The focus of grain producers on the Tapajós region of Pará is part of a long-term agribusiness project that seeks to increase the volume and profitability of Brazil’s grain exports. Traditionally, the huge amounts of soy planted in the states of Mato Grosso, Goiás, and Mato Grosso...