The Brazilian government blocked 545 rural properties in the Amazonian state of Pará from selling crops and livestock both domestically and internationally, citing illegal deforestation, according to a May 6 announcement by the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change.
The announcement marks one of Brazil’s largest uses of remote sensing to sanction agriculture activity associated with deforestation. The move signals a shift toward more aggressive antideforestation tactics. Instead of blocking, or embargoing, properties flagged for deforestation one by one, the government used satellite monitoring alerts to issue hundreds of penalties across a wide area all at once.
Most of the land now barred from markets lies near Castelo dos Sonhos district in Altamira, a municipality currently ranked as one of Brazil’s most violent. The region has seen multiple execution-style killings of environmental defenders and has high rates of deforestation.
“[The deforested areas] are embargoed with the aim of preventing new infractions, safeguarding environmental recovery and ensuring administrative processes see real results,” Jair Schmitt, the director of environmental protection at IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, wrote in the order.
The 615 ranchers and farmers named in the order will have until June 6 to remove all livestock from the land. After the deadline, IBAMA may issue fines and other penalties. The decision can be appealed, but the blacklisted farmers will likely miss the June deadline to apply for agricultural credit lines.
Residents told Mongabay the wide-ranging embargo has sparked fear and apprehension among farmers, but they also plan on pushing back.
“I don’t think this will hold up,” Nelci Zaminhan, president of the Vale do Garça Rural Producers Association and an advocate for legalizing land titles in the region, told Mongabay in a text message. “After all, people have the right to a defense, don’t they?”
Among the individuals cited in the embargo are two daughters of Bruno Heller, a rancher identified by Brazil’s federal police as one of the Amazon’s biggest land grabbers. Federal police allege that Heller uses relatives, including daughters Tatiana and Fabiana, as fronts to mask illegal occupation of public lands.
Brazil has stepped up environmental enforcement over the past two years, since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January 2023. Amazon deforestation fell 41% from 2023 to 2024, according to government data.
In Altamira, the municipality where the banned areas are concentrated, deforestation dropped 61% in the same period. Despite the rate of decline, the region is still ranked sixth nationwide for total deforestation. The municipality cleared 83,000 hectares (205,000 acres) of rainforest in 2024, an area larger than New York City.
Additional research by Júlio Teixeira.
Banner image: Forest fires in Altamira, Pará in the Brazilian Amazon. Image © Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace.
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