{"id":8173,"date":"2024-12-11T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T22:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redept.org\/blogosfera\/miritituba-engulfed-by-soy-from-being-a-quiet-place-to-becoming-a-huge-grain-port\/"},"modified":"2024-12-11T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2024-12-11T22:00:09","slug":"miritituba-engulfed-by-soy-from-being-a-quiet-place-to-becoming-a-huge-grain-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redept.com.br\/blogosfera\/miritituba-engulfed-by-soy-from-being-a-quiet-place-to-becoming-a-huge-grain-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Miritituba engulfed by soy: From being a quiet place to becoming a huge grain port"},"content":{"rendered":"

Located on the side of the BR-163 highway<\/a>, the district of Miritituba, in the town of Itaituba, in the Brazilian northern state of Par\u00e1, is a strategic point on the soybean route from Mato Grosso to the foreign market. Thousands of trucks arrive there every day to unload goods at Cargo Transshipment Stations (ECTs, in Portuguese), large areas made up of yards, silos and ports installed on the banks of the Tapaj\u00f3s River. They can handle up to 18 million tons of grain a year.<\/p>\n

A consequence of soy transportation is that the district’s residents are left to deal with the damage, such as accidents caused by trucks, dust, noise pollution and environmental impacts. \u201cIt starts with a rip in the forest, on the riverbank, and then you see structures being erected,\u201d says Ivaneide Lima, a teacher and resident of the district, about the arrival of ports that serve agribusiness companies.<\/p>\n

Miritituba was born in the 1970s as an agro-village where residents were dedicated to family farming. There are no soybean plantations in the region, but the impacts caused by grain logistics are part of everyday life and can be seen in the water, the forests and the streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom Miritituba to Itaiuba, you used to see 20 or 30 botos<\/em> [Amazon River dolphins]. Today, try to find at least one\u2026\u201d says real estate agent Josenaldo de Castro.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The 15,000 or so residents are forced to live with the intense flow of trucks, which cross a road close to their houses, the noise of the vessels and changes in the environment, ranging from the loss of vegetation to clouds of smoke raised by the trucks.<\/p>\n

All this is accompanied by a disorderly population increase without the district having the necessary structure to absorb the impacts. \u201cSuddenly, a village of residents \u2013 because it used to be a village in Miritituba \u2013 becomes an industrial district to accommodate all this flux,\u201d says Lima.<\/p>\n

Almost 2,000 trucks per day<\/p>\n

According to the Association of Port Terminals and Cargo Transshipment Stations of the Amazon Basin (Amport, in Portuguese), the main ports on the Tapaj\u00f3s River are those in Santar\u00e9m, run by Cargill, and the port terminals of Miritituba, run by Unitapaj\u00f3s, the result of the merger between the two agribusiness giants Bunge and Amaggi; Companhia Norte de Navega\u00e7\u00e3o e Portos (Cianport), in Portuguese; Cargill and Hidrovias do Brasil S.A.<\/p>\n

Around 1,800 trucks leave Sinop (in the state of Mato Grosso) every day for the ports on the Tapaj\u00f3s River. The port complex installed on the Tapaj\u00f3s waterway is part of Arco Norte, a logistics corridor that integrates ports and transhipment stations in the states of Amap\u00e1, Amazonas, Par\u00e1, Rond\u00f4nia, and Maranh\u00e3o.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see that Miritituba is covered by a cloud of dust produced by these trucks. And this directly affects people’s health. There are many people, from children to the elderly, with health problems because of the dust,\u201d says real estate agent Josenaldo de Castro.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2019, the ETCs of Cianport, Unitapaj\u00f3s and Hidrovias do Brasil handled around 8 million tons of grain, including corn and soybeans. In 2021, with the beginning of operations of the Cargill ETC, there was no significant change in handling, which reached 8.3 million tons. However, in 2022, grain handling by the four permanent ETCs in Miritituba reached 12.9 million tons, an increase of 54.9% compared to 2021.<\/p>\n

Locals agree that the arrival of companies boosted the number of jobs in Mititituba. However, negative consequences arose too.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly, there were so many workers inside the community that rent prices soared,\u201d Lima says. The population increase is one of the impacts pointed out in a public civil action filed in 2026 by the Par\u00e1 Public Prosecutor’s Office, which highlights that the installation of large projects brings \u201cdifferent kinds of consequences, such as, for example, population growth and an increase in the urban limits of the municipalities.”<\/p>\n

For Lima, the rampant growth is related to a surge in violence. \u201cIt was a community that nearly had no violence cases. But today that\u2019s impossible to hide,\u201d Lima explains.<\/p>\n

In the 2024 Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, Itaituba is fourth among the highest rates of rape among the underaged in the country. In 2023, the town was 15th on the list of the 50 most violent cities in Brazil.<\/p>\n

During the summer, residents deal with noise and stench<\/p>\n

In a region in Miritituba where there is a lake formed by the Tapaj\u00f3s River, the Jardim do \u00c9den neighborhood looks like a place where one can rest. There are houses without walls or gates, hammocks on balconies and mango trees in the backyards. A boat leans against the trunk of a small tree near the lake. In another location nearby, handwritten signs say: a\u00e7a\u00ed<\/em> for sale.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But all it takes is for the lake to fill up with the arrival of winter – the rainy season in the Amazon region – and the peace is interrupted by the ferries that dock near the houses. \u201cOne vessel arrives, another leaves. It’s 24 hours. Throughout the winter, day and night,\u201d complains one resident, who asked not to be identified.<\/p>\n


\nA street in the Jardim do \u00c9den neighborhood, in the district of Miritituba\u00a0\/ Carolina Bataier\/Brasil de Fato<\/p>\n

In addition to the constant noise, locals have to cope with an oily smell that, according to reports, \u201cis intense, as if you poured gasoline on the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Miritituba, the BR-163 highway meets the BR-230 highway, known as the Transamaz\u00f4nica highway, at a junction that attracts roadside restaurants and gas stations, where trucks that transport goods along the route are fueled with diesel. As a result, the district is also part of a fuel transportation route.<\/p>\n

At Jardim do \u00c9den Lake, there is an oil loading and unloading base for the gas stations in the region. \u201cIf you came during the winter, you’d see how big the oil stains are [on the water]. There are no fish left,\u201d she laments.<\/p>\n

With the movement of ferries, the lake has become dirty. Another resident, who also asked for anonymity, says fish taste like oil. \u201cThere was a time when fish were floating, all dead,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople with money can do this, right? That’s the reality in Brazil,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Deforestation increases and may worsen with the Ferrogr\u00e3o railroad<\/p>\n

Itaituba is the Brazilian town with the largest mining area and lives off economic cycles based on exploiting natural resources. Environmental degradation led the town to be included in 2017 on the list of the most deforested areas in the Amazon, a monitoring mechanism of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm, in Portuguese) of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even under monitoring, deforestation in Itaituba continues to grow. According to data from the Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite (Prodes, in Portuguese), Itaituba’s deforestation rate between August 2023 and July 2024 was 25% higher than that recorded in the previous period.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

From Miritituba to Santar\u00e9m, it’s about 360 kilometers taking the BR 163 highway. In these two municipalities, the megastructures involved in soy logistics leave their mark: visible scars in the forest, \u201cblank spaces\u201d open to receiving thousands of trucks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to data from Prodes, run by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe, in Portuguese), between 2008 and 2022, the annual rate of deforestation in the municipalities along the Par\u00e1 stretch of the BR 163 highway increased by 79%, reaching 1,378 square kilometers. These figures are even more impressive when it comes to municipalities known for being major soy producers in the Planalto Santareno region, made up of the municipalities of Santar\u00e9m, Belterra and Moju\u00ed dos Campos.<\/p>\n

In Santar\u00e9m, the annual rate of deforestation increased by 172%. In Belterra, it jumped from 70 hectares in 2013 to 1,600 hectares in 2021, which represents an increase of 613%. The record, however, is held by Moju\u00ed dos Campos, where the annual rate of deforestation rose from 400 hectares in 2013 to 6,100 hectares in 2021, an increase of 1443%.<\/p>\n

In the context of the soy expansion in the region, megastructures seem to advance without limits. A survey by the organization Terra de Direitos identified 41 port facilities, both public and private, linked to agribusiness activities that operate in the transport of grains, fertilizers, fuels and construction materials, planned, under construction or in operation in the municipalities of Santar\u00e9m, Rur\u00f3polis and Itaituba. \u201cWe found 27 ports currently being used. Only five have complete documentation of the environmental licensing process,\u201d says Bruna Balbi, Terra de Direitos’ popular legal advisor.<\/p>\n

The ports limit access to places that once belonged to the whole community. The barges stand in the way of the canoes and paddleboats locals use. To complete the agribusiness megastructures in western Par\u00e1, there is a proposal to build the EF 170 railroad, also known as Ferrogr\u00e3o, which will connect Sinop to Miritituba. \u201cThey’re not happy with the highway. Now comes the railroad. It’s 933 kilometers of tearing up the forest,\u201d warns priest and social activist Ediberto Sena, a Santar\u00e9m resident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the Inesc study, the railroad was included in the Logistics Investment Program (PIL, in Portuguese) in 2015, after pressure from Bunge, Amaggi, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus. \u201cThese companies then formed a Special Purpose Entity, the business structuring company Esta\u00e7\u00e3o da Luz Participa\u00e7\u00f5es, and presented the Expression of Interest Proposal for the construction of the railroad section,\u201d the research reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently being analyzed by the Federal Audit Court (TCU, in Portuguese), Ferrogr\u00e3o will affect at least six Indigenous lands, where approximately 2,600 people live, and 17 conservation units.<\/p>\n

A survey carried out by 40 civil society organizations indicates that the installation of the railroad could deforest 2,000 square kilometers of native forest, an area equivalent to the state of S\u00e3o Paulo. \u201cSoy has a deadline, which unfortunately will leave us in the lurch,\u201d says Sena.<\/p>\n

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