Along the Amazonian coastline in Brazil’s northeastern state of Maranhão, plans are underway for a port project that will cover part of an important Ramsar wetland that connects to a vast area of mangroves. A Mongabay estimate found that, based on a company map of the port and 2020 data of the ecosystem, it could impact 341.59 hectares (844 acres) of mangroves.

The 1,180-hectare (2,916-acre) Alcântara Port Terminal will be constructed within the Reentrâncias Maranhenses environmental protection area (APA), a Ramsar site. The protected area is connected to four other important wetland sites nearby, which together form one of the largest continuous area of mangroves in the world. It is home to the critically endangered hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and other vulnerable species such as the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) and Atlantic goliath grouper (Epinephelus itajara).

The company behind the project, Grão-Pará Multimodal, and Brazil’s Ministry of Environment did not respond to Mongabay’s requests for comment by the time of this publication. Brazil’s minister of integration and regional development, Waldez Góes, said in a press release the project is “well-structured in terms of social, environmental, green infrastructure and renewable energy commitments.” Environmental impact assessments, however, are not yet complete.

The port would be connected to the Maranhão Railway (EF-317) and the government expects it to boost the region’s economy and help transport iron ore extracted from the state of Pará’s Carajás mine to China and European countries, as well as food and other commodities.

Luiz Jorge Diaz, an assistant professor and technical advisor at the State University of Maranhão (UEMA), told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages that his biggest concern is the stress the port will cause to the aquatic life. The port and the presence of many ships, he said, could disrupt food chains and cause changes in the region’s nutrient cycling because of the release of ballast water (water held in tanks and ships to maintain stability). This can contain thousands of aquatic or marine microbes, plants and animals that may compete for resources, prey on local species, or bring diseases, Jorge said.

“This creates a huge imbalance in the food chain and a huge imbalance in the sustainability of aquatic ecosystems.”

Jorge also added that the area where the port is located may also be affected by tidal currents that transport various types of sediments, oils and greases from the ships through the water.

According to an internal evaluation carried out by Carlos Martinez, a researcher from the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), for the rights NGO Justiça nos Trilhos, several freshwater lagoons found within the island will be destroyed to construct the port, as well as hawksbill and green sea (Chelonia mydas) turtle nesting grounds. Populations of migratory birds, such as the emblematic scarlet ibis (Eudocimus ruber), which is very sensitive to environmental disturbances, will be affected, showed the evaluation seen by Mongabay.

“Even if the terminal were built just a few kilometers from the [migratory bird] colony, the drastic increase in movement and activities of humans, machinery and large vessels would cause such significant disturbance that it is extremely unlikely that the colony would even survive the construction of the terminal,” said Martinez. The construction of the port terminal “would therefore be potentially lethal.”

Local impacts

The port terminal will be built on Cajual Island, although the exact coordinates of the project location are unconfirmed. This area is home to multiple Quilombola communities and descendants of Afro-Brazilian slaves who escaped in the 19th century. On the island, a community of 51 families that rely on fishing, agriculture and small-scale farming approved of the project in exchange for 51 new houses, an elementary school and a health center, as well as 6% of the project’s profits.

But public prosecutors found they were not fully informed of the potential impacts before they agreed. Other nearby Quilombola peoples and local fishers not from the island but who also depend on the protected area’s biodiversity for their livelihoods have called into question the validity of its environmental license and their own lack of consultation by the government.

“The construction can end up killing all the biodiversity in the mangroves and in the flooded areas,” Gilberto Lima, the regional secretary of the Pastoral Council of Fishermen (CPP), told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages. “On top of that, there is the traffic of ships and other vessels.”

João Carlos, an artisanal fisher from the Cujupe Quilombola community, told Mongabay over WhatsApp voice messages that he fears the fishing areas he depends on will be devastated by the port. The traditional style of fishing used by his community, which involves longlines, shoreline nets and other methods, is commonly done from canoes or the shoreline. “Everyone here, the entire community, does this type of fishing,” Carlos said.

But a large sprawling port project with docks, navigation channels and structures built on the sea surface, as well as a 940-meter (3,000-foot) bridge between Cajual Island and Cujupe, will destroy much of this activity and the habitats the fish rely on for food and breeding, he said.

“If this project is completed, it will greatly affect our fishing style, our source of income, our customs and our culture because we catch a lot of shrimp and fish.”

State of the environmental license

Before a project of this nature is constructed, technical studies to assess the impacts and an environmental licensing process need to be carried out. For a project of this size, the licensing should be carried out by IBAMA, the federal agency responsible for environmental licensing. However, this was archived at the company’s request in 2023, an IBAMA spokesperson told Mongabay.

“The information available in the case indicates that the Alcântara Port Terminal project could interfere with the APA das Reentrâncias Maranhenses, a state conservation unit,” IBAMA said over email. “This concern was considered … by IBAMA for the [Environmental Impact Study] EIA/RIMA, but since the case was archived at the company’s request, the analysis of these potential impacts was not further analyzed at the federal level.”

Licensing now falls to the state level as the company has divided into two the license of the port and the 520-kilometer (323-mile) Maranhão Railway, which together form the Grão-Pará Maranhão (GPM) project. Some activists allege this was done to evade tighter scrutiny at the federal level, though the company has not responded to this allegation.

The State Secretariat for the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMA) told Mongabay that, to date, it has not received an environmental licensing application from the company behind the Grão-Pará Multimodal project.

Before the licensing request was archived at IBAMA, in 2018, six analysts visited Cajual to conduct a technical inspection.

“The Island has environmental and social weaknesses that could be aggravated by the implementation of the [port] project,” the IBAMA report said. “From an environmental point of view, it is clear that the environment is well preserved, with areas of mangroves, sandbanks and other [habitats], with probable breeding areas for birds and aquatic fauna, which due to their high environmental sensitivity may be negatively affected.”

Banner image: Fishing boats and community members at Porto Jacaré, Alcantara town. Image courtesy of Klaus Schenck / Rettet den Regenwald e.V./Rainforest Rescue.

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