Rainforest Corridors: The Transamazon Colonization Scheme

By Nigel J. H. Smith

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1982.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Release date: Mar 29, 2024
• ISBN: 9780520314320

Nigel J. H. Smith

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Rainforest Corridors

Rainforest Corridors

The Transamazon Colonization Scheme Nigel J. H. Smith

University of California Press Berkeley • Los Angeles • London

University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

University of California Press, Ltd.

London, England

© 1982 by

The Regents of the University of California Printed in the United States of America

123456789

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Smith, Nigel J. H., 1949

Rainforest corridors. The Transamazon colonization scheme.

Revision of the author’s thesis (Ph. D.)—

University of California, Berkeley.

Bibliography: p Includes index.

1. Agricultural colonies—Amazon Valley.

2. Public health—Amazon Valley. 3. Rain forest ecology—Amazon Valley. 4. Rodovia Transamazdnica (Brazil) I. Title.

HD1516.B8S63 1982 333.75 81-7478

ISBN 0-520-04497-5 AACR2

To Lisa

Contents 1

Contents 1

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Appendix 1. Monthly Temperatures, Rainfall, and Relative Humidity for Maraba, 1973-1978

Appendix 2. Monthly Temperatures, Rainfall, and Relative Humidity for Altamira, 1973-1978

Appendix 3. Rice Yields along the Transamazon in 1978

Appendix 4. Plants Used for Medicinal Purposes along the Transamazon

Bibliography

Index

chapter

1 Introduction

A seemingly endless sea of undulating forest unfolds to the horizon. The rasping, hollow call of toucans announces dawn. The patchy mist slowly dissolves under the steady warm glow of the rising sun. A pair of brilliant scarlet macaws cruises effortlessly over the trees in search of fruit. A chattery band of parakeets explodes from a forest giant and then quickly melts back into the canopy. Suddenly, a new sound in the distance: the mournful whine of motor saws and the rumble of bulldozers and earth-scrapers announce the arrival of the Transamazon work crews. Soon, extensive corridors are tom through the canopy, irrevocably altering the landscape. A large-scale effort to colonize Amazonia is under way.

In 1970 the Brazilian government made a commitment to integrate the Amazon

l region to the rest of the country by clearing 15,000 km of pioneer highways (Fig. 1). The 3,300-km east-west Transamazon, also known as BR-230, slices across the forest that blankets the southern interfluves of Amazonia (Fig. 2). The government planned to settle 100,000 families along the Transamazon by 1976, and 1 million by 1980 (INCRA, n.d.). The most ambitious colonization scheme ever attempted in the humid tropics sparked a great deal of controversy in both the Brazilian and the international press. Concern was expressed that the highway would destroy Indian cultures, upset the ecological balance of the region, and create a scrub desert. Colonists, it was argued, would be exposed to debilitating new diseases and bring others with them. Others claimed that the highway marked a new age for Amazonia: the Transamazon would unmask natural resources and provide a catalyst for regional development.

This book takes a decade-long look at the Transamazon. It assesses the accomplishments and failures of the scheme and focuses on the factors that retard agricultural development in the environment of a frontier rainforest. The political and economic forces behind the decision to build the highway are explored. The logistical problems associated with such a far-flung project are described, and the sources of funding are identified. A major theme of the research is the viability of the Amazonian uplands for large-scale settlement.

The chapter on the ecological setting emphasizes the relevance of plants, animals, soils, geomorphology, and climate to the livelihood of settlers. The chapter on agro-ecosystem productivity investigates the cropping pattern and yields. The crops promoted by the government are analyzed with respect to their ecological, economic, and cultural suitability in a pioneer environment far removed from large markets. Factors responsible for the generally depressed yields are examined, ranging from ecological causes, such as poor soils, weed invasion, pest damage, and inclement weather, to socioeconomic aspects, such as inadequate credit, fiscal incentives, and poor farm management.

The health of settlers is also considered within the context of agricultural productivity. The amount of production from essentially unmechanized farm plots depends largely on the ability of the settlers to provide the necessary work. Theoretical estimates

Figure 2. The Transamazon at km 12 of the MaraM-Estreito stretch in 1971. Note the remnants of forest trees, such as Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), and escaped pasture grass, jaragua (Hyparrhenia rufa), along the roadside.

on crop yields are of little practical concern if the colonists are suffering from incapacitating disease. The chapter on public health problems begins with a description of the zoonoses that exist in the forest and of how settlers become involved in sylvan epidemiological cycles. The impact of malaria, injuries, gastroenteritis, respiratory complaints, helminthiasis, and the hemorrhagic syndrome of Altamira on the working capacity of settlers is then discussed. For each health challenge, the cultural and ecological factors involved in transmission are explored. Particular attention is paid to man-made alterations of the landscape and to cultural habits that increase the incidence of disease. The chapter on the possible future health problems along the Transamazon emphasizes the dynamic nature of disease transmission.

To better understand why the incidence of several infectious diseases remains high, the distribution and adequacy of public health services «ire analyzed. Deficiencies in the government- operated medical posts, clinics, and hospitals create a substantial market for private medical practice. The financial burden and health hazards associated with the two complementary health service systems are examined. Settlers often resort to alternative medicine by preparing home remedies from plants and by consulting spiritual healers. The sources of medicinal plants, methods of preparation, and pharmaceutical value are investigated. The Transamazon provides a particularly interesting stage for an ethnobotanical survey because of the cultural diversity of settlers. The study explores supernatural notions on the causation of disease in order to explain apparently irrational behavior by some colonists.

The final chapter discusses the Transamazon within the framework of development pressures on the earth’s largest remaining tropical forest. Brazil’s swelling population and ever- increasing appetite for raw materials have created a momentum for opening up Amazonia for settlement and exploitation. Much of the desire to gain access to untapped resources stems from multinational corporations and Brazilian firms. The Transamazon was an attempt to encourage small-scale farms under the auspices of the federal government; the apparent demise of the scheme has triggered a shift in official settlement policy for the region. Lessons from the Transamazon experience are discussed, and a model for modest settlement of Amazonia is proposed.

Duration of field work

I have spent two and half years on the Transamazon, stretched over a ten-year period. I was introduced to the Maraba area of the proposed highway in 1970, and returned there as well as to Altamira and Itaituba between July and September of 1971. My first two field seasons in Amazonia gave me the opportunity to learn Portuguese and to witness the construction phase of the monumental project. One month was spent with an advance party of FUNAI (Fundagao Nacional do Indio), the Federal Indian Service, in search of natives along the highway transect 80 km east of Prainha on the Aripuana River. During my first two years along the highway, I walked through closed-canopy jungle that is now replaced by weed-choked pastures, tangled second growth, open fields, or bustling settlements. A skyline of skeleton forest has given me a vivid impression of the rapid changes in the landscape.

I returned to the Transamazon in October and November of 1972, and from September 1973 to November 1974. Further visits were made in July 1977, December 1978, and April, June, and September of 1979. My experience on the highway spans several wet and dry seasons, which has enabled me to gain an appreciation of the ecological and cultural significance of the amount and distribution of rainfall. Follow-up visits have given me the opportunity to better understand biophysical and socioeconomic processes operating along the highway. Much of the research conducted in the neotropics takes place in the Northern Hemisphere summer, which in the case of most of Amazonia is the dry season.

The advantages of an in-depth study of just one area were weighed against a desire to attain a broader understanding of settlement conditions. Thus, most of my field work was conducted in three well-separated study sites along the settled 1,266-km stretch of the Transamazon between Estreito and It- aituba. In addition, two road trips were made along the same stretch. In this manner, it was possible to cross-check research findings and to verify the ecological and cultural heterogeneity of the highway transect.

To serve as operational bases, I selected three government- built settlements (agrovilas) along the main axis of the highway. None of the agrovilas are close to large towns, so conditions there are reasonably representative of a pioneer zone. Coco Chato,1 the first agrovila encountered as one travels from east to west along the highway, rests on the crest of a hill, 42 km northwest of MarabcL The agrovila contains sixty-six houses and is unique in that the homes have cement floors and red-tiled roofs. The second community, Leonardo da Vinci, is located 18 km east of Altamira and 440 km from Coco Chato. The sixty-six wooden houses, with plank floors and gray asbestos roofs, are aligned along the slope of a gentle hill. The third main study site, agrovila Nova Fronteira, contains forty-eight houses similar to those of Leonardo da Vinci.

Soil type was one of the principal criteria used in selecting the intensive study areas. The three study communities rest on different soils; thus it was possible to determine whether agricultural yields were significantly affected by soil fertility, or whether other factors were more important. Another factor considered in selecting the study sites was the degree of prior modification of the forest by man. The vegetation encompassing Leonardo da Vinci and Nova Fronteira has not been much disturbed in recent times, though the forest differs at the two locations. For close to a century, the vicinity of Coco Chato has been drastically altered by swidden farmers living in, or near, the Tocantins town of Itupiranga. A mosaic of second-growth patches and forest thus characterizes the surroundings of Coco Chato. I wanted to examine settlement in a variety of vegetation types in order to see how game and gathering yields differ according to habitat.

By selecting three communities, I was able to observe a larger sample of settlers from different regional backgrounds interacting with their new environment. The agrovilas chosen for intensive study contain a mix of settlers from several states. In 1974,40 percent of the residents of the three study agrovilas came from Pará state, 25 percent from the Northeast, 19 percent from the South, 11 percent from Goias, and 5 percent from Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo. The 155 families surveyed in 1979 also came from varied regional backgrounds. A third had migrated from the southern states of Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, and Santa Catarina. Northeastemers accounted for 28 percent of the sample, and Paraenses for 21 percent. Goias, Brasilia, and Mato Grosso were the source for 12 percent of the colonists interviewed that year, while the remainder had traveled from the southéastem states of Minas Gerais, Espirito Santo, and Sáo Paulo.

The 1979 sample was made along the 986-km Marabá-Itaituba stretch of the highway and includes only families who have resided on the Transamazon for a minimum of two years. The highway provides an unusually good setting for examining the role of culture in the adaptation of pioneers to a rainforest environment.

Two other books based on extensive field work have been written about the Transamazon, and readers are urged to consult them for additional information and perspectives on the highway scheme. The lengthy work by Emilio Moran (1981), an anthropologist, focuses on the potential for agricultural development on the Amazon uplands. Moran’s excellent study differs from mine in that more emphasis is placed on aboriginal farming patterns, the history of natural resource use in Amazonia, and levels of analysis and methodological aspects of research in the region. Philip Feamside (1981), an ecologist, uses carrying- capacity models to discuss agricultural productivity along the Transamazon. His stochastic models, based on a rich collection of data, attempt to identify bottlenecks to agricultural production and ultimately to the capacity of the land to support settlers.

1 Government officials used to call the agrovila Coco Chato, after a small community of palm-thatch houses that once clung to the edges of a nearby stream. Coco Chato translates roughly as the annoying coconut, and refers to the large number of babagu palms (Orbygnia martiana) that grow in the area. The preexisting settlement was bulldozed by the government in 1973, and the inhabitants were required to move to the agrovila, if they had been given lots, or encouraged to move on. Officials now refer to the agrovila as Castelo Branco, in honor of the first president after the military coup in March 1964.

chapter2

Genesis of the Transamazon Scheme

For most of Brazilian history, the Amazon region, 3.5 million square kilometers, has remained isolated and largely ignored by the national society.1 Although Amazonia accounts for 42 percent of the national territory, it contains only 5 million people, just 4 percent of Brazil’s population. The economy of the region is largely a legacy of boom-and-bust cycles based on extractive industries, such as drugs and spices in the colonial period, the rubber boom at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the present century, and more recently minerals, timber, and Brazil nuts. None of the industries has had a lasting effect on the development of the region. Amazonia accounts for an insignificant 2 percent of the gross national product (Costa, J., 1979; Skillings and Tcheyan, 1979).

Only in 1964, with the inauguration of the Belém-Brasília, was the North connected by road with the rest of the country. Then in 1970, President Medici announced plans to build 15,000 km of National Integration Highways (PIN)2 in the region. The Transamazon is envisaged as the east-west axis and backbone of the new road network.

The Transamazon was seen as a means of spanning South America at its broadest section. The western section of BR-230 was to extend from Humaitá to Labrea, Boca do Acre, Rio Branco, and Cruzeiro do Sul. The Brazilians hoped that Peru would cooperate with them in connecting Cruzeiro do Sul with Pucall- pa, on the Ucayali. Pucallpa in turn would be linked with the Andean Perimeter Highway (Carretera Marginal de la Selva), thereby gaining access to the Pacific. The eastern terminus of the Transamazon at Estreito connects with roads to the Northeast and the Atlantic. The Peruvians never forged a road across the forest to Acre, probably because they feared that by so doing, they would facilitate the flow of products from the Peruvian Amazon to Brazil. The Carretera Marginal de la Selva is incomplete. Consequently, in 1973 the Brazilian government changed the trajectory of the Transamazon from Humaitá to Benjamin Constant (Fig. 1).

The Federal highway department, DNER (Departamento Nacional de Estradas de Rodagem), contracted private Brazilian firms to build the 3,300-km Transamazon. The two-lane road would be 8.6 m wide with a surface of compacted earth or, whenever possible, plinthite pebbles. Six companies were responsible for the formidable task of contracting labor and bringing in supplies, from as far as 2,000 km, to the various work- fronts (Table l).3 The job of cutting a swath 70 m wide through

Table 1. Companies Responsible for Building the Transamazon Highway between Estreito and Humaitä

Source: Departamento Nacional de Estradas de Rodagem, Belém and Manaus.

the imposing forest, some 23,000 ha of timber, was subcontracted by the firms to individuals known as gatos. The cats recruited work crews by seeking unemployed single men in run-down boarding houses and hotels in Para and Maranhâo. In this manner the large companies avoided the responsibility for the health and safety of the tree cutters.

Life for the axe hands was not easy. The gatos organized their employees into groups of three or four and paid them a set fee per area cleared. The work crews usually made camp by a small stream. Workers quickly erected a crude palm-thatch roof for cover and slung their hammocks from cross poles. Food, cooking utensils, machetes, and axe-heads were acquired from the middleman at exorbitant prices, to be discounted later from wages. The diet of the woodcutters was woefully deficient in vitamins and protein. Manioc flour, rice, sugar, and coffee were the main provisions. Little time or energy remained after work to hunt or collect forest fruits. Vegetables, except for the occasional palm heart, were absent from the daily fare. Wild honey, stolen from nests of stingless meliponid bees, was a rare treat.

Because of the meager diet and absence of medical facilities, the health of woodcutters suffered. Malaria was a common ailment; I saw pallid men shivering under sacks in their hammocks during the midday heat, their bodies wracked by alternating fever and chills. I do not know how many men expired in the forest. Grave-sites are prohibited along the Transamazon. Gruesome publicity might have interrupted the labor flow urgently needed for the construction tasks.

The balance of wages of the survivors was usually squandered on marathon binges and on whores, a release after months of hard labor with few diversionary outlets. Most of the money gone, the majority of wood cutters moved on to clear more forest for ranches, to hunt spotted cats, or to pan for gold or diamonds.

In the wake of the forest cutters, large bulldozers, made in Brazil and brought from Sao Paulo, pushed aside the charred logs. As early as September 1970, the machines were cleaning parts of the highway transect. The throaty roar of the diesel engines echoed through the forest day and night, under the harsh glare of headlights and the smoldering glow of embers. Giant earth-scrapers then began the task of shaving off the tops of hills and filling in small valleys.

The private companies generally treated their employees well. Lodging, food, and the services of a male nurse or a doctor were provided free of charge. Meals contained generous portions of rice, manioc flour, beans, and dried beef or game. Air taxis sometimes flew fresh beef in from Santarem, Belem, or Manaus. All workers were given paid leave, with free transportation, ranging from a week to a month, depending on job rank.

The first stretch of the Transamazon between Estreito and Itaituba (1,266 km) was completed in 1972. The portion between Itaituba and Humaita (1,056 km) was finished in 1974. The expertise gained from construction of the Transamazon is now being used by some companies, such as Empresa Industrial Tecnica, to build portions of other National Integration Highways. Camargo Correa and Mendes Junior profited handsomely from the Transamazon and have been contracted to build roads and railways across deserts of the Middle East and the Sahara.4

Reasons for Transamazon scheme

Geopolitical considerations were paramount in the decision to build the Transamazon and associated National Integration Highways. Brazilians are nervous about leaving such a huge chunk of national territory virtually abandoned. A. F. Reis, a prominent Brazilian historian and political figure, has repeatedly stressed the dangers of international covetousness of Amazonia (1960). In 1970, Brazil began plans to inventory the mineral, soil, and timber resources of the river basin with the aid of side- looking radar (Hammond, 1977). The soon-to-be discovered natural resources would surely kindle outside interest. Published reports, such as the one by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (Pawley, 1971), which suggest that the world could support as many as 36 billion people if the Amazon region was intensively farmed, have fed Brazilian fears of foreign intervention.

The Transamazon served as a dramatic demonstration that the Brazilian government was determined to effectively incorporate Amazonia into national society. New army garrisons on the outskirts of Marabá, Altamira, and Itaituba emphasize the military objectives of the highway. An extensive road network through the rainforest, coupled with improved airport facilities, would greatly facilitate logistical support in the event of military operations in the North.

A concern for national security has also prompted other governments to accelerate settlement of underdeveloped regions. After the disastrous Chaco war with Paraguay between 1932 and 1935, the Bolivian government promoted settlement schemes in its sparsely populated jungle territory north of Santa Cruz (Hir- aoka, 1980). Uneasiness over the burgeoning population of Asia prompted the Australian government to sponsor agricultural development schemes in its tropical North (Davidson, 1972). The Russians built the Trans-Siberian railroad in a similar attempt to place a stamp of sovereignty on their northern territory.

The 1970 drought, which seared the backlands of the Northeast and uprooted 3.5 million people, was the triggering factor behind the decision to build the Transamazon (Hall, 1978:10). Periodic droughts exacerbate