Satellite photographs and stories from locals suggest that an illegal dirt road cutting across the Brazilian Amazon is currently just a few kilometres away from linking two of the worst deforestation hotspots in the region.
If the road is finished, a sizable portion of the surviving woodland will become an island, subject to pressure from surrounding human activities.
Environmentalists have long issued warnings over this type of development in the rainforest. Since most deforestation occurs alongside roads, where access is simpler and land values are higher, roads are important.
Brazil’s largest cow herd—2.4 million head—now grazes in a vastly-deforested area on the east side of the new road.
Due to deforestation, this municipality of Sao Felix do Xingu is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the nation, according to Climate Observatory, a network of environmental organisations. There are 136,000 people living there, and it is about the size of Maine.
In a famous incident known as the Day of Fire, three years ago ranchers planned the coordinated burning of numerous areas of virgin forest in the region to the west. The eighth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in Brazil is this municipality, which is larger than Maryland.
Wedged in between is the Xingu basin. The Xingu River that runs through it is one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River. It begins in the drier Cerrado biome, surrounded by tens of thousands of square miles of protected areas.
The Xingu River is home to several Indigenous peoples, who are now pressed on both sides by an onslaught of settlers who have built a large network of dirt roads and illegal airstrips. Experts said the stakes could not be higher.
Post Your Comments