It all starts with the illegalization of an area inside the forest, close to a river, for logging, mining or livestock farming.
Then, trails (or sweeping paths, as these paths are called) are opened for the traffic of people and products.
As exploration of the site increases, houses are built in the surrounding area. One of the trails is expanded for motorcycle, car and truck traffic, and the new road is connected to a larger road.
From there, the public authorities come in. The local city hall or state government has been forced to use its heavy machinery to maintain, maintain and expand the road, at the request of those who benefit from the illegal business. The services are carried out without environmental licensing and without drainage works, which blocks creeks and streams in the region.
Once consolidated, the road then leads to a new cycle of deforestation hotspots wherever it passes.
This is the roadmap for creating illegal roads in the Amazon that can be called “ghost roads” or “virus roads”, according to professor and researcher at the Federal University of Acre (UFAC), Sonaira Souza Silva.
These paths, in general, still do not have connections with large roads and, therefore, escape the inspection of authorities and environmentalists, but they eat from within, explains the researcher. These roads have irregular shapes and differ from the straight stretches that run from highways, known as “fishbones”.
A study coordinated by Silva, obtained exclusively by Sheetmeasured the expansion of roads of all sizes in the 1990s and onwards and specifically identified the emergence of a large number of “ghost roads” in the period.
The exact quantification of this last type of roads was not the subject of the study, but the researcher assesses that there is a high probability that they represent at least 30% of new sections since 1990.
“We didn’t imagine that so many new roads would appear. Because, when we talk about roads, you think a lot about paved highways, BRs or state roads. But, when we started to really see the advancement of these smaller roads or branch roads, as we call them here, it was really surprising”, says Silva.
Entitled “Expansion of Roads and Branches in the State of Acre: 1989 to 2025”, the research found the greatest growth in sections in 2019 and 2020, during the Presidency of (PL). In each of these years, more than 1,400 km of roads were opened.
The year 2025, already under the administration of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), came in fourth place in the study’s historical series, with 1,165 km of open roads.
The annual average between 1990 and 2025 was 540 km of new sections in Acre.
About a third (35%) of these roads were opened in settlement projects. Registrations on private properties totaled 28%. There were 92 km in indigenous territories during the period, less than 1% of the total.
The stratification by municipalities in Acre highlighted Sena Madureira and Feijó, in addition to the state capital, Rio Branco.
From an environmental point of view, the fact that causes the most concern is the expansion of stretches within conservation units. Almost 3,000 km have been built on these reserves since 1990.
According to the study, the highest rates of road construction in conservation units were recorded from the More than half of the roads (52%) were created in the last six years, with peaks in 2019, 2020 and 2025 (this last year already in ).
The research warns that, last year, 186 km of new branches were identified in the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (Resex) and 67 km in the Cazumbá-Iracema Resex.
According to the study, the roads in the reserves are “in more isolated regions, representing new fronts of occupation and deforestation.”
Another fact that deserves attention is the expansion of roads on public lands, especially in the last six years. In the overall survey, a quarter (25%) of the roads were opened in this type of location.
One of the roads identified in the survey was the Barbary branch, opened to connect the municipalities of Cruzeiro do Sul and Porto Walter.
and invasion of indigenous land using machines purchased with parliamentary amendments.
In November, the minister of the (Federal Supreme Court) accepted a request from anti-corruption entities and
The services were started by federal deputy Zezinho Barbary (PP-AC) when he was mayor of Porto Walter in 2015.
According to Silva, “the Barbary branch is a very important example of this opening of roads, of land connections without you really thinking about planning, without having environmental and social impact studies in the region”.
Another study on roads in the Amazon is coordinated by researcher Cecília Leal, a member of the Sustainable Amazon Network, linked to the University of Lancaster, in England.
The research focuses on the impact of opening roads on small watercourses, known in the Amazon region as igarapés.
In the final stage of production, studies indicate that roads in the Legal Amazon have already affected tens of thousands of water beds in the region in recent decades, mainly due to the blocking of streams by the roads.
Leal draws attention to the fact that the topic still receives little attention from authorities and even in the academic field.
“There’s that idea: ‘but it’s just a little road passing over streams, what’s wrong with it?” But, when we walk in the Amazon, it’s not just one, it’s dozens, it’s hundreds, it’s thousands. And then, speaking of the river basin, the impacts are cumulative”, says the researcher.
“This is the life of the river, the life of the waterways. From the moment this road blocks, partially or completely, it forms small dams above the road. That is another environment, another habitat”, he adds.
A Sheet He contacted ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation), the federal body responsible for inspecting conservation units. The institute stated that the growth of roads in the Chico Mendes and Cazumbá-Iracema extractive reserves is the result of “changes in economic activities with a predominance of the introduction and consolidation of livestock farming”.
Among the socioeconomic changes, the agency highlights the loss of market value of latex since the 1990s and the drought in the rivers where riverside communities live.
“The most recent needs of these populations required public authorities to improve these roads, now made using heavy machinery, expanding the width of the carriageways and branches according to technical aspects, aiming to improve access to the populations, through direct authorization issued by ICMBio”, he states.
As for Resex Chico Mendes, ICMBio points out that it “measures almost 1 million hectares, being occupied by more than 4,000 families. In this way, the increase in the road network is proportional to its area and population”, and that in 2025 it carried out Operation Suçuarana, “the largest illegal cattle removal in the history of the conservation unit, which, along with other actions, removed Resex Chico Mendes from the list of protected areas most threatened by deforestation.”
The Government of Acre sent a note to the Sheet in which it states that the opening of roads “is directly related to the historical needs of regional integration, access to essential public services and the flow of production by rural populations, especially in areas that are difficult to access.”
According to state management, its bodies always act in compliance with technical, social and legal criteria, and any irregular openings of roads carried out without due environmental licensing are subject to investigation by Imac, the state environmental body of Acre.
