The waterway

ITUPIRANGA and NOVA IPIXUNA

An excerpt from a decision by a Brazilian Federal Court in February 2025 circulated widely on WhatsApp among fishermen who make their living from the Tocantins River in eastern Pará.

The decision bluntly denied the existence of these artisanal fishermen, who have spent their entire lives learning how to map fish stocks behind huge rocks that emerge when the river dries up, forming a reef more than 35 km long along the watercourse.

"In section 2, called Pedral do Lourenço, there are no Indigenous people, Quilombolas (AfroBrazilian descendants of escaped slaves: Ed.) or riverine communities," states the decision, which analyzed a request by the Federal Public Ministry in Pará to annul the preliminary licence granted by IBAMA as an initial step towards the demolition of Pedral do Lourenço

‘The area of the work is limited to a small section of the Tocantins River, with low and temporary environmental impact, and there is no reason to invalidate the preliminary licence,’ the court continued.

Among the riverine communities along the riverbed, there was outrage at the terms of the court decision.

The denial of the existence of these fishermen – leaders claim that there are between 20 and 25 communities with around 3,000 people around Lourenção, as the rock is better known, – extends to other spheres of power.

The EIA/Rima (environmental impact study and report) for the project, conducted by the federal government's DNIT (National Department of Transport Infrastructure), does not accurately map the riverside communities. The details of fishing activity in Pedral do Lourenço, which was a condition established in the preliminary licence, were not provided, say the fishermen.

‘We exist and we are still here,’ says Ernandes Soares da Silva, 52, vice-president of the Association of the Extractive Riverside Community of Vila Tauiri.

The village of Santa Terezinha do Tauiri, on the banks of the Tocantins River, has existed for over a century. According to the association, there are about 130 families in the community, and almost all of them are artisanal fishermen. The nearest town is Itupiranga, which is 50 km from Marabá .

Pedral do Lourenço begins at the village – the rocks are already clearly visible in the river in mid-August, when Folha's reporters were in the region. The rocky stretch continues for 35 km, up to Bogéa Island, and demolitions are planned for this entire section.

‘We are treated as if we did not exist. And we want to show that there are people living here,’ says Erlan Moraes do Nascimento, 30, who leads the association of riverine communities from three other communities, all of them along the course of the rapids: Praia Alta, Vila Belém, and Volta Redonda. About 80 families live in these places.

The preliminary licence for the demolition of the rocks was granted in October 2022, during the administration of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. In May of this year, under the Lula administration, IBAMA issued the installation licence, which would allow the rock demolition work to begin. In June, the courts ordered a halt to the work until the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office's request for suspension of the licence had been analysed.

The opening of a passage through Pedral do Lourenço – with up to three detonations per day for two and a half years, ensuring a 100-metre-wide strip on the river for the passage of barges – is part of a much broader project that would allow the Tocantins-Araguaia waterway to operate.

In addition to the rock demolitions, the project includes the dredging of 177 km along the Tocantins River. The opening of this area would ensure access for ore, soybeans and coal to the Port of Vila do Conde, in Barcarena , near Belém.

The governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho, is exerting strong pressure for the demolition of Pedral do Lourenço and the dredging of a large part of the Tocantins River to go ahead.

Barbalho, host of COP30, the UN climate conference to be held in November in the capital of Pará, is responding in particular to demands from agribusiness for the waterway to be made operational. Arguments in favour of the demolition and dredging do not take into account the existence of riverside communities that depend on the rock formation.

Fishing is directly associated with the rocks. The region is considered a fish nursery. The rocks are hiding places for species such as the peacock bass. The mapará, one of the most prized fish in the region and in other states where it is sold, such as Maranhão, Bahia and Tocantins, is abundant in areas of the Pedral do Lourenço.

The fishing techniques employed are associated with the unique characteristics of the place. The backwater that forms on the opposite side of where the water hits the rock is conducive to fishing with nets and cast nets. Each large rock is a spot for setting up tents, where fishermen spend long periods in search of fish.

Even the technique of ‘caceia’, in which a net is placed in the river and moves with the current, accompanied by the fisherman, fits in with the paths known by the riverine communities. Replacing this environment with a waterway for barges will have a definitive impact on fishing in the rocky area, say the riverine communities.

‘The rocks begin to “croak” [appear on the surface during the dry season], and the fish begin to appear,’ says José Viana de Brito, known as Seu Zezinho, 60, who lives in Vila Belém, one of the communities whose routine is directly influenced by the existence of the rocks. ‘I like to fish for peacock bass. During the mapará season, I usually fish at night on the rocks.’

Seu Zezinho and his wife, Claudineia de Freitas, 55, live with their four children and two grandchildren in Vila Belém. The community, which is part of Nova Ipixuna, has 20 families. Practically all of them are fishermen, who say they have noticed a decrease in species such as filhote, surubim and pacu, due to the operation and regulation of water flow by the Tucuruí hydroelectric plant.

‘I'm afraid they're going to end up running us over,’ says Claudineia, referring to the demolition of the rocks of Pedral do Lourenço, included as a project in the Lula administration's New PAC , at a cost of R$ 1 billion.

Even with the existence of a hydroelectric plant , reports indicate an abundance of fish. The 12 families on Praia Alta Island, located opposite Vila Tauiri, next to the rock, live mainly from fishing for mapará.

‘In one night, the people on the island alone catch between three and six tonnes of mapará,’ says Welton Brito de França, 28. "Sometimes, in my canoe alone, I catch about two tonnes. Everyone lives well, even during a weak “luada”."

The “luada” is when the moon is right for fishing, according to the calendar followed for generations by the riverside dwellers. This traditional system supplies fresh fish to different cities, such as Itupiranga, Belém, São Luís and Brasília. Around a thousand fishermen and assistants work at the fish landing facility in Itupiranga alone.

The riverine communities of Pedral do Lourenço earn their income from a wide range of activities, all of which are associated with the standing forest and a healthy Tocantins River.

In the communities, there are cocoa, cupuaçu, bean and cassava plantations; production of flour and puba (a base used for porridge) from cassava; extraction of andiroba oil; and breaking of babassu coconuts by women from the Lourenção communities.

Boatman Moisés Barbosa Lima, 59, earned an income for eight years from collecting tracajá turtle eggs deposited on sandbanks in the rapids. Moisés' initiative was not predatory. On the contrary: he worked in a conservation programme, and the identification of nests with the naked eye, combined with the relocation of eggs to safe places, ensured the repopulation of tracajás in the region.

‘In 43 days, 20,000 hatchlings were born. That's how they regained their numbers,’ says Moisés.

The river is also a source of drinking water, as not all communities have artesian wells, and a means of transport, since travel between communities and even to nearby cities is primarily by small boats powered by low-powered engines.

Moisés, for example, says he has “160 GPS points in his head”, identifying every rock in the Tocantins River, even when they are submerged. This is essential for the service provided by the boatman.

‘For us, who live on the river, the waterway is of no importance whatsoever, it makes no sense,’ says Ernandes, from the association of riverine communities in Vila Tauiri. ‘With the waterway and buoys ensuring the 100-metre strip, the space will be theirs. How am I going to fish with my dragnet?’

The fishermen are already dealing with radical changes in the rocks, which they attribute to the increased movement of barges over the last four years.

Many of the rocks are covered with mussels, which are believed to have been transported to the region from other countries. These molluscs have spread across the rocks. With the drought, dead mussels become foul-smelling and extremely sharp, which prevents fishing from taking place due to their presence on the rocks.

If the demolition of the rocks are carried out, communities fear the emergence of a stigma: the rejection of fish from Lourenção for being ‘contaminated’ due to the rock demolition processes.

‘The waterway could have a domino effect, with people saying about the fish: “It's from the rocks, it's contaminated.” They won't want to buy it anymore,’ says Ronaldo Barros Macena, 51, president of the Vila Tauiri association.

Ronaldo and his brothers were born in the village. Their father was also born in the community in 1935, he says. ‘Everyone is a riverine, everyone is a fisherman. When they need to, they go to the river and catch fish.’

Now, the leaders of the associations want to be heard before the waterway project begins. To this end, prior consultation protocols have already been approved. They also want to see the conditions established in the first licence issued.

‘When the installation licence came out, it was a slap in the face for everyone,’ says Ronaldo.