The federal government will prioritize the regularization of non-destined public lands of the Union along the BR-319, in one of the most deforested regions of the Amazon, as part of the Territorial Governance Project of the BR-319.
The proposal led by the Special Secretariat of the Partnership and Investment Program, of the Ministry of Economy, aims to make economically viable the paving work that intends to reactivate the connection between Porto Velho and Manaus. Among the possible beneficiaries, there are indications of land grabbing on at least two farmers.
According to the project, areas in 29 federal plots around the highway must be definitively titled.
Last week, Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) issued the preliminary license for the works in the middle section of the BR-319. The expectation of the federal government is to start activities later this year.
As they have never had a destination defined by the government, these lands around the highway are not specially protected, unlike conservation units, indigenous lands, settlement projects and even regularized private occupation, which must follow environmental rules.
InfoAmazonia identified 440 private properties in 17 of the 29 plots. Most of them are already certified by INCRA —which means the recognition that the property is not overlapping another already designated area— and must have priority for definitive title.
Among these properties are farms with signs of land grabbing and areas deforested for illegal logging. In 2021 alone, 19,700 hectares of forests were cut down in these areas.
The list of possible beneficiaries with the regularization of federal lands includes the owners of Fazenda Acará, which controls more than 20 properties registered by Incra in the vicinity of the BR-319 and collects reports of environmental crimes and fines.
The properties are in the name of two companies, one in the timber sector, Acará Bioflorestal, and another whose main activity is soy and cattle, Acará Agrohevea. The group has at least 11 certified farms on the Acará plot.
In April of this year, the Public Ministry of Amazonas initiated a procedure to determine whether Acará Agrohevea was responsible for the deforestation of 65 hectares on the banks of the BR-319 in Humaitá (AM).
The two companies in the group were assessed 31 times by Ibama and fined R$79.9 million. The infractions occurred from 2018 to 2022.
They also respond to nine lawsuits by the agency for environmental crimes, which resulted in the embargo of more than 1,200 hectares.
In addition, in 2020, INCRA technicians requested the cancellation of three farms of the Acará group for tampering with the registration of an area with 1,190.5 hectares already certified by Incra.
In the order in which the cancellation of the registration of Fazenda Coracy is requested, the technical area says: “this registration does not correspond to a certified area, but to a plot located in the urban perimeter of Humaitá, on the Transamazon Highway, with an area of 450 m²”. Even so, the farm is still listed as certified in Incra’s Land Management System.
Deforestation on the Acará plot, around the BR-319 highway
Compare aerial views on photos from 2019 and 2021 – reproduction
The farms of the Acará group belong to businessmen Eduardo Germano Dresch and Fernando Luiz Pasquali.
Dresch told InfoAmazonia that illegal deforestation on his farms is “caused by invaders” and that he will defend himself in court against accusations of environmental crime. The farmer denied having presented tampered documents to INCRA.
“We never took a cubic meter of wood from our areas. These lands have been in our family for over 50 years, all registered and certified, but we have a lot of problems with invaders”, says Dresh. According to him, none of the two companies that own the farms have activities in the area. “We just preserve.”
The reporter was unable to contact Pasquali.
Incra also did not comment on the illegalities identified by the technical area. The Ministry of Agriculture, to which the autarchy is linked, declined to comment.
According to Ipaam (Amazonas Environmental Protection Institute), the group has filed five requests for environmental licensing on behalf of Acará Bioflorestal in recent years, but no license has been granted.
The Ministry of Economy did not make it clear how the land allocation program will resolve situations of land conflicts and occupations in areas already required for conservation units, such as extractive reserves and state forests. Sought, the folder said it will not comment on the matter.
In addition to land tenure regularization, the program provides for the concession of public forests for management, the construction of inspection portals, the implementation of ecological zoning and the strengthening of conservation units.
Part of the illegalities in these lands was presented at meetings of the BR-319 governance group by researchers Lucas Ferrante and Philip Fearnside, from Inpa (National Institute for Research in the Amazon). Together, they sign studies that point to the reactivation of the highway as one of the main factors for the increase in deforestation in the Amazon.
“Many of these occupied areas along the highway are the result of land grabbing and illegal deforestation. If the Ministry of Economy continues the process of regularization in this way, it will be handing over federal lands to those who promote deforestation”, says biologist Lucas Ferrante.
In one of the studies, the researchers analyzed 14 areas already certified by Incra around the BR-319. At all points, illegalities such as illegal logging, opening of roads, constructions to facilitate the legalization of areas, signs of mineral research and sale of public areas were found.
“What we see is a complete lack of governance,” says Ferrante. “These properties should all be expropriated, not legalized as the Ministry of Economy wants.”
With 169 thousand hectares, the Acará tract is home to part of an area that is required for the Tapauá State Forest and is among the most deforested public lands in the Amazon. In 2021, 5,500 hectares of forest were cut down in this area, five times the number recorded in 2020 (1,100 hectares).
The south of Amazonas concentrated 83% of all deforestation in the state in 2021 (216 thousand hectares of native forest).
At the Ministry of Economy, the BR-319 governance project is coordinated by Alex Garcia de Almeida, current Secretary of Support for Environmental Licensing and Expropriation. Career servant of the ANP (National Petroleum Agency), before taking over the BR-319 program, Garcia was the general coordinator of port, oil and gas licensing at Ibama, appointed by former Minister Ricardo Salles (Environment).
Garcia left the environmental agency after accusations that he was favoring companies in the oil sector. One of the complaints came from Asibama (Ibama Servers Association) and accused him of relaxing rules that limit the emission of pollutants from oil platforms.
Garcia did not respond to the reporter’s requests for an interview.
