How illegal land-grabbing devastates the forest

SANTARÉM, PARÁ STATE: Along the PA-370 highway between Santarém and Uruará, the Amazon rainforest has become a lawless land. Invading land grabbers divide the land amongst themselves, akin to an auction of plots marked by faceless owners.

Fire dictates the pace of occupation. Here, a forest fire is not just a forest fire: there is nothing natural about the criminal, uncontrolled, and unregulated fires paving the way for illegal land-grabbing.

The place has become a cemetery of Brazil nut trees, one of the most imposing species in the Amazon and a crucial source of income for hundreds of families. Trees have fallen either due to fire or clear-cutting, and the extraction of nuts is no longer what it once was.

The authorities have designated this area for agro-extraction. The National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) has established several small settlements. But without any regulation and with minimal oversight, the settlers have practically been abandoned to fend for themselves.

As a result, land grabbers dominate. An illegal market for land plots unfolds in broad daylight, the pace dictated by fires clearing the rainforest.

Farmers keen on soybean expansion have consolidated spaces and are pushing for more land in the forest.

What happens here in Chapadão, where fires have been licking open areas for months amid another year of extreme drought in the biome, is a snapshot of an increasingly common Amazonian reality.

The land conflict has gained a climatic component—a spark in this crisis. Fires are being set in standing forests. The vegetation, more flammable due to the deep, unprecedented drought, is prone to imagination-defying infernos.

A bureaucratic blame game

Meanwhile, the authorities are paralyzed by inaction and infighting. IBAMA (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) has stated that PREVFOGO (National Center for Prevention and Combating Forest Fires) was not activated by either INCRA or the Pará regional government to combat fires in Chapadão’s rural settlements throughout 2024.

INCRA denies any responsibility, replying that it is up to environmental agencies to conduct investigations and combat fires in the region. In a note, the agency stated that the settlements were invaded and that there is an attempt to regain areas occupied by land grabbers and loggers.

Meanwhile, the government of Pará said it asked for federal aid in September to reinforce efforts against the fires. In a statement, the Environment Secretariat said that 30% of the territory is under state jurisdiction and 70% is federal, “requiring coordination of efforts with the Union.” The note mentions that the secretariat intensified its actions with more firefighters, vehicles, and extinguishers.

The more degraded the forest, the less its capacity to function as a carbon sink. According to scientific measurements, green areas already function more as CO2 emitters in some regions, fueling the climate crisis caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

In other words: due to illegal activities and government inaction, parts of the rainforests now emit more carbon than they absorb.

Cities suffocating in smoke

The fire in Chapadão contributed to smoke waves that covered Santarém for weeks. All over Santarém state, the air has become hazardous, even in the cities. The same occurred in Alter do Chão, a district of Santarém that is a tourist paradise due to sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters in the Tapajós River.

However, the reality of urban centers does not compare to the experience of families of settlers who remain in Chapadão.

Flames consume standing and fallen Brazil nut trees. Soot and gray tones dominate the horizon. Fires crackle along kilometers of open ramais.

The so-called Rancho ramal, 110 km from Santarém, is one of the most recent occupation processes. Some constructed wooden houses—mere shells resembling residences—occupy lots with the purpose of denoting the existence of an occupant in that space.

Other homes remain occupied by settlers who insist on cultivating cassava and black pepper despite the fire siege. Along the way, houses and pepper crops have succumbed to the fires.

According to settler accounts, the most common occurrence is land grabbers who do not live in the settlements setting fires. With the drought and subsequent absence of the invaders, the fires lose control and sweep vast areas in the region.

There are also reports of smaller fires set by settlers. Some say they have given up planting peppers and cassava this semester due to uncontrolled fires. The decision is to prevent heat cycles from spreading even further.

Among settlers, especially those from PAE (Agro-extractive Settlement Project) Vila Nova and PDS (Sustainable Development Project) Santa Clara, there is a feeling of revolt and lament over the fate of Brazil nut trees.

"We lost a third of the Brazil nut trees," says Gelciclei dos Santos Cardoso, 45, who lives with his wife and three children—one of them a newborn—in a simple house in PAE Vila Nova. Smoke has enveloped the house for two months. There is no potable water well near the residence, and Gelciclei pays R$ 50 reais weekly for water transportation. There is no electricity.

The family plants black pepper, rice, cumaru, pineapple, and cassava. A significant portion of the income comes from nut collecting.

December arrives, and the first ouriços—the rounded, hard shells containing the nuts—begin to fall from the giant trees. This continues until March, when harvesters engage in the traditional activity.

"I've always worked with nuts here," Gelciclei says. "But many people came to saw and cut down the Brazil nut trees, besides the fires."

In the last harvest, the family only managed to produce two sacks per day. Previously, they reached five, earning a weekly income of R$ 1,200.

The outlook for the next cycle is also grim, as the Brazil nut trees are disappearing. Greater distances must be covered in search of nuts. Sacks weighing 50 to 60 kg are carried on the back for hours to ensure transport.

"Sometimes the fire doesn't kill the Brazil nut tree outright, but rather severely reduces nut production," says the farmer.

"It's worse with the andirobas. Everything is dying because of the harsh summer without rain. The last time I extracted andiroba oil was two years ago."

Over at the Vila Nova settlement, initiated by INCRA, there's room for 121 families. However, as a symbol of the complete lack of governmental follow-up on the project, only 34 are settled.

Raimundo José Rodrigues dos Santos, 64, known as Zezinho, president of the settlement cooperative, claims that more than lots here are grabbed and invaded. "It's common for land grabbers to pick people from urban areas and bring them to the settlement to invade in exchange for R$ 300," he says.

Timber exploitation happens before irregular lot occupation, focusing on Brazil nut trees, according to Vila Nova leadership. "They are robust, long, not hollow, not curved. They extract the wood and take it to Santarém," says Zezinho.

According to Incra, the legal reserve of Vila Nova’s Agro-extractive Project was invaded right after the list of beneficiaries was created and published. "Incra's western Pará superintendence, in Santarém, has filed an action in the Federal Regional Court and awaits a ruling to remove the land grabbers."

Incra said an invasion occurred in the Santa Clara settlement during a judicial embargo. Another settlement in Chapadão, Terra Nova, was created in 2024 and is still being implemented. The project aims to recover areas from land grabbers and loggers by incorporating them into the National Agrarian Reform Program.

Braulino de Campos Garcia, 63, has lived in Santa Clara for nine years. Justice entanglements led to the expansion of soybean and cattle farms in the settlement, according to the farmer. Many squatters sold lots. Few continue in nut harvesting.

"30% to 40% of the Brazil nut trees died in Chapadão," Braulino states.

While there is no regularization or project progress, Terra Nova sees the advance of deforestation and fire. Incra documents indicate a loss of 4,100 of 22,000 hectares.

The house of Brenda Pinheiro, 28, is on the edge of Rancho ramal. According to her, the settlement is Vila Nova, while Terra Nova lies across the ramal.

Fires consume the newly created settlement. Smoke makes the atmosphere inhospitable—and it has no borders. Everything around Brenda’s house, where she and her family settled six months ago, has been burning for weeks. Nuts are becoming scarcer. The pineapple, banana, and pitaya plantations face a harsh summer.

"We’ll stay here. With the rain, things will get better."