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Environmental Management Large-scale Degradation of the Tocantins-Araguaia River Basin

October 2021
Environmental Management 68(3)

October 2021
68(3)

DOI:10.1007/s00267-021-01513-7

Authors:

Fernando Pelicice

Universidade Federal de Tocantins

Angelo A Agostinho

Universidade Estadual de Maringá

Alberto Akama

Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi - MPEG

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The Tocantins-Araguaia Basin is one of the largest river systems in South America, located entirely within Brazilian territory. In the last decades, capital-concentrating activities such as agribusiness, mining, and hydropower promoted extensive changes in land cover, hydrology, and environmental conditions. These changes are jeopardizing the basin's biodiversity and ecosystem services. Threats are escalating as poor environmental policies continue to be formulated, such as environmentally unsustainable hydropower plants, large-scale agriculture for commodity production, and aquaculture with non-native fish. If the current model persists, it will deepen the environmental crisis in the basin, compromising broad conservation goals and social development in the long term. Better policies will require thought and planning to minimize growing threats and ensure the basin's sustainability for future generations.

Land use and land cover (LULC) map of the Tocantins-Araguaia River Basin, Brazil. The map shows the scenario in 2019, indicating the area covered by natural vegetation (forest and non-forests), water and agro-pastoral activities (pastures and crops), and the location of small (PCH) and large (UHE) hydroelectric dams. Data source: MapBiomas (2021)

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Environmental Management

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01513-7

Large-scale Degradation of the Tocantins-Araguaia River Basin

Fernando Mayer Pelicice 1●Angelo Antonio Agostinho2●Alberto Akama3●José Dilermando Andrade Filho4●

Valter M. Azevedo-Santos5●Marcus Vinicius Moreira Barbosa6●Luis Mauricio Bini7●

Marcelo Fulgêncio Guedes Brito8●Carlos Roberto dos Anjos Candeiro9●Érica Pellegrini Caramaschi10 ●

Priscilla Carvalho11 ●Rodrigo Assis de Carvalho12 ●Leandro Castello13 ●Davi Borges das Chagas14 ●

Carine Cavalcante Chamon15 ●Guarino Rinaldi Colli16 ●Vanessa Salete Daga17 ●Murilo Sversut Dias18 ●

José Alexandre Felizola Diniz Filho7●Philip Fearnside19 ●Wagner de Melo Ferreira1●

Diego Azevedo Zoccal Garcia20 ●Tiago Kutter Krolow21 ●Rodrigo Ferreira Kruger22 ●

Edgardo Manuel Latrubesse23 ●Dilermando Pereira Lima Junior24 ●Solange de Fátima Lolis1●

Fabyano Alvares Cardoso Lopes25 ●Rafael Dias Loyola26 ●André Lincoln Barroso Magalhães27 ●

Adriana Malvasio28 ●Paulo De Marco Jr.7●Pedro Ribeiro Martins29 ●Rosana Mazzoni30 ●João Carlos Nabout12 ●

Mário Luis Orsi20 ●Andre Andrian Padial31 ●Hasley Rodrigo Pereira32 ●Thiago Nilton Alves Pereira15 ●

Phamela Bernardes Perônico12 ●Miguel Petrere Jr.33 ●Renato Torres Pinheiro34 ●Etiene Fabbrin Pires35 ●

Paulo Santos Pompeu36 ●Thiago Costa Gonçalves Portelinha37 ●Edson Eyji Sano38 ●

Vagner Leonardo Macedo dos Santos39 ●Paloma Helena Fernandes Shimabukuro4●Idelina Gomes da Silva40 ●

Lucas Barbosa e Souza41 ●Francisco Leonardo Tejerina-Garro42,43 ●Mariana Pires de Campos Telles44,45 ●

Fabrício Barreto Teresa12 ●Sidinei Magela Thomaz46 ●Livia Helena Tonella47 ●Ludgero Cardoso Galli Vieira48 ●

Jean Ricardo Simões Vitule49 ●Jansen Zuanon50

Received: 21 June 2021 / Accepted: 21 July 2021

Abstract

TheTocantins-AraguaiaBasinisoneofthelargestriversystems in South America, located entirely within Brazilian

territory. In the last decades, capital-concentrating activities such as agribusiness, mining, and hydropower promoted

extensive changes in land cover, hydrology, and environmental conditions. These changes are jeopardizing the basin’s

biodiversity and ecosystem services. Threats are escalating as poor environmental policies continue to be formulated, such

as environmentally unsustainable hydropower plants, large-scale agriculture for commodity production, and aquaculture

with non-native ﬁsh. If the current model persists, it will deepen the environmental crisis in the basin, compromising

broad conservation goals and social development in the long term. Better policies will require thought and planning to

minimize growing threats and ensure the basin’s sustainability for future generations.

Keywords Biodiversity ●Conservation ●Policy ●South America ●Sustainability.

Introduction

Among the largest river systems in South America, the

Tocantins-Araguaia basin stands out due to its large drai-

nage area (767,000 km2) and spectacular biodiversity

(Ribeiro et al. 1995; Lucinda et al. 2007). Located entirely

within Brazil, this basin drains a vast area of the Cerrado

savanna and rainforest ecosystems. Two main rivers form

the basin: the Tocantins, characterized by a unique ich-

thyofauna with several exclusive species, and the Araguaia,

with one of the largest and most biodiverse ﬂoodplains in

the world (Latrubesse et al. 2019). The Araguaia River is

also one of the few large free-ﬂowing rivers in South

America, which harbors essential areas for biodiversity

conservation (Latrubesse et al. 2019; Martins et al. 2021).

The unique biodiversity of the Tocantins-Araguaia Basin,

however, contrasts with a long history of policies and

initiatives that have induced extensive environmental

*Fernando Mayer Pelicice

fmpelicice@gmail.com

Extended author information available on the last page of the article.

1234567890();,:

degradation. Over the past 40 years, the expansion of dams,

croplands, irrigation, mining, and aquaculture induced

extensive changes to land cover, hydrology, and environ-

mental conditions, jeopardizing biodiversity, ecosystems,

and associated services (Coe et al. 2017; Strassburg et al.

2017; Latrubesse et al. 2019).

Large-scale Degradation

Currently, seven large hydroelectric dams regulate the

main channel of the Tocantins River, with many other

dams blocking the course of tributaries (Winemiller et al.

2016;Akama2017). There are plans to build new dams

(ca. 90), mainly in the Araguaia basin (Latrubesse et al.

2019), in addition to waterways and a large-scale water

diversion system between the Tocantins and São Fran-

cisco basins (Daga et al. 2020). The rapid expansion of

agribusiness for soy and other commodities has caused

the loss of ~50% of the Cerrado (Scaramuzza et al. 2017),

and the activity has advanced progressively over remnant

natural areas (Trigueiro et al. 2020). In 2019, pastures

and monocultures covered more than 42% of the basin

(Fig. 1). The Tocantins-Araguaia basin is currently the

most targeted area for expanding agricultural activities,

as stated in the Presidential Decree 8447 of 2015, which

created the MATOPIBA Federal Plan for Development of

the Brazilian Cerrado in the states of Maranhão, Tocan-

tins, Piauí, and Bahia. In the lower portion of the basin,

cattle ranching has led to the clearing of extensive rain-

forest areas (Nepstad et al. 2014). Broad changes in land

use have eliminated riparian forests (Swanson and

Bohlman 2021) and altered hydrological dynamics (Coe

et al. 2009). Moreover, agriculture expansion has dra-

matically increased the use of pesticides (Martinelli et al.

2010), which invariably end up in aquatic ecosystems.

The increasing demand for irrigation has affected regio-

nal water supplies (Morais et al. 2014), leading to

growing water conﬂicts. Other activities generally over-

shadow mining, but its impacts are severe. The basin

hosts the two largest iron ore deposits globally, the

Carajás mine in Pará State (with 17 billion tons) and the

Serra do Carmo iron deposit in Tocantins State (with 159

billion tons). Future exploitation of these deposits is a

signiﬁcant threat, as shown by the recent environmental

disasters in southeastern Brazil (Salvador et al. 2020).

Terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity has responded nega-

tively to these impacts, as evidenced by major losses in

ﬁsh diversity (e.g., Araújo et al. 2013; Perônico et al.

2020; Pereira et al. 2021; Santana et al. 2021). Fish

constitute a megadiverse and endemic group in the

Tocantins-Araguaia basin with over 700 species (Dagosta

and de Pinna 2019). According to ICMBio (2018), this

basin has 51 threatened ﬁsh species, most of them

endemic.

New Threats

Threats are escalating as public policies continue to prior-

itize maximizing economic growth at the cost of environ-

mental sustainability (Pelicice et al. 2017). The recent

expansion of aquaculture is exemplary. Historically, aqua-

culture in Brazil has been based on low standards of socio-

environmental sustainability (Agostinho et al. 2007; Lima

Junior et al. 2018), involving non-native organisms sub-

jected to poor conﬁnement conditions and inadequate man-

agement practices. Government policies have encouraged

the expansion of aquaculture in the Tocantins-Araguaia

basin, particularly in hydroelectric reservoirs. Many aqua-

culture parks have been planned (Lima et al. 2018) and, in

2021, cage aquaculture was authorized in the area impoun-

ded by the Peixe Angical Dam (https://www.gov.br/pt-br/

noticias/agricultura-e-pecuaria/2021/04/liberada-aquicultura-

em-hidreletrica-no-rio-tocantins). The authorization is valid

for 35 years, and it is the ﬁrst to be issued in the country after

updates in legislation (Federal Decree 10.576 of 2020) that

reassigned responsibilities and facilitated the authorization

process. This grant was issued shortly after the permission

for the farming of the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus),

an invasive species, in aquaculture cages in Tocantins State

(https://seagro.to.gov.br/noticia/2018/12/6/criacao-de-tilapia-

em-tanque-rede-e-liberada-no-tocantins/). At the same time,

State Decree 337 of 2019 allowed farming non-native ﬁshes

(i.e., grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella and Nile tilapia) in

the Araguaia basin and other drainage basins in Mato Grosso

State. In Tocantins State, a bill is moving towards a vote

that would allow the cultivation of the striped catﬁsh

(Pangasianodon hypophthalmus)(https://al.to.leg.br/noticia/

gabinete/jorge-frederico/9889/peixe-panga-jorge-frederico-a

presenta-projeto-de-lei-que-autoriza-o-cultivo-no-tocantins),

an Asian ﬁsh with high invasive potential that is already

cultivated in other Brazilian states (Garcia et al. 2018). These

initiatives must accelerate the expansion of aquaculture with

non-native ﬁsh in the Tocantins-Araguaia Basin.

This episode illustrates how government policies, guided

by short-term economic proﬁts, ignore scientiﬁc advice and

the costs of environmental degradation. Non-native organ-

isms are incipient in aquatic ecosystems in this basin (Doria

et al. 2021; Santana et al. 2021), and aquaculture expansion

will change this scenario, triggering species invasions into

other Amazonian drainage basins. The literature on socio-

environmental impacts resulting from aquaculture is vast

(Agostinho et al. 2007;Diana2009;Vituleetal.2009). It

includes the unavoidable escapes and invasions (e.g.,

Azevedo-Santos et al. 2011; Forneck et al. 2021), and direct

Environmental Management

and indirect negative impacts caused by the Nile tilapia

(compiled by Canonico et al. 2005; Pelicice et al. 2014),

striped catﬁsh (compiled by Garcia et al. 2018), and many

possible synergistic effects between non-native species and

other anthropogenic stressors (e.g., Bezerra et al. 2019). The

potential for local biodiversity to boost ﬁsh production is

Fig. 1 Land use and land cover (LULC) map of the Tocantins-

Araguaia River Basin, Brazil. The map shows the scenario in 2019,

indicating the area covered by natural vegetation (forest and non-

forests), water and agro-pastoral activities (pastures and crops), and the

location of small (PCH) and large (UHE) hydroelectric dams. Data

source: MapBiomas (2021)

Environmental Management

enormous. Supported by science, many native ﬁsh species in

the basin could provide a basis for local initiatives and

markets (Pelicice et al. 2014). There is a research facility

concerned with aquaculture development in the basin

(Embrapa Pesca e Aquicultura, Palmas, Tocantins State),

which could provide adequate expertise and innovation –but

it has focused extensively on using non-native ﬁshes.

The Need for Better Policies

For decades, Brazil has fostered policies that pursue develop-

ment “at any cost”. Previous setbacks have brought severe

consequences for environmental policies (De Sousa et al. 2011;

Fearnside 2016;Latrubesseetal.2017;Dobrovolskietal.

2018), and current trends have had immediate impacts on the

conservation of the Amazon (Ferrante and Fearnside 2019;

Pelicice and Castello 2021). This approach found fertile ground

in the current political scenario, characterized by scientiﬁc

denialism and widespread disregard for the environment

(Thomaz et al. 2020). The Tocantins-Araguaia basin proved

highly vulnerable to these trends and setbacks since it has been

historically targeted for economic development (e.g., Fearnside

2001), and has experienced a rapid expansion of human

activities over the last ten years. The persistence of this scenario

will deepen the environmental crisis in the basin, compromis-

ing broad conservation goals (e.g., UNESCO biosphere

reserves for biodiversity hotspots), national policies (e.g., the

National Strategy for Exotic Species and the National Action

Plan for the Conservation of Endangered Species), and inter-

national agreements (e.g., the Convention on Biological

Diversity and the United Nations sustainable development

goals). The costs arising from environmental degradation are

enormous and irreparable, considering the remarkable biodi-

versity and endemism that characterize the basin. Cultural risks

are no less considerable (Doria et al. 2017), threatening

ancestral knowledge and the ways of life of several native and

traditional groups that live in the basin (Lopes et al. 2021), in

addition to archeological and paleontological heritage (Lopes

et al. 2019). Prevailing policies fail to recognize that environ-

mental degradation generates socioeconomic impacts, threa-

tening the persistence of human activities in the long term

(Burger et al. 2012). The impacts and costs include over-

exploitation of hydroelectric resources, loss of freshwater,

pollution, deforestation, soil degradation, and losses caused by

invasive species. In a situation of high environmental degra-

dation (e.g., river regulation, deforestation, biological invasion),

restoration efforts are complex, costly, and sometimes

impracticable, especially in aquatic environments, where eco-

logical impacts are less readily perceptible (Vitule 2009). Cli-

mate change must complicate this scenario (Colli et al. 2020),

with the risk of affecting current policies, intensifying envir-

onmental degradation, and compromising conservation efforts.

We recommend greater caution, responsibility, and

planning when dealing with environmental issues in the

Tocantins-Araguaia basin. Any development in the basin

must account for its high regional biodiversity value to

establish balanced policies combining economic develop-

ment, environmental preservation, the best available scien-

tiﬁc knowledge, and the interests of the different social

groups involved. Protected areas are limited in number and

area, especially in the Tocantins River (Azevedo-Santos

et al. 2019), so development policies must incorporate some

basic tenets (Azevedo-Santos et al. 2021). For example,

maintenance of the connectivity and natural ﬂow regimes of

remaining free-ﬂowing rivers (especially in the Araguaia

Basin), more-stringent control of irrigation projects, cli-

matic monitoring, preservation of riparian forests, control of

deforestation in both the savanna and rainforests (especially

in the headwaters), revoking the authorization of aqua-

culture with non-native species, and improving the inspec-

tion and control of these activities. Still necessary to achieve

these goals are integrative and multidisciplinary studies to

explicitly evaluate the impacts of environmental and

anthropic drivers on distinct components of biodiversity

and at different spatial scales, especially because basic and

important knowledge gaps persist (Carvalho and Tejerina-

Garro 2019; Machado et al. 2019; Colli et al. 2020). The

economic importance of this basin is beyond question (i.e.,

production of hydroelectricity and commodities), but it does

not justify the ongoing environmental degradation. The

human-dominated scenario in the Tocantins-Araguaia Basin

provides the ideal candidate to marry the already existing

economic agenda with conservation of remaining ecosys-

tems in ways that can serve as a model for replication

elsewhere. It would be feasible through the involvement and

engagement of a wide base of stakeholders, including local

and indigenous peoples, farmers and ranchers, the hydro-

power industry, academia, the governmental and non-

governmental sectors, and maybe the international com-

munity. At this moment, economic development and bio-

diversity preservation require much better planning to

minimize escalating conﬂicts and ensure the sustainability

of resources for coming generations.

Acknowledgements The Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biodiversi-

dade, Ecologia e Conservação (PPGBec) at the Universidade Federal

do Tocantins (UFT) supported this initiative. Conselho Nacional de

Desenvolvimento Cientíﬁco e Tecnológico (CNPq) provided research

grants.

Author Contributions FMP conceived the idea and wrote the ﬁrst

draft. All authors contributed with writing, development, and revision.

Funding Some authors have been supported by different agencies,

especially Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientíﬁco e Tec-

nológico (CNPq) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de

Nível Superior (Capes).

Environmental Management

Compliance with Ethical Standards

Conﬂict of interest The authors declare no competing interests.

Consent to participate All authors consent with the content of

the paper.

Consent for publication All authors consent with the publication of

the paper.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to

jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional afﬁliations.

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