The Grão-Pará Ecological Station (Esec), located in Brazil’s northernmost region has been the target of much controversy now for at least four years, involving the conservation of its biodiversity, political interests and the exploitation of bauxite by the Anglo-American mining company Rio Tinto, the third largest in the world. The protected area is the world’s largest conservation unit with full protection of tropical rainforest, with 4.2 million hectares located in the Calha Norte region of the Amazon River in the state of Pará, one of the most deforested states in the Brazilian Amazon.

Área da Estação Ecológica Grão-Pará Visualizar Grao Para em um mapa maior

Intending to exploit the region’s bauxite, Rio Tinto has already proposed the reduction of 500 thousand hectares from the Grão Pará station, as well as transforming part of it into a state forest (Flota), a type of conservation unit that allows mining activities. In compensation, part of the Flota of Trombetas, also in the Calha Norte region, would be elevated to the condition of full protection. However, replacing an Ecological Station for another less protected alternative would be a major mistake, say specialists. “It’s not a forest carpeting where it makes little difference where you establish the limits of a conservation area”, explains Alexandre Aleixo, coordinator of zoology for the Emilio Goeldi Museum, one of most respected research institutes of the Brazilian Amazon.

A person heard by the reporter, who asked not to be identified, is of the opinion that these discussions over the changes to be made to Grão Pará “are just a smoke screen in order to gain time, since all it would take to get things going would be some pen work at the Legislative Assembly and the region’s riches would be exploited, regardless of how unique it might be’. “There are many interests involved”, he concluded.

If the Governor of Pará, Ana Júlia Carepa, of the Labor Party wished to, she could forward a bill to the Legislative Assembly changing the unit’s classification. But could such a decision be the most coherent one to adopt, considering that we are looking at an area of extreme importance for the conservation of the Amazon’s biodiversity?

Working groups

Understand the controversy In 2006 Simão Jatene, then governor of Pará, created five conservation units in the Calha Norte region that, together, comprise 12.8 million hectares. The irony is that, before Jatene’s feat, the Rio Tinto mining company had already obtained a concession of some 600 thousand hectares in the region and began to prospect the ore there. With its own studies, it discovered that exactly where today there are two of the created Conservation Units (CU), with its very rich biodiversity, lies the country’s largest bauxite reserve – studies showing figures to the order of 4 billion tons.   These CUs are in the Grão-Pará Ecological Station that as a full protection area does not allow human populations (only nomad tribes, if any) and does not allow for any kind of exploratory activity in its territory and the Paru State Forest – with 3.6 million hectares as the largest forest of sustainable use in the tropics. “Most of the bauxite is located in the plateaus of the Grão-Pará Esec. However, the Paru Flota reservation is a large one, the equivalent of the Juriti mine being exploited by Alcoa in Pará”, explains Valmir Ortega. Juruti’s potential is of 280 million tons. Since it seems that Rio Tinto is not satisfied with the amount of bauxite in the Paru Flota, it continues interested in also conducting its activities in the Grão-Pará Esec. On one side, civil society organizations uphold the protection of that region, pointing out the Esec’s strategic importance for the protection of the biodiversity. On the other, there’s a multinational that, employing economic and social arguments, attempts to reach an agreement with the government in order to research and exploit ore in an untouched forest, belonging to the (already in existence) full protection conservation unit. The state government, at this moment, stands in the middle, awaiting the GT report.

In the absence of a general agreement on the issue, Ana Júlia published State Decree 2.194 in March and created a Work Group (GT) aiming at “offering technical subsidy to the Government of Pará to handle the conflicts of interests related to the bauxite reserves that lie within the limits of the Grão Pará Ecological Station and the Paru State Forest”, on the border of the giant reservation. This GT is composed of ten entities, among which Sema, State Secretary for Development, Science and Technology, the Amazonian Man and Environment Institute (Imazon), Conservation International, the Emílio Goeldi Museum, the State Prosecutor’s Office and Rio Tinto.

Until September a technical report will be concluded that will serve as the basis for Governor Ana Júlia to make a decision. Both Rodolfo Moraes Pereira, Sema’s director of protected areas and Maurílio Monteiro, secretary of State for Development, Science and Technology, say that the government’s final position will be based on the technical data from GT’s report.

In a meeting of the work group on June 10, Rio Tinto reportedly said that it would renounce to 45% of existing bauxite reserves at Esec, claiming that 55% is the minimum necessary amount to make the enterprise feasible. Rio Tinto declares that it “supports the designation of protected areas stemming from rigorous scientific evaluations and ample discussions with the interested public” and offers alternatives. But it does not show any signs that it will give up Esec. According to the mining company’s press relations, 90% of the bauxite reserves found in the region are located in the Grão-Pará Ecological Station.

“In legal terms, this discussion needn’t even be occurring, because this is about a fully protected unit to begin with. To accede to the demands of Rio Tinto, however good its commitments may be, is still a shot in the dark. It would be an indication of weakness of the judiciary power, of the government of Pará, a demonstration that concerns over conservation are only in rhetoric”, says Alexandre Aleixo.

“To meddle in that area means to negatively affect the image both of Rio Tinto and the government of Pará. A major business enterprise in a region like that can attract thousands of workers and cause irregular settlements, exert pressure on natural resources and local infrastructure, the opening up of new roads, deforesting and illegal wood extraction”, explains Valmir Ortega, of Conservation International.

A Biodiversity report


A biodiversity report of the Grão-Pará Ecological Station prepared by the Emilio Goeldi Museum and Conservation International brings forth valuable and timely information, according to a notice sent to the press on June 1, to do away with any doubts that could still exist regarding the importance of the Grão-Pará Ecological Station.

The study is the result of three expeditions conducted in 2008, supported by Pará’s State Secretary for the Environment (Sema) and by environmental compensation resources from Rio Tinto. In all inventoried areas, there are species which were never before discovered. In it were also found 143 known species of fish, 62 of amphibians, 68 of reptiles, 355 of birds, 61 of mammals and 778 of plants. Of all these, many are rare, endemic or threatened by extinction, such is the case with the spotted leopard, the armadillo and the angelim tree. 

In the Grão-Pará Ecological Station there are non-Amazonian species and even from other places in the forest. Not to mention the rarity of the local geography itself where one can find savannah-like areas known as Cerrado, another known as Campinaranas (a type of low vegetation over a nutrient-poor sandy topsoil), low forests, waterfall rivers (which makes the place inaccessible to boats and, therefore, more isolated) and high altitudes for Amazonian standards (500 to 600 meters). The station’s plateaus, where there is a great amount of bauxite, is the domain of a rare biodiversity. At this time, the full report awaits Sema’s final approval, to be disclosed to the public.

“Studies have shown that area as a highly important one to be protected. In other words, there is no technical or scientific argument that can justify mining in that region. If such a decision is made, it will be solely from a political standpoint, justified by economic and social reasons and never for environmental ones”, flatly states Ortega.

“Those plateaus contain an extremely rich biodiversity, with species that do not exist in any other Calha Norte conservation unit. The study clearly proves that the entire area of the station is absolutely unique and must remain untouched”, adds Aleixo. That said, it seems that if it depends on the scientific data from this report, there will be no mining there at all. 

Jakeline Ramos Pereira, coordinator of the Calha Norte Project for Imazon, says that the studies performed by CI and Goeldi were very well done. However, she points out that “nevertheless, it is still necessary to study that region further in order to know if it is irreplaceable or not”. Research of this kind is not done overnight and can therefore take several years to be concluded.

“Os platôs contém uma biodiversidade riquíssima, com espécies que não existem em nenhuma outra unidade de conservação da Calha Norte. O estudo comprova que toda a área da estação é absolutamente única e precisa continuar intocada”, complementa Aleixo. Pelo visto, se depender dos dados científicos deste relatório, nada de mineração lá.

Jakeline Ramos Pereira, coordenadora do Projeto Calha Norte, do Imazon, afirma que os estudos feitos pela CI e pelo Goeldi estão muito bem feitos. No entanto, salienta que “ainda é preciso estudar mais aquela região para saber se ela é de fato, ou não, insubstituível”. Pesquisas deste tipo não são feitas de uma hora para outra e podem levar anos para serem concluídas.


*Karina Miotto is an environment journalist
based in Belém do Pará, a conferencist
on Amazon-related subjects and the
author of the blog Eco-Repórter-Eco