These territories, covering about a third of the Amazon region, act as a buffer against road expansion, reducing both deforestation and fires.īut the Indigenous communities near the border between Peru and Brazil are experiencing an onslaught on their homelands. Research shows that Indigenous lands are crucial to safeguarding the forest ecosystems and immense carbon stores. In the Brazilian Amazon, roads are being built at such a rapid pace that researchers are turning to artificial intelligence to map the expansion. The Amazonian departments of Ucayali, Loreto and Madre de Dios, Peru, saw road expansion increase by 25% from 2019 to 2020 and 16% from 2020 to 2021. Explosive growth of illegal roads as government pulled backĭuring the COVID-19 pandemic, the Amazon rainforest has witnessed explosive growth in informal and illegal roads. October’s elections in Brazil and Peru could be a turning point away from deforestation, unsustainable road building and the targeting of Indigenous lands – or the election results could continue to escalate the pressure. They also realize that their Indigenous communities may be all that stands in defense of the forest and stops invaders and road builders. The Indigenous residents of the Amazon borderlands understand that the loggers and their tractors and chainsaws are the sharp point of a road allowing coca growers, land traffickers and others access to traditional Indigenous territories and resources. The Interoceanic Highway, shown here, allowed loggers, ranchers and miners to generate hundreds of miles of illegal and informal offshoots that brought additional deforestation and environmental harm. She knew she represented not just her community and the other Peruvian Indigenous communities, but also her Brazilian cousins downstream who also rely on these forests, waters and fish. María Elena Paredes, as head of the Sawawo Hito 40 monitoring committee, said no, and her community stood by her. Now, the outsiders wanted to widen the trail into a road to access the towering rainforests that unite the Peruvian and Brazilian border along the Juruá River. The loggers had bulldozed a trail over the mahogany and cedar saplings she had planted, and blocked the creeks her community relied on for drinking water and fish. The Ashéninka woman with the painted face radiated a calm, patient confidence as she stood on the sandy banks of the Amonia River and faced the loggers threatening her Amazonian community. Maria Elena Paredes, coordinator of the Community Vigilance Committee for the Ashéninka community of Sawawo Hito 40, points to satellite images showing deforestation.

The fox in the forest amazon