Wildlife of
Acre

Primary Threats

• In Acre, forests are being cut and broken up for cattle pastures and land speculation, especially near the BR-364 and around growing cities like Rio Branco. Small clearings near settlements and roads weaken habitat links between protected areas and Indigenous lands.
• Expansion and intensification of cattle ranching (the dominant driver) and smallholder agriculture increases edge effects, promotes repeated burning to maintain pasture, and pushes clearing into previously remote areas, including buffer zones around protected areas.
• Illegal and informal selective logging (often targeting high-value hardwoods) opens access routes, increases forest degradation, and frequently precedes full conversion to pasture. Logging pressure is concentrated where transport is feasible (roadside areas and navigable rivers) and can spill into protected areas via weak enforcement or forged timber documentation.
• Alluvial gold mining and other mineral prospecting in river systems can cause localized deforestation, sedimentation, and contamination (notably mercury use in gold extraction), affecting aquatic food webs and riverine communities. Mining incursions are a recurrent risk in remote forest areas and along waterways.
• Road paving/maintenance (BR-364 and feeder roads), bridges, and new access tracks facilitate land grabbing, illegal timber extraction, and settlement expansion. Infrastructure increases human access to previously intact forest blocks, raising hunting pressure and accelerating fragmentation.
• Mercury contamination from gold mining and agrochemical runoff near agricultural areas degrade water quality in rivers and floodplains. Waste management challenges near growing towns also contribute to localized pollution that impacts wildlife, especially aquatic species and scavengers.
• More frequent/intense drought years in the western Amazon raise fire risk in forests not adapted to burning, increase tree mortality, and reduce river levels that affect floodplain breeding habitats. Drought-fire interactions are a key emerging threat to Acre's historically moist forest landscapes.
• Use of fire to clear and maintain pasture-combined with drought-drives forest degradation and can convert forest edges into more flammable, disturbed systems. Riparian alteration (bank clearing, channel disturbance from mining) modifies aquatic habitats important for turtles, fish, and river dolphins/otters.
• Subsistence and opportunistic hunting around settlements, roads, and rivers reduces populations of large-bodied mammals (e.g., tapirs, peccaries, large primates) and can cause 'empty forest' effects even where canopy cover remains. Increased access from roads and logging tracks amplifies pressure.
• Illegal capture and trade of birds, reptiles, and primates occurs opportunistically, with higher risk near transport routes and urban markets. River turtles and their eggs are also vulnerable to local trade and consumption pressures.
• Retaliatory killing of jaguars and pumas occurs where ranching expands into forest edges and predators take livestock. Conflict risk rises in fragmented landscapes and along newly opened frontiers where husbandry practices are limited.
• Expanding settlement footprints, noise/light from roads, and increasing river traffic disturb sensitive species (e.g., giant otter) and reduce effective habitat quality. Disturbance is particularly impactful in accessible riverine corridors used for transport and resource extraction.
• Greater human and domestic animal presence near forest edges increases spillover risks (e.g., canine diseases to wild canids, and broader zoonotic interfaces). Amphibians and other taxa may also be vulnerable where habitat disturbance and climate stress increase disease susceptibility.