The Amazon has 618,000 km of official and illegal roads
Agriculture and livestock production expanded 561% around conservation areas, Indigenous lands, and Quilombola territories in the Amazon over 41 years. The region has 618,000 kilometers of official and illegal roads, nearly 42,000 kilometers of which are inside protected areas.
In the region known as Amacro—which includes municipalities in Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia—native vegetation declined by 7 million hectares since 1985. Over the same period, the area devoted to pasture grew fifteenfold.
The data comes from MapBiomas’s latest survey, Collection 11 on the Amazon, released Wednesday (14). MapBiomas is an initiative involving universities, nongovernmental organizations, and technology companies that maps changes in land cover and land use in Brazil. It aims to support the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources.
One highlight of the latest edition is that agriculture and livestock production occupy 40% of the land within five kilometers of roads in the Amazon, equivalent to 63 million hectares. Its share declines as the distance from roads increases. Within a 20-kilometer radius of roads, agricultural activity accounts for 26.7% of the area.
Native vegetation follows the opposite pattern: it accounts for 56.7% of the area within five kilometers of roads and nearly 70% within a 20-kilometer radius.
“We identified 618,000 kilometers of official and unofficial roads in the Amazon. But there are many more,” says Bruno Ferreira, a researcher at Imazon and MapBiomas. The survey cross-referenced MapBiomas’s annual land-cover and land-use maps with databases from the National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) and OpenStreetMap. “Roads in the Amazon are a driver of advancing deforestation.”
Ferreira notes that conserved areas of the biome come under threat when a new road is planned. “The political environment also matters a great deal,” he says.
The report analyzed the impact of official roads by category, including whether they are paved or slated for widening. “Road paving points to greater human alteration of surrounding areas,” the researcher says. “Planning new roads significantly weakens protection of the biome.”
The study shows that among the Amazon’s main highways, BR-163—the principal corridor for transporting grain from the Center-West to ports in the North—has agriculture and livestock production on 39% of the land within a 20-kilometer radius. Along BR-364, which links the Southeast to the North, the share reaches 43.5%. Along BR-319, which connects Manaus and Porto Velho and is not fully paved, native vegetation accounts for 86% of the area within the same radius.
Ferreira says road expansion does more than create new transportation routes. “It also expands access to previously more isolated areas and can facilitate the arrival of different activities,” he emphasizes.
The study shows that native vegetation accounts for 98% of land cover within protected areas, including conservation areas, Indigenous lands, and Quilombola territories.
Translation: Todd Harkin
