
Paragominas was once so notorious in Brazil for its predatory logging and wild-west lawlessness that it became known as Paragobala (Paragobullet). ‘We weren’t the worst offender, but we were the best-known municipality on the blacklist,’ says its former mayor. Photo Credit: Stefan Kolumban Hess
Environment BrazilSaving the Amazon, Leading the Change
The city of Paragominas, Brazil, has set an example of environmental good practices that could change the fortune of the Amazon and its fragile ecosystems.
“For decades, Paragominas was one of the Amazon’s epicenters of deforestation and timber extraction. That changed in 2008, with the municipal environmental pact, which reduced deforestation by 80%,” explains Beto Veríssimo, co-founder of Imazon, a rainforest-based thinktank. “Controlling deforestation turned the township into a magnet for investment and economic growth.”
Under the administration of Mayor Adnan Demachki, the restless frontier town of 105,000 people in northern Brazil banned slash-and-burn farming. It shut down predatory logging, turning this community into one that conserved as it grew. So much so that the township, now described as an exemplar of sustainable management, was selected among 470 municipalities to represent Brazil at Cop28 in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, and Cop29 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The forest covers 67% of Paragominas – a portmanteau for Pará, Goiás, and Minas Gerais – a city once among Brazil’s worst forest predators, now among the Amazon’s environmental governance leaders.