Organized crime is growing along highway in a pristine section of the Amazon: Study

Criminal organizations linked to illegal logging, illegal gold mining, land grabbing and cattle ranching now dominate large sections of land around the BR-319 highway in one of the Brazilian Amazon’s largest stretches of forest, according to a new study. The finding comes as Brazil is moving forward with further improvements to the controversial highway. ​The recent study measured the sharp increase in deforestation after 2015, when then-president Dilma Rousseff authorized the first maintenance work on the highway, abandoned since 1998. Her successor, Jair Bolsonaro, promised to pave the road, which intensified land speculation and the conversion of large forest areas into cattle pasture. According to the research article’s lead author, São Paulo University (USP) researcher Lucas Ferrante, the lack of government surveillance made the area fertile ground for organized crime. He said that drug trafficking and environmental crimes often share the same routes and financial flows, while cattle ranching is frequently used to launder money from criminal activities. ​“This region is becoming a hub of large farms controlled by organized crime,” Ferrante, associated with the Center for Research on Biodiversity and Climate Change[1] (CBioClima), told Mongabay in a video call. ​The BR-319 highway, which connects the cities of Manaus and Porto Velho in Brazil’s northern Amazon, was built during Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and later fell into disrepair. The highway’s 339-kilometer (211-mile) middle section is largely impassable in the rainy season, though many still try to traverse it. ​In April, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva moved to…This article was originally published on Mongabay