Our website is currently under maintenance through the Stories Without Borders project document what is happening on the border between Peru and Brazil Acre — The Acre antshrike is known from only one place on Earth: in the highlands of Serra do Divisor National Park in Brazil’s Acre state known locally as choca-do-acre and scientifically as Thamnophilus divisorius one of the 10 types of forests in this protected area on Brazil’s border with Peru The park is home to numerous endemic animals and at least 1,163 plant species making it one of the most biodiverse regions in the world It’s also the only comprehensive Brazilian protected area located within the transition zone between the Andes and the Amazon two projects have been proposed that would both build a highway to Peru bisecting the park and allow for the privatization of the park’s territory The proposals have been promoted by two politicians from Acre who are allies of President Jair Bolsonaro The Bolsonaro administration has already embraced the highway plan taking the first steps toward the construction of the Brazilian portion of the road But it has not yet made public its position on a bill pending in Congress that would put an end to Serra do Divisor National Park The existing BR-364 highway starts in the city of Limeira in São Paulo state and runs more than 4,300 kilometers (nearly 2,700 miles) northwest to the town of Mâncio Lima in Acre Successive Brazilian governments have weighed plans since the 1970s to extend it into Peru giving Brazil a land route to the Pacific; the extension was even referred to in the decree establishing Serra do Divisor National Park in 1989 But when officials finally did inaugurate the Interoceanic Highway 670 km (415 mi) back down the BR-364 from Mâncio Lima the largest city in the Juruá Valley region They met with local and Peruvian officials Bolsonaro touted the project in a Facebook live address confirming he planned to open a new route from Brazil to the Pacific echoing the speech of former president Lula da Silva in the 2000s who oversaw the completion of the first Interoceanic Highway with his then counterpart from Peru Toledo is now a fugitive from justice for alleged corruption in the awarding of public works contracts including for the Peruvian section of the highway Brazil’s National Transport Infrastructure Department (DNIT) published this May the call for bids on the project budgeted at about 500 million reais ($95 million) The department began analyzing the bids in June It says there is still no detailed mapping of the federal highway but that the Brazilian section will run about 120 km (75 mi) will cut through Serra do Divisor National Park Indigenous and riverine community leaders say they have not been consulted about the highway project and have expressed concerns about negative socioenvironmental impacts you were the first person to ask me about the highway,” Indigenous chief Joel Puyanawa told Folha in a conversation at his village’s cultural center The Poyanawa Indigenous Territory lies 10 km (6 mi) up a dirt road from the urban center of Mâncio Lima and lies in the area of direct influence of the highway The environment minister defended the road project when he met with Indigenous leaders telling them that “it is time for integration.” “The entire surroundings of our land are already compromised,” said Joel Puyanawa who was elected in 2020 to the Mâncio Lima City Council “We already know the damage caused by the invasions The white [people] live by hunting on our land and the environmental institutions have no policy to prevent it How many millions of people are going to travel along it He said he also fears the road will pass over a sacred zone located outside the demarcated Indigenous land where the Puyanawa people were captured as slaves by the military colonel and rubber baron Mâncio Lima to work on his plantation Lima is today portrayed as a hero in Brazil’s official history “This road threatens 100% of our land it destroys our sacred site,” Joel Puyanawa said “The damage done by the colonel was enough it exterminates the history of our people.” Yet local officials and businesspeople are betting on the highway to put an end to the geographic isolation of this westernmost region of the country is a staunch supporter of the planned highway extension to the point that he even cleared some 40 km (25 mi) of path along the likely route and he says the connection with the Peruvian city of Pucallpa would bring benefits to this town of 19,000 inhabitants who live mainly from cattle ranching and farming “The highway would connect the whole world and bring to our region and Mâncio Lima would be the gateway,” Mayor Lima said the Bolsonaro government renewed its promise to build and take BR-364 to the Peruvian border inaugurated a bridge over the Madeira River near the border between Acre and Rondônia states de Freitas cited the expansion of the road to Pucallpa as one of the government’s road projects The person most responsible for reviving the highway extension plan is Márcio Bittar a federal senator representing Acre and self-declared staunch ally of Bolsonaro He holds a strategic position as rapporteur of the 2021 national budget which gives him the power to direct funds for the highway But the money for the project isn’t there just yet Bittar included in this year’s budget an addendum of 40 million reais ($7.6 million) for “studies and projects” to expand the highway but Bolsonaro vetoed this expense as part of wider cuts to balance the federal budget amid the COVID-19 pandemic When questioned by Folha on the cut during his inauguration Bittar said there will be “the necessary money” of 18.5 billion reais ($3.5 billion) to build the road sponsored a bill in November 2019 that would transform Serra do Divisor National Park into a so-called environmental protection area (APA) such a change would strip the area of its existing protections said he’s against downgrading the national park to an APA and has not appeared keen on the highway project either He was not present at any of the ministerial visits to discuss the road he said the project is “medium to long term” and that the state has other priorities such as increasing trade traffic through the existing Interoceanic Highway Cameli said his main concern about the highway is the possible increase in Peruvian cocaine smuggling in Cruzeiro do Sul the largest municipality neighboring Mâncio Lima and the main entry route into Acre Borders need a greater presence of the rule of law,” he said In light of how the highway project is being planned by the federal government and lawmakers the Federal Public Ministry has initiated an investigation into irregularities in the project administration said the objective is to ensure that “Indigenous communities are consulted in a free prior and informed manner,” in accordance with Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization Dias said the route of the highway should consider the possible presence of isolated Indigenous communities and that the licensing should be done by the federal environmental regulator with the participation of Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency which is more susceptible to political pressures Folha visited the northern region of Serra do Divisor National Park in late October and early November 2020 taking a nine-hour boat trip on the Moa River from Mâncio Lima to the Pé da Serra community With three inns maintained by local residents Pé da Serra is a base for tourists in search of waterfalls One of the most beautiful and impressive sites is the Moa River canyon It’s a 40-minute boat ride amid green mountains a scenery more often associated with the Peruvian Amazon yet within sight of the Andes Pé da Serra sits inside Serra do Divisor National Park and is one of several settlements within the park that are home to a total of about 350 families but most had already settled in the area when the park was created the federal government has still not concluded their resettlement Their electricity comes from diesel-powered generators and solar panels The houses distributed along the banks of the river are close to the first mountain range They get around in canoes with small motors a single public telephone is all their communication with the outside world Born and raised on the banks of the Moa River 41-year-old peasant Eva Maria Lima da Silva said she opposes both the downgrading of the national park and the construction of the highway extension Also a cook at the pioneering Pousada do Miro restaurant she said the existence of the park is what prevented the expansion of cattle ranching here and that tourism is still the best economic alternative How many jungles are preserved?” she said said the road would be beneficial in reducing the community’s isolation: “Suddenly But he disagreed with the proposal to downgrade the park — a project that residents were unaware of until we raised it with them they’re going to take a lot of people out of here and a lot of [residents] are going to have to leave,” Silva said Neighbors of the park and historical inhabitants of the Moa River and Serra do Divisor the Indigenous Nukini reject both the highway and park downgrade plans He said he was not consulted about the project and his people have demanded that part of the park be annexed to the Indigenous territory “We are against it because we know it is going to cause a strong impact It can increase access to contraband [cocaine trafficking] And it will leave our sierra with a high risk of contamination the sierra is a sacred place,” Paulo Nukini said in front of his village on the riverbank “Brazil has lived until today without needing that passage there.” The rich biodiversity and large number of endemic species in Serra do Divisor is due mainly to the varied altitude ranging from 200-640 meters (650-2,100 feet) It’s also home to three types of rivers that exist in the Amazon: white water (muddy) And it’s the only integral protected zone in Brazil that contains a branch of the Andes about 3,500 botanical collections have been made in the Serra do Divisor with 1,163 species recorded,” says Federal University of Acre (Ufac) biologist Marcos Silveira who has been studying the area for 24 years “The number of vascular plant species [with sap-conducting vessels] represents 8.3% of the known diversity in the Amazon.” Silveira is working with other researchers on a new paper that will show that the list of plant species recorded in the park has increased by 63% since 1997 three species are found in Serra do Divisor every two months: species that are either new to the park we always have a great opportunity to collect new species It’s impressive,” said Elder Morato Two species of bees discovered in Serra do Divisor were named in his honor: Euglossa moratoi one of about 30 species of orchid bees found in the park one of about 60 native stingless honey bees Another stingless bee discovered in the park is Celetrigona euclydiana named in tribute to Brazilian writer Euclides da Cunha was in Acre to help establish Brazil’s border with Peru It is no exaggeration to say that everyone dreams of visiting it someday,” researchers Leandro Moraes (University of São Paulo) Tomaz Melo (Federal University of Amazonas) and Raíssa Rainha wrote in a commentary All three are affiliated with the National Institute of Amazon Research the three biologists participated in a research expedition for a vertebrate census to commemorate the park’s 30th anniversary They found nearly 80 species of amphibians and 40 species of lizards and snakes of which at least five were new records for the park which now has more than 500 cataloged bird species One of them has become the mascot for the region: the choca-do-acre “This wide-ranging diversity is only documented in other regions of the Amazon after decades of studies in the same place we recorded it in less than 15 days of sampling Many of these species are quite restricted to this region and are no longer found in the eastern direction of Acre,” the researchers wrote Such diversity prompted the Ministry of Environment to apply to UNESCO in 2017 to recognize Serra do Divisor National Park as a Natural World Heritage Site This distinction has only been granted to two other Amazonian regions: Manú National Park in Peru a set of four conservation units in the state of Amazonas: Jaú ended up being withdrawn days later due to pressure from Brazil’s National Defense Council on the grounds that such a recognition posed a threat to national security In her bill seeking to downgrade Serra do Divisor into an APA Federal Deputy Mara Rocha used just 213 words to justify the end of the national park She didn’t cite any environmental or economic studies making the case for the downgrade she said the 846,300-hectare (2.1-million-acre) park “meets the interests and needs of the people of Acre” because it is the “only region in the state that has rocks that can be extracted and used in construction to promote the economic development of the state.” she said the goal is to allow human habitation inside the park and that the “project is authored by Senator Márcio Bittar.” Bittar distanced himself from his ally’s initiative He said he is not such an “idiot” that he would present legislation to get rid of the park which finances NGOs linked to the national media made an Itaipu and a half” — a reference to Brazil’s biggest hydropower plant — “in thermoelectric “If inside the reserve there is a stone deposit of less than a square kilometer because the law says you can’t take it out because I am not an idiot and I know that if I present such a bill but she did not respond to the request for an interview Acre has had a road link to the Pacific via Peru since 2010 the BR-364 highway meets the smaller BR-317 which runs 340 km (210 mi) to the town of Assis Brazil it meets the Peruvian stretch of the Interoceanic Highway providing access to three Pacific seaports But this link has failed to fulfill the promise of transforming Acre into an export hub or a corridor to Asia the highway caused an explosion of deforestation and illegal logging and is at the center of a corruption scandal that has rocked the country’s politics according to data from the Ministry of Economy and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics the latest year for which data are available The other states that make up the northern region of Brazil saw their own exports grow much faster over the same period “The highway has not changed Acre’s economic reality an Acre businessman who heads the Confederation of Commercial and Business Associations of Brazil “The expectation was that most of the transportation companies would make a cheaper route and go to China Asked about the low economic impact of the highway a decade after it opened Senator Bittar said the road is “not viable” because of its many turns and its high altitude through the Andes “The highway that goes through Assis Brasil has a serious problem It exits in the high cordillera and is more than 16,000 feet [4,900 m] high it has so many curves that it is not viable,” he said “The most important exit is through [the] Juruá [River] because the cordillera has an altitude of 6,500 feet [2,000 m].” Bolsonaro made the same point in September but it omits the fact that the Peruvian section also has high-altitude sections: on the route from the border town of Pucallpa to the port of Callao in Lima at an elevation of more than 4,300 m (14,200 ft) Bittar said no official study has been completed on the economic impact of the highway but proposed the creation of a binational committee to “gather all the documentation from both sides: what they have that interests us and what we have that interests them.” said the new highway connecting between Cruzeiro do Sul to Pucallpa And it would be a connection to a Peruvian city with a large commercial and industrial movement,” he said He added there was political prestige attached to resuming the project “There are new actors who want to build the highway,” Pinheiro said “Everyone wants to have the stamp: ‘It was me who built the road.’” Article translated by Historias sin Fronteras Banner image: A lizard rests on a rock on the banks of the Moa River in Serra do Divisor National Park FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] We encourage you to republish Dialogue Earth articles, online or in print, under the Creative Commons license. Please read our republishing guidelines to get started is one of the planet’s most biodiverse areas but its nature and communities face threats from a road extension project that would connect Brazil and Peru (Image: Ramon Aquim) Antônio Martins da Costa lives on the banks of the Azul river, inside the Serra do Divisor National Park, a protected area in the far-western Brazilian state of Acre The rest he takes to market in Mâncio Lima which is a nine-hour boat ride away from his community he learned about a project to build a road inside the park “Nobody came to talk to us about it,” he says connecting the southern state of São Paulo with the state of Acre Both the federal and state governments intend to extend it a further 230 km to connect Juruá in western Acre to Pucallpa the road would cut 20 km into the Serra do Divisor park home to isolated indigenous peoples and some of the greatest biodiversity on the planet The highway aims to shorten the route from Brazil to Peruvian markets and seaports, facilitating the shipment of agricultural commodities from Brazil’s northern and central regions to Asia, especially China, which in 2021 accounted for 34% of Brazilian agribusiness exports a section of what is known as the Pacific or Interoceanic Highway already connects the border towns of Assis Brasil the institutional coordinator of the Federation of Industries of Acre in Juruá the new highway would shorten the journey to the Pacific The existing BR-317 route crosses a mountainous region is longer and winds more on its way to Peruvian ports “This not only makes the stretch through Assis Brasil further away The reduction in the distance from Rio Branco [the capital of Acre] to Lima by the new road would be around 1,600 km the project has faced resistance from local and indigenous peoples over the changes it would bring to their territories fear the impact on rare native species that inhabit the area’s 840,000 hectares of preserved Amazon forest This map by InfoAmazonia shows the proposed route for the highway that would cut through the Serra do Divisor National Park Zoom out to compare the three routes and hover over protected areas and settlements for more information The railway will likely take a while to get off the drawing board The Brazilian and Peruvian transport ministries and China’s National Development and Reform Commission first agreed to look into the project in 2014 Around R$500 million (US$98 million) has been earmarked for the highway in this year’s federal budget an initiative led by Márcio Bittar (of the União Brasil party) a senator from Acre and an ally of state governor Gladson Cameli (Progressive) Both are supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro (Partido Liberal) Antônio da Costa is sceptical that the road there is no planned overland connection to the highway so residents would continue to travel to Mâncio Lima by boat “The best that can happen is that we buy cheaper Peruvian products in the city,” he told Diálogo Chino and InfoAmazonia João da Costa Silva also rejects the development and fears that the work will boost drug trafficking: “Our community is calm But I am afraid that this calmness will change.” Drug distribution routes already operate between Peru, one of the world’s largest producers of cocaine, and Brazil, its main consumer market in South America, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) the Poyanawa indigenous land is also set to be impacted by the motorway when indigenous claims to the territory were formally recognised its 24,000 hectares were largely occupied by pastures and rubber plantations it stands as an example of successful preservation in the Amazon Only 6% of the area is deforested and 700 indigenous people live there the springs of all these rivers here,” says Luiz Puwe “What is still left of nature must be taken care of In 2019, Ricardo Salles, then Minister of the Environment, visited the Poyanawa territory, accompanied by local politicians to outline development strategies. At the time, Puwe, the cacique, told the delegation about his concerns over the highway. But according to Salles’ Twitter account indigenous people were in favour of the project There has been no consultation with the Poyanawa about the initiative The first discussions about the road occurred between 2005 and 2011 but were shelved due to a lack of political support when members of large rural producer companies increased their representation in the government of Acre They had held no local government positions for two decades Governor Gladson Cameli’s family owns a logging company that in the 1990s was accused of illegal extraction in the indigenous Ashaninka territory that neighbours the park. It wasn’t until 25 years later and after a long legal dispute that Cameli agreed to compensate the community What is still left of nature must be taken care of Castillo and Bolsonaro issued a joint presidential statement in February and the road appeared to be the only point of contention Only the Brazilian president expressed his intention to go ahead with construction: “Bolsonaro reiterated the Brazilian government’s interest in the land connection between Cruzeiro do Sul (Acre) and Pucallpa (Ucayali) to which he attributes great potential for increasing economic integration,” the document says questions the viability of a cross-border project backed by only one side: “Is the highway going to reach the border and hit a wall Why are they going to open such a development as a dead-end street This is the logic that they have not yet presented.” Federal judge Franscielle Medeiros upheld the request, but an appeal reversed the decision. Following this, the Brazilian government proceeded to organise a bidding process for the award of a contract to undertake feasibility studies opponents of the road have sought new legal offensives Miguel Scarcello says that there will be resistance as long as there is no dialogue with the traditional peoples: “I don’t believe politicians will change their conduct of this process so the matter will have to be decided in the legal sphere.” the Federal Public Ministry again requested the suspension of the bid notice stating that the highway would be “the greatest socio-environmental disaster of Acre in recent decades” the agency also stresses that the project is doomed since Peru rejected it A further threat to the Serra do Divisor is another Bittar-sponsored bill that would change the status of the park from a full “conservation unit” to an “environmental protection area” which is the most flexible land conservation category Its aim is to enable the exploitation of natural resources in the region real estate speculation and the expansion of ranching within the conservation unit are the main motivations for the bill: “I have no doubt that when the road reaches the communities living on the edges of the park those communities will lose their properties.” The Azul river separates the national park from the settlements of the National Institute for Colonisation and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) a government agency created in the 1970s that was tasked with developing the Amazon the contrast between the two areas is striking: on the park side there is native forest; in the settlements Before the creation of the national park in 1989 residents of the settlements had a closer relationship with those on the other side of the river they would farm and raise animals – a practice that is now restricted to the inhabitants of the park is one of the oldest residents of the Bom Sossego community Even with restrictions on planting in the park he says he can still make a living from agriculture “It will be good [to have the road] because we will have cheaper access to Mâncio Lima to sell our production and solve health problems,” says the farmer we spend over R$500 (US$98.80) on gasoline we can send our products there and sell them for a better price.” “We will be able to sell what we plant in a cheaper way because the way it is today is complicated,” he says no big boats pass through this river and part of our production even spoils because there is no way to take it to the city.” Serra do Divisor (the dividing mountain range in English) derives its name from its position as a relief region separating the basins of the Ucayali and Juruá rivers The area is home to around 1,600 species of plants and 1,200 species of animals according to botanists at the Federal University of Acre (UFAC) “Every two expeditions to collect plants in the mountains a new record is added to our list,” says UFAC botany professor Marcos Silveira “There is no other place in the country with this rate of identification.” there is also a conservation area covering 1.3 million hectares 570 bird species and 300 fish species have already been identified Silveira says the area’s isolation and low human occupation combine to protect biodiversity in the park The most accessible route to the protected area takes eight hours by boat on the Moa River Low-impact tourism and the absence of human hunters allow species to thrive But the main explanation for the region’s richness lies in its geographical diversity “Biodiversity is related to the varied reliefs and different types of soil,” says Silveira the high mountains of the Peruvian Andes lose altitude as they approach Brazil The Andean lowlands reach the edges of the Serra do Divisor attracting animals and plants associated with that region who is working on the largest botanical study of the park ever undertaken along with PhD students and staff from the botanical gardens of New York and Rio de Janeiro The Serra do Divisor also protects the sources of eight tributaries of the Juruá river of which SOS Amazônia’s Scarcello is a member estimates the highway could impact a radius of up to 20 km from the highway “Occupying a territory that is so rich for Brazilian society will alter the whole ecological dynamic which doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world,” said Silveira “There are environments that need to be preserved because they influence a much larger region.” This report was produced in partnership with InfoAmazonia Leandro Chaves is a Brazilian journalist based in Amazônia who focuses on environment Select from our bespoke newsletters for news best suited to you We’ve sent you an email with a confirmation link 我们向您的邮箱发送了一封确认邮件，请点击邮件中的确认链接。如果您未收到该邮件，请查看垃圾邮件。 If you would like more information about the terms of our republication policy or permission to use content, please write to us: [email protected] We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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Suscribe x MercoPress, en Español Montevideo, May 5th 2025 - 13:35 UTC Some 10,000 indigenous people from across Brazil are expected to stage the 21st edition of the Free Land Camp (ATL) in Brasília between April 7 and 11 to advocate for land demarcation and oppose the Temporal Framework which restricts demarcation rights to territories occupied by 1988 Indigenous leaders reject mining proposals and highlight the harmful impacts on communities like the Yanomami As the first participants began pouring into the country's capital Sunday ATL 2025 also aims to connect indigenous land issues with global warming discussions at COP30 Under the theme “We are the answer,” the camp features events and protests emphasizing constitutional rights and the preservation of indigenous territories Portuguese is mixed with other of Brazil's 274 indigenous languages in the largest annual mobilization of Brazil's indigenous peoples took four days and four nights to travel by bus from the village of the Nukini people the lack of demarcation forces the peoples to remain mobilized “Our struggle never ends because we never have our territory fully demarcated All of us indigenous peoples were supposed to have our territories demarcated as mandated by the Constitution more than 35 years ago But that's not happening,” said the indigenous woman is the fight against the Temporal Framework which says that only indigenous peoples who were in their territories when the Constitution was promulgated in October 1988 have the right to land demarcation coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) explained that the expectation is to reverse the current scenario created by the conciliation table set up at the Supreme Federal Court (STF) to discuss the Temporal Framework The indigenous people abandoned the negotiating table because they questioned its legitimacy “The indigenous movement defined that to be in this space was to validate what Gilmar Mendes was proposing and one of the proposals was mining in indigenous territories It didn't make sense for us to be in a space to debate our rights and free our territory for projects Our rights are not negotiable,” Tupari said After the Temporal Framework was deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court the National Congress approved the law that established it where case rapporteur Gilmar Mendes opened a conciliation table to deal with the issue a solution that has been rejected by the indigenous movement Mendes presented a proposal for legislation that would open the way for mining on demarcated lands The proposal was later withdrawn but will be dealt with again in another conciliation opened by Mendes “We have examples of the impact that mining has on our territories and our rivers Their relatives are suffering from malnutrition and contaminated fish,” Tupari explained ATL 2025 also seeks to link the indigenous peoples' agenda with COP30 to convince foreign dignitaries coming to Brazil that the demarcation of indigenous territories is part of the fight against global warming The UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) will take place in Belém (PA) in November this year an indigenous NDC [Nationally Determined Contribution] to counter the NDC that the government launched at last year's COP when it didn't introduce the problems that agribusiness brings to climate change,” added the COIAB leader The NDCs are the targets set by countries for reducing greenhouse gases The Brazilian government presented its NDC which aims to reduce gas emissions by 53% by 2030 Under the motto “We are the answer: In defence of the Constitution and of life” the Free Land Camp 2025 is organized by the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib) and is expected to welcome around 200 peoples from all regions of the country for five days of events and protests in favour of the demarcation of indigenous lands Commenting for this story is now closed.If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page Metrics details Plasmodium falciparum malaria is a threat to public health but Plasmodium vivax malaria is most prevalent in Latin America where the incidence rate has been increasing since 2016 The Brazilian Amazon reported 193,000 cases in 2017 the relationships among malaria incidence rates and the proportion of accumulated deforestation were contrasted using data from the states of Acre and Rondônia in the south-western Brazilian Amazon The main purpose is to test the hypothesis that the observed difference in incidence rates is associated with the proportion of accumulated deforestation An ecological study using spatial and temporal models for mapping and modelling malaria risk was performed The municipalities of Acre and Rondônia were the spatial units of analysis whereas month and year were the temporal units The number of reported malaria cases from 2009 until 2015 were used to calculate the incidence rate per 1000 people at risk Accumulated deforestation was calculated using publicly available satellite images Geographically weighted regression was applied to provide a local model of the spatial heterogeneity of incidence rates Time-series dynamic regression was applied to test the correlation of incidence rates and accumulated deforestation adjusted by climate and socioeconomic factors The malaria incidence rate declined in Rondônia but remained stable in Acre There was a high and positive correlation between the decline in malaria and higher proportions of accumulated deforestation in Rondônia Geographically weighted regression showed a complex relationship Time-series dynamic regression showed a positive association between malaria incidence and precipitation and accumulated deforestation whereas the association was negative with the human development index in the westernmost areas of Acre Landscape modification caused by accumulated deforestation is an important driver of malaria incidence in the Brazilian Amazon this relationship is not linearly correlated because it depends on the overall proportion of the land covered by forest forest cover becomes a less representative component in the landscape causing the abovementioned non-linear relationship accumulated deforestation can lead to a decline in malaria incidence further propagating the parasites in environments where competent mosquito vectors occur Environmental conditions (1–3) are driving forces in the high-risk scenario of malaria transmission in the first years of colonization Socioeconomic factors (4–6) counterbalance and surpass environmental conditions effects decreasing malaria incidence in the long-term (1) Carrying capacity: the maximum abundance of adult mosquitoes per unit of land area (2) Ecological differences: the magnitude of land-use changes (3) Human Blood Index: the proportion of blood meals from humans by a mosquito (4) Investment in malaria: the effect of investment in malaria medication (5) Gain economic protection: the rate which people gain protection against malaria due to the overall economic improvements (6) Treatment effectiveness: the cost-effectiveness of the treatment The specific aims are as follows: (1) to analyse the spatio-temporal distribution of the incidence rates and compare them between the states of Acre and Rondônia (in the western Brazilian Amazon); and (2) to address potential determinants of the disease The Brazilian states of Acre (AC) and Rondônia (RO) are located in the Southwestern Amazon Forest cover and fragmentation of these states are represented as dark/light green (forest) dark brown (deforested area) or light brown (rocky soil) These states have different assumptions for the colonization process The pride of the people of Acre is latent in its history which is the sum of the struggles of rubber workers pioneers and descendants of individuals with these origins does not seem to neither feed from the cradle of its Amazonian history nor seek the past glory of the pioneers who had been there before The climate in both states is humid tropical with two major seasons: the rainy season from November to April and the dry season from May to October Malaria incidence is higher in the rainy season because of the increase in available larval habitats for the mosquito vector A second round of analysis was performed to correlate annual malaria incidence rates with annual accumulated deforestation from 2009 to 2015 for each state To reduce the spatial dimension of 22 municipalities in Acre and 52 municipalities in Rondônia the first axes of principal component analyses were utilized These axes represent variations of malaria incidence and accumulated deforestation in each state A Pearson’s product-moment correlation in R v.3.5.1 was applied to test the relationship between these variables A standard protocol of spatial analysis with geographically weighted regression (GWR) was employed for assessing the local correlation between annual malaria incidence rates and annual accumulated deforestation in each municipality of both states A time-series modelling analysis was employed to verify the association between variations in monthly malaria incidence rates and climate This analysis was applied to those localities with the highest incidence rates in Acre The malaria incidence rate was estimated as the number of malaria cases per 1000 population at risk. Data from each municipality in the states of Acre and Rondônia were downloaded from the SIVEP-Malaria database, available at http://portalms.saude.gov.br/saude-de-a-z/malaria/notificacao The raw data were concatenated in a database for the analyses The estimated population of each municipality was available in the SIVEP-Malaria database Because monthly based data were also needed linear interpolation between subsequent years was performed using the following equation: where y0 and y1 were the available population data in x0 and x1 months and the population data (y) were linearly interpolated in each month (x) To calculate the overall accumulated deforestation in km2 that occurred in a certain year per municipality in both Amazonian states, we employed publicly available information from the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE) (INPE/PRODES Project website, http://www.dpi.inpe.br/prodesdigital) an ordinary least square model (a non-spatial model) was fitted in R v.3.5.1: where Y = annual malaria incidence rate (cases/pop*1000) and X = annual accumulated deforestation (%) Parameters \(\beta_{0}\) = Y value when X equals zero \(\beta_{1}\) = linear effect of annual accumulated deforestation on annual malaria incidence rate To check whether the linear relationship between Y and X was not biased by the spatial dimension residuals of the aforementioned linear model were tested for spatial autocorrelation with the Moran index calculation in GeoDa v where I = Moran index (equivalent to the product \(\frac{n}{W}\) \(\frac{{\sum_{i} \sum_{j} w_{ij} z_{i} z_{j} }}{{\sum_{i} z_{i}^{2} }}\)) W = first-order Queen-type spatial weight matrix \(w_{ij}\) = element in spatial weights matrix and \(z_{i}\) and \(z_{j}\) = deviations from the mean z When the non-spatial model was not adequate the GWR was applied to model spatially heterogeneous relationships between Y and X in GWR v where Y(s) = annual malaria incidence rate in each municipality and β(s)X = linear effect of annual accumulated deforestation on annual malaria incidence rate in each municipality To verify the presence of stable foci of transmission in the state of Acre a dynamic regression modelling analysis was performed climate and landscape data were employed to verify the potential association of each factor to the incidence rate of malaria in the westernmost areas of Acre The time-series of monthly malaria incidence data were modelled with the available socioeconomic-environmental data of the Cruzeiro do Sul (CZS) Porto Walter (PW) and Tarauaca (TA) municipalities from 2009 to 2015 These municipalities represent the current frontier malaria in the western Amazon an autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model was utilized using the following equation: Two landscape parameters were chosen because they represented a proxy for the presence of mosquito vector larval habitats: (1) annual forest cover (km2) and (2) annual accumulated deforestation (km2) per municipal area These land-use land-cover variables were obtained from the aforementioned INPE/PRODES Project website Annual socioeconomic data were obtained from the PNUD/Atlas Project website (https://popp.undp.org) including infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births) proportion of people living in extreme poverty (% of people living on less than US$1.90 per day) proportion of people living in poverty (% of people earning less than US$3.75 a day) a measure of inequality of income (GINI index the most inequality = 1) and municipal HDI (MHDI) (0 These parameters were selected because they can represent risk factors for human exposure to mosquito vector bites and malaria Regarding the Brazilian Institutional Review Board for protection of human subjects the present study does not require approval for access to data Any patient information was not publicly available in the SIVEP-Malaria platform malaria data are part of the public domain according to the Brazilian Law of Information Access (12.527/2011) Malaria incidence rates in Acre and Rondônia Scatterplot of malaria incidence rate (MIR) vs annual accumulated deforestation (AAD) in Rondônia and Acre PCA1 = first axis of the principal component analysis that reduced all the municipality-based data into state-based data a Average malaria incidence rate 2009–2015 in each municipality (per 1000 inhabitants) b Accumulated deforestation in 2015 proportional to each municipality area c Results of t-distribution from the geographically weighted regression model for each municipality PW Porto Walter and TA Tarauaca; Rondônia municipalities a Monthly malaria incidence rate per municipality 2009–2015 in Rondônia and b Acre MIR = malaria incidence rate (cases/1000 people) An increase of 0.01 in the MHDI meant 361 fewer malaria cases per 1000 whereas an increase of one unit in proportion (%) of people in poverty meant 346 more malaria cases per 1000 An increase in 10 km2 in deforestation meant ~ 400 more malaria cases per 1000 In Mancio Lima, Rodrigues Alves, Tarauca and Porto Walter, deforestation is positively correlated with malaria incidence. These positive correlations are statistically significant in all cases, except in Tarauaca, where they are slightly non-significant (Table 2) An increase in 10 km2 in deforestation meant 2–54 more malaria cases per 1000 when socioeconomic development can reduce transmission risk and accumulated deforestation can decrease larval habitat availability for the mosquito vectors the timing might be optimal for a bold proposal such as a long-term prospective study on land transformation and its impact on socioeconomic and environmental determinants of malaria transmission Landscape modification caused by accumulated deforestation is an important driver of malaria population dynamics in Amazonia In the initial phase of human settlement development accumulated deforestation transforms a landscape with high forest cover into a landscape with intermediate levels of forest cover when forest cover is reduced to low levels and its capacity to sustain malarial vectors’ larval habitats is decreased the on-going accumulated deforestation only decreases the risk of malaria transmission The westernmost area of the state of Acre currently has stable malaria foci because it represents an initial phase of development whereas the north-western area of the state of Rondônia which had been considered the main hub for malaria in the 1980s and 1990s which thus represents the later phase of development The datasets used and analysed are of public domain, as detailed in the Methods section. 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2017 Anthropogenic disturbance in tropical forests can double biodiversity loss from deforestation Linking deforestation to malaria in the Amazon: characterization of the breeding habitat of the principal malaria vector The effect of deforestation on the human-biting rate of Anopheles darlingi the primary vector of Falciparum malaria in the Peruvian Amazon Conservation efforts and malaria in the Brazilian Amazon Response to the critique by Hahn and others entitled “Conservation and malaria in the Brazilian Amazon” Ecology of Anopheles darlingi Root with respect to vector importance: a review vectorial capacity of Nyssorhynchus darlingi and the basic reproduction number of Plasmodium vivax in agricultural settlements in the Amazonian Region of Brazil Socioeconomic and demographic characterization of an endemic malaria region in Brazil by multiple correspondence analysis Phylogeny of Anophelinae using mitochondrial protein coding genes Ordinal regression models for zero-inflated and/or over-dispersed count data Exploring malaria vector diversity on the Amazon Frontier Malaria vectors in South America: current and future scenarios Emergence of a new neotropical malaria vector facilitated by human migration and changes in land use Edge effects in the primate community of the biological dynamics of forest fragments project Towards a research agenda for global malaria elimination Spatio-temporal modelling of climate-sensitive disease risk: towards an early warning system for dengue in Brazil Download references To the three reviewers who promoted opportunity for a more comprehensive study case and MVML were supported by the Secretaria de Estado de Saúde do Acre (SESACRE) Process n GR was a recipient of a National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) scholarship (Process n GZL was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) and Biota-FAPESP Program 2014/09774-1 and 2015/09669-6 MAMS was supported by the FAPESP Grant Number 2014/26229-7 and the CNPq Grant Number 301877/2016-5 This work was partially funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) 1 R01 AI110112-01A1 (to Jan Conn and MAMS) Meyrecler Aglair de Oliveira Padilha and Janille de Oliveira Melo contributed equally to this work Marcos Vinicius Malveira de Lima & Gabriel Zorello Laporta School of Forest Resources and Conservation First manuscript draft and further revisions: GZL All authors read and approved the final manuscript The authors declare that they have no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Time-series analysis protocol in the R programming environment Interpolation of total precipitation and average maximum temperature Forest cover variations in municipalities of the states of Acre and Rondônia Results from the principal component analysis Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source provide a link to the Creative Commons license The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-019-2938-0 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: a shareable link is not currently available for this article A moderate magnitude 4.3 earthquake hit 38 km (23 mi) away from Pucallpa, Ucayali,  Peru 2025 at 4.38 am local time (America/Lima GMT -5) The quake had a moderate depth of 167 km (104 mi) and was not felt (or at least not reported so) Vegan Cookbooks Chili Tortilla Lasagna [Vegan] Chia Margarita [Vegan] Plant-Based Cookbooks to Buy Ways To Enjoy 5 Delicious Summer Produce That Are Soon To Be In Season 10 Saucy Enchilada Recipes For Cinco de Mayo Celebration Petition: Florida Man Kills Protected Heron for Being in His Backyard Trump’s Justice Department Sues States for Suing Big Oil Coca-Cola Faces Growing Boycott as Consumers Push Back You’re Probably Drinking Water at the Wrong Temperature Teen Develops Popcorn Lung After Vaping Flavored E-Cigarettes Scam Alert Targets Heartbroken Pet Owners With Fake Animal Rescue Calls 7 Extraordinary Tribes and Communities Across the World Worshiping Nature and Embracing Plant-Based Traditions Revolutionizing Urban Travel: 10 Innovative Eco-Friendly Transportation Solutions Transforming Cities Worldwide! 10 Most Successful Reforestation Projects That Are Changing Our Planet! 10 Infectious Diseases Caused by Environmental Degradation and Climate Change 10 Innovative Technologies Revolutionizing Environmental Cleanup 8 Ways Amazon is Contributing to Environmental Destruction This Beautiful Video Proves a Bad Day Doesn’t Exist When You Adopt a Dog Who Knew Cows Were This Smart? 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(VIDEO) This Video Proves Dogs Are More Patient Than Humans (VIDEO) Watch Two Elephant Friends Reunite After 22 Years (VIDEO) BETTER BURGERS: Make Delicious Nutrient-Rich Burgers Without The Meat SUMMER: Stunning Plant-Based Recipes to Enjoy All Season When the Sun's Out ALIVE: Nourishing Plant-Based Meals to Fuel Your Body Get your favorite articles delivered right to your inbox Sign up for daily news from OneGreenPlanet Help keep One Green Planet free and independent Together we can ensure our platform remains a hub for empowering ideas committed to fighting for a sustainable Please support us in keeping our mission strong the world’s second-largest rain forest In addition to the ecological issues of biodiversity deforestation has major implications for human health Studies focused on malaria and Ebola have all demonstrated how destroying and fragmenting forests can increase transmission rates the resurgence of malaria in recent decades has been linked to intense deforestation and settlement in the Amazon due to political and economic pressures It is likely that the increased rate of malaria is due to the favorable conditions for mosquitos created by deforestation More sunlight exposure warms pools of water making these areas better breeding grounds and constant forest destruction causes ditches and puddles which are conducive places for larvae development The exact transmission cycle of the Ebola virus remains unknown; however bats are suspected to be reservoirs for the virus and humans may contract Ebola directly from these reservoirs or indirectly through larger wildlife such as apes Although the origin of novel coronavirus is not proven, it likely came from a bat and was transmitted to humans through another animal, likely the pangolin The role of deforestation in the emergence of COVID-19 is unclear and biological consequences highlight the need to examine human behaviors that increase human-animal contact “The underlying causes of zoonotic spillover from bats or from other wild species have almost always—always—been shown to be human behavior,” Andrew Cunningham, Professor of Wildlife Epidemiology at the Zoological Society of London told CNN “Human activities are causing this.” Studies demonstrating the relationship human-driven actions with viruses could help prevent the next global pandemic Protecting the environment not only preserves biodiversity and animal habitats but also it is a matter of public health Here are some great resources to get you started: Sign this petition to Support California Bill that Would Protect Endangered Species and Humans from Zoonotic Diseases Read more of our recent coverage on zoonotic diseases: