
Brazil needs to step up environmental control of its agricultural irrigation
The national area with these systems now totals 70,000 km2, the same as the territory of Ireland or half the Brazilian state of Amapá.
Brazil has one of the largest areas of artificial irrigation in the world. It has continuously expanded over the past few decades and now covers an area similar in size to Ireland or half of the state of Amapá, approximately 70,000 km2.
This agricultural technique allows for higher productivity and the potential for up to three harvests per year of fruits and vegetables, cotton, corn, beans, soybeans, and other grains, which are consumed domestically and exported worldwide. The demand for these products is skyrocketing.
Soybean crops alone have increased ninefold in the past four decades and now cover an area equivalent to that of Paraguay, or about 400,000 km2. Over the same period, the area dedicated to agriculture and livestock in the country has grown by 50%. The information comes from MapBiomas, an initiative that tracks land and water use in Brazil.
Riding the wave of agribusiness expansion, projections indicate that the irrigated area in the country will increase by 60%, reaching 112,000 km2. One-third of this increase is expected to occur by the end of the decade, according to the National Water and Sanitation Agency (ANA – Agência Nacional de Águas e Saneamento Básico), which manages the resource in the country.
With irregular rainfall and fewer surface water sources such as rivers and lakes, regions from the Northeast to the South of Brazil are major targets for irrigation, including open-air canals and reservoirs that could pose a deadly threat to wildlife. It is a scenario that remains largely overlooked.
“Little by little, more threats from agribusiness to natural environments and species are being recognized”, says Rodrigo Gerhardt, manager of the Wildlife Campaign at the NGO World Animal Protection in Brazil (WAP – Proteção
Animal Mundial). The inaction of public authorities may exacerbate this.
The survey pointed out that there is no monitoring or statistics on fatal drownings of native fauna in these water canals, and that governments overlook the environmental licensing of these systems, which could help mitigate damage to biodiversity.
Only the state of Goiás, in the Midwest region, stated that permits may require “the installation of structures aimed at preventing animals from falling into the water (passageways) and, if they do fall, allowing the animal to escape, such as aquatic ladders”.
Most agricultural hubs do not use slippery plastic in canals and reservoirs, but they may have other features which are lethal to wildlife, such as canals with steep walls, barriers or sluices, or even strong water currents, according to studies and sources consulted in this series of reports.
The Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MMA – Ministério do Meio Ambiente e Mudança do Clima) stated that it is possible to develop projects to monitor the impact of irrigation canals on wildlife. “At the moment, however, there is no plan to implement a specific system for this type of monitoring”, it stated.
Responsible for national parks and other federal conservation units, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio – Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade) stated that a project aimed at reducing the risks posed by irrigation canals to animals such as the maned wolf (Chrysocyon brachyurus) could be launched by June this year.
Meanwhile, the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama – Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis), the federal environmental enforcement agency, stated that it is gathering data to take action against animal deaths caused by irrigation. “There is still no definite timeline for the implementation and completion of these actions”, it stated.
The information was provided through the Access to Information Law (Lei de Acesso à Informação), which guarantees responses from federal, state, and municipal agencies. The search was supported by Fiquem Sabendo, a non-profit organization specializing in public information access.
When asked by the ((o))eco via email, almost all the 20 municipalities with the largest irrigated areas in the country remained silent on potential animal drownings. Others shifted the responsibility onto state or federal law enforcement agencies.


On the left, a canal with plastic membrane connected to an irrigation system with a central pivot for soybean cultivation in Riachão das Neves, in the state of Bahia. Photo: Victor Moriyama/Greenpeace.
On the right, one of the water canals during the implementation of the Baixio de Irecê project, identified as the largest of its type in Latin America. Photo: Codevasf/Jorge Serejo/Creative Commons
In addition to the largest national centers for artificial irrigation in agriculture, there are other large-scale projects in states from the Southeast and Northeast regions.
In Minas Gerais and Bahia states, the canals in the Jaíba District and the Baixio de Irecê add up to almost 640 km, similar to the road distance between the Brazilian state capitals São Paulo (SP) and Belo Horizonte (MG), or between the European capitals of Oslo (Norway) and Copenhagen (Denmark).
Both irrigation centers use water from the São Francisco River to produce items such as millet, castor bean, lemon, pumpkin, beans, watermelon, mango, and banana, primarily consumed in Brazil. Jaíba has been operating since 1975, while Irecê has been in operation since 2021.
Linked to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development and responsible for managing the projects, Codevasf (Portuguese acronym to São Francisco and Parnaíba Valleys Development Company) states that both have structures “that can be used for animal crossings, thus preventing animals from falling”.
In the Baixio de Irecê project, there is equipment every 450 meters, such as bridges, walkways, culverts, and safety ladders. The death and falling of animals in the canals are monitored, and in the coming years, the installation of monitoring cameras is planned, according to the company.
“To date, there is no significant record of wildlife drownings in occurrences within the project”, it states.




Regarding Jaíba, more than 70% of its canals (240 km) are shallow, which would facilitate the escape of animals, and the remaining sections are far from protected areas or areas with natural vegetation, which would reduce risks to native species, according to Codevasf.
The Company also reports that only one fatal drowning of a wild fox has been recorded in the project, approximately ten years ago.
The current wildlife protection plan includes measures such as aerial and underground passageways, as well as teams and equipment for rescue operations. The document reports that most of the wildlife moves away from the irrigation hub and even lists positive effects, such as the creation of additional “sources of water for hydration”.
“The Codevasf projects are licensed by the competent environmental agencies, and whenever impacts on wildlife are identified, they are mitigated through environmental programs approved by the licensing agencies,” says Codevasf. Read the full text of its response here.
On the other hand, Rodrigo Gerhardt (World Animal Protection in Brazil) argues that the bridges and other structures reported by the Company serve more the operations of the projects, vehicles, and people than the animals. “There’s no guarantee that wildlife is actually using them”, he emphasizes.
The expert also believes that there is a lack of strict monitoring of the irrigation systems to ensure that animals are not drowned. “Dead specimens along the vast stretch of canals may not be reported to the environmental agencies”, he notes.
Another growing irrigation hub in the country is located between the municipalities of Petrolina and Juazeiro, between the northeastern states of Pernambuco and Bahia. The water used comes from the São Francisco River itself.


Licensing at stake
In the face of the threats posed by irrigation to wildlife, the superintendent of the Minas Gerais Association for Environmental Defense (AMDA – Associação Mineira de Defesa do Ambiente), Maria Dalce Ricas, reminds that protecting wildlife is a legal obligation of governments and calls for the monitoring of this activity nationwide.
“This will help curb potential crimes, generate information about wildlife mortality, and support preventive actions”, she states. “Irrigation should have regulations to reduce animal drownings”, she emphasizes.
However, this remains far from Brazil’s reality. In practice, the activity is not natiowide inspected and currently relies only on water usage permits, as it is classified as having “low environmental impact”.
A bill proposed by Federal Deputy Nilto Tatto (PT/SP – Workers’ Party/São Paulo State) seeks to change this by requiring environmental licensing for agricultural irrigation. He believes this could strengthen the conservation of water and wildlife.
“It is necessary to improve legislation to prevent what is happening in western Bahia from spreading across the country“, he emphasizes.
It is also possible to create a national plan to address the agribusiness impacts on wildlife, says Rodrigo Gerhardt (World Animal Protection Brazil). “There are already plans for hydroelectric projects in the Amazon, mining, offshore oil extraction, and transportation infrastructure”, he recalls.
The so-called “Biodiversity Impact Reduction Plans” are based on federal legislation and implemented by the ICMBio, Ibama, and other public, scientific, and civil institutions.

Rising demand
The report found that, in the new federal plan to be presented this year to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions, irrigation is expected to be positioned as a key factor in continuing food production amidst the climate crisis.
“It’s an opportunistic proposal focused solely on the interests of agribusiness, which does not reassess its practices that are driving the climate crisis, such as deforestation and excessive water use”, says Rodrigo Gerhardt.
A decade earlier, in 2015, a version of a governmental plan to adapt Brazil to climate change mentioned irrigation as positive “for biodiversity preservation”. The drowning of animals was well beyond the radar.
However, while temperatures soar, the availability of surface water in the country has shrunk over the past few decades, according to MapBiomas. The worst losses have occurred precisely in major agricultural producers, such as the Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul states.
The Water Manager at The Nature Conservancy NGO in Brazil, Samuel Barreto, points out that this is due to deforestation and other land-use changes coupled with climate change. “This impacts economies, people, fauna, and flora”, he emphasizes.
“It is not possible to use more water than the natural replenishment capacity”, warns the expert. Solutions involve hitting the brakes hard on the destruction of native vegetation and massively regenerating natural environments.
In the opposite direction, agribusiness continues to be the largest source of deforestation and uses 70% of the country’s water, or about 30 trillion liters annually, according to the National Water Agency (ANA). The percentage is similar to the global demand of the sector.
In the face of the risk that more animals may die in irrigation systems fueled by global climate change, Nilto Tatto (PT/SP) emphasizes that a serious adaptation to the crisis cannot focus solely on “human needs”.
“If more irrigation is needed for agricultural production, let it be done with legislation and technologies that do not create other problems, such as threatening wildlife”, requests the congressman.
This article is part of the special project Massacre Invisível and was produced with the support of Proteção Animal Mundial
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