The text that follows is a PREPRINT. Please cite as: Fearnside, P.M. & P.M.L.A. Graça. 2006. BR-319: Brazil’s Manaus- Porto Velho Highway and the potential impact of linking the arc of deforestation to central Amazonia. Environmental Management 38(5): 705-716. doi: 10.1007/s00267-005- 0295-y ISSN: 0364-152X Copyright: Springer. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com 1 ENM-05-0295 R2 revised 25 Mar. 2006 2 Environmental Management (accepted 10 April 2006) 3 4 BR-319: BRAZIL’S MANAUS-PORTO VELHO 5 HIGHWAY AND THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF 6 LINKING THE ARC OF DEFORESTATION TO 7 CENTRAL AMAZONIA 8 9 10 Philip M. Fearnside* 11 Paulo Maurício Lima de Alencastro Graça 12 13 Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) 14 Av. Andre Araujo, 2936 15 C.P. 478 16 69011-970 Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil 17 18 19 *Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; email:
[email protected] 20 1 1 ABSTRACT / Brazil’s BR-319 Highway linked Manaus, in the state of Amazonas, to Porto 2 Velho, Rondônia, until it became impassable in 1988. Now it is proposed for reconstruction 3 and paving, which would facilitate migration from the “Arc of Deforestation” in the southern 4 part of the Amazon region to new frontiers farther north. The purpose of the highway, which 5 is to facilitate transport to São Paulo of products from factories in the Manaus Free Trade 6 Zone, would be better served by sending the containers by ship to the port of Santos.