Qualla: Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest

Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The name itself is an aspiration: sustainable yield. Created in 1990 as part of an ambitious plan to demonstrate that Rondonia's forests could be logged without being destroyed, the Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest was divided into three sectors -- A, B, and C -- covering a combined 587,207 hectares along the left bank of the Madeira River. By 2012, satellite imagery confirmed what local observers already knew: the forests were not being sustained. Sector A had effectively vanished. Sector B was being carved up by land titles issued by the very agencies charged with protecting it. Only Sector C survived with any integrity, and 90 percent of it overlapped with another conservation unit that provided the actual enforcement.

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest: Paper Forests

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1990, the state of Rondonia created eight sustainable yield forests on the left bank of the Madeira River. The Rio Madeira A, B, and C forests were three of them, alongside the Rio Vermelho A through D forests and the Rio Abuna Sustainable Yield Forest. The concept was straigh...

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest: The Unraveling

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The year 2000 marked the point of no return. INCRA, the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform, transferred 19 federal public lands in state conservation units to the Rondonia state government, including all three Rio Madeira sectors. That same year, Law 233/00 r...

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest: The Sector B Saga

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Sector B tells the story in miniature. Originally covering 82,437 hectares, its area was reduced by private land claims, then recreated in 1996 by state decree at a diminished 51,856 hectares. The goal was self-sustaining production of renewable resources with natural regeneratio...

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Rio Madeira Sustainable Yield Forest: What Survives

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Sector A, created in Porto Velho municipality with an area of about 63,813 hectares, appears to have ceased to exist as a functioning conservation unit after 2000. No public records document its management or protection. Sector C, the smallest at roughly 30,000 hectares, has fare...

Image: Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk) | CC BY-SA 3.0