Qualla: South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor

South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. A corridor on paper is not a corridor in fact. The South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor has existed in Brazilian planning documents since 1997, covering 761,576 square kilometers of some of the most biologically important and politically contested land in South America. On the map it looks decisive - a single connected strip of parks, reserves, and indigenous territories stretching across five states, keeping the southern Amazon linked to the cerrado of central Brazil. On the ground, the chainsaws are still running. The corridor remains proposed. Its full implementation would mean enforcement, funding, and political will - three things Amazonia often lacks at once.

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

South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor: Where Two Worlds Meet

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Ecotones are transition zones - the narrow bands where two ecosystems overlap and exchange species. The South Amazon Ecotones Corridor tracks the enormous ecotone where the Amazon rainforest gives way to the cerrado savanna of the Brazilian interior. This is not a clean border. I...

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

South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor: The Frontier's Edge

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The corridor also runs along Brazil's most aggressive deforestation frontier. In the north of Mato Grosso and the south of Para, cattle ranches and soy fields have replaced forest at rates that once made global headlines and still do. This is the region where BR-163 cuts through ...

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

South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor: A Network of Reserves

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. The original 1997 proposal linked conservation units like beads on a string. The Jaru Biological Reserve in Rondonia. The Cristalino State Park in Mato Grosso, famous for its rainforest canopy tower. The Araguaia National Park, which protects part of Ilha do Bananal - believed to...

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

South Amazon Ecotones Ecological Corridor: Priorities and Delays

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brazil_location_map.svg: NordNordWest derivative work: Виктор В (talk), CC BY-SA 3.0. Brazil's Ministry of the Environment identified seven ecological corridors in 1997 as part of a national conservation framework. Only two received priority for initial development: the Central Amazon Corridor and the Central Atlantic Forest Corridor. These would serve as pilot pr...

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