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Story Publication logo September 14, 2023

Plans for a Waterway That Will Destroy 35 km of Fish Sanctuary Are Already Causing Deforestation and Affecting Quilombola Communities in Pará (Portuguese)

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Land invasions of Indigenous territories in the Tocantins River area have grown more frequent as...

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This story excerpt was translated from Portuguese. To read the original story in full, visit InfoAmazonia. You may also view the original story on the Rainforest Journalism Fund website. Our website is available in EnglishSpanishbahasa IndonesiaFrench, and Portuguese.


Part of the 43k Pedral do Lourenço. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

Illegal deforestation associated with real estate speculation, encouraged by the possible construction of the Tocantins-Araguaia waterway between the municipalities of Mocajuba and Baião, is already impacting forests and the lives of the quilombos of the Lower Tocantins, in Pará.


In February 2022, Maria Deuza Conceição Caldas visited the Quilombola Community of Vila Santa Maria de Mangabeira (PA), located on the banks of the Tocantins River, to discuss the construction of the Tocantins-Araguaia waterway with other Quilombolas. The federal government's project, which has the potential to impact the rivers, forests and the lives of thousands of people in the region, involves dredging more than 177 kilometers of the river and blasting submerged rocks in another 35 kilometers of a site of great environmental importance known as Pedral do Lourenço (see At risk of being blasted for the construction of a waterway, Pedral do Lourenço is defended by scientists and traditional communities of the Tocantins River).

Held in the community shed, the meeting was part of a series of meetings of the so-called "Caravan in Defence of the Tocantins River," organized by the Central Única dos Trabalhadores (CUT). In that community assembly space, the Quilombolas described with apprehension the possible effects of dredging the riverbed on the reproduction of fish and shrimp, the damage caused by the blockages that large barges would cause to the passage of their canoes, and the fear of violent explosions and their chemical residues from dynamite scattered in the river.


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However, Deuza sensed something else. She foresaw an effect on family farmers and Quilombolas that is already occurring under the influence of a project that has not even been approved: the clearing of forests and riparian forests, the invasion of traditional territories accompanied by real estate speculation and the destruction of aquatic fauna.

Since the beginning of 2021, Deuza has seen more "outsiders" buying up land in the region of the municipalities of Mocajuba and Baião, in Pará, which are full of Quilombos that have existed for more than two centuries.


Social leaders participate in the Caravan in Defense of the Tocantins River in February 2022 in the Quilombola Community of Vila Santa Maria de Mangabeira (PA), including Nelson Meireles Barroso on the microphone, and on the left, Euci Costa Goncalves (CUT Pará) and Carmen Foro (Minister of Women). Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

Maria Deuza Conceição Caldas, leader of Quilombo Tambaí Açu. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

In July, our team received reports and photos about barges loaded with material passing through Baião towards Barcarena, in the north, which has caused concern among residents of local quilombos that it is ore. Image by Pablo Luiz Costa/InfoAmazonia. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

In Tauiry village, a boy protests around Pedral do Lourenço, demanding consultation from riverside dwellers about the Tocantins waterway. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

A resident of the Tambaí Açu quilombo bathes in the Tambaí Açu River, which is within his territory. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.
Maria Deuza Conceição Caldas comments on deforestation around her quilombo. Video by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.
Visuals of deforestation in Açaizal on the edge of the stream. Video by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

Quilombola denounces deforestation in Açaizal on the edge of the stream. Video courtesy of InfoAmazonia.

Days later, in the same area, there was an increase in deforestation in Açaizal, on the edge of the stream. Video courtesy of InfoAmazonia.

Benedita Correa Oliveira and Maria do Livramento do Carmo Oliveira, from the Engenho quilombo, fish for shrimp on the island in front of the community in March. The waterway would make this fishing impossible. Image by Luzia Mendes/InfoAmazonia. Brazil.

The organic production garden of Maria Jacirema Silva Rocha, a family farmer in Mocajuba. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

Plaque erected in front of the Águas Claras farm. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

Plaque erected in front of the Águas Claras farm. Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.

On August 16, Deuza and other Quilombolas from Baixo Tocantins were in Brasília during the Marcha das Margaridas, asking for the work on the waterway to be halted and questioning the development model based on the destruction of a basin. They carried the flag saying, “We are against the excavation of the Tocantins River. President Lula! Show what development for the Quilombola riverside dwellers.” Image by Tiffany Higgins. Brazil, 2023.