# Rondônia

> A chronological documentary of 60 moments.
> Source: https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia · Loreline (loreline.live)

The state of Rondônia in western Brazil — once home to 208,000 square kilometers of forest (about 51.4 million acres), an area slightly smaller than the state of Kansas — has become one of the most deforested parts of the Amazon. In the past three decades, clearing and degradation of the state’s forests have been rapid: 4,200 square kilometers cleared by 1978; 30,000 by 1988; and 53,300 by 1998. By 2003, an estimated 67,764 square kilometers of rainforest—an area larger than the state of West Virginia—had been cleared.

_last updated 2026-07-21._

## Eras

- **The Railway Era** — Rondônia — The Railway Era.
- **The Fishbone Roads** — Rondônia — The Fishbone Roads.
- **Satellite footage**
- **On the Ground** — Rondônia — On the Ground.
- **The Human Cost** — Rondônia — The Human Cost.
- **Wildlife Lost** — Rondônia — Wildlife Lost.

## Timeline

### 1910
- **1910** — Clearing for the Madeira-Mamoré Railway. c.1910. Forest felled to open the route for the Madeira-Mamoré railway — the first great clearing of Rondônia, decades before the highways. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/0709b330-6a10-414c-aff9-cded0e671b08) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmatamento_para_Abrir_o_Caminho_da_Futura_Ferrovia_Madeira-Mamor%C3%A9_-_368,_Acervo_do_Museu_Paulista_da_USP.jpg
- **1910** — Camp in Opened Forest. A railway-era camp inside a freshly opened stretch of Amazon forest — the leading edge of settlement at the turn of the century. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/34d5ba8b-13b3-4de0-bb5b-71d7418f6d93) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acampamento_em_%C3%81rea_Devassada_da_Floresta_Amaz%C3%B4nica_-_813,_Acervo_do_Museu_Paulista_da_USP.jpg
- **1910** — Village Along the Railway Line. A settlement and its cleared land beside the Madeira-Mamoré line — the pattern of road-then-clearing that would define Rondônia. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/9467c9c1-c06f-416e-a15a-f1aed9ae4036) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vilarejo_e_Desmatamento_ao_Longo_do_Tra%C3%A7ado_da_Ferrovia_Madeira-Mamor%C3%A9_-_514,_Acervo_do_Museu_Paulista_da_USP.jpg
### 1912
- **1912-01-01** — The Devil's Railway. The Madeira-Mamoré railway, built through the jungle at the cost of thousands of lives, first opened this corner of the Amazon. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/0aa75cb0-01b7-4d23-a877-e4cc9b84b3e0) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEKXBshP0Wg
### 1984
- **1984-01-01** — Paving BR-364. The World-Bank-funded paving of the BR-364 highway in the 1980s triggered a wave of settlement and clearing. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/b8619c37-75c2-418c-b6dd-6e58aeec2815) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH8QMZq7pI4
### 1985
- **1985-01-01** — The colonization program. Government schemes settled hundreds of thousands of migrants along the new roads, each clearing their plot from the forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/853a0d23-3212-48a7-a069-1e2527436756) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjSJ2gGr6wA
### 1988
- **1988** — Chico Mendes, 1988. Chico Mendes the year of his death. His killing made the human cost of Amazon deforestation an international cause. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/24e3edf1-319e-4207-9b4e-4d9df099824e) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chico_Mendes_1988.png
- **1988** — Chico Mendes at the Rubber Tree. Rubber-tapper and union leader Chico Mendes, 1988. He organized Amazon forest peoples against clearing and was murdered that December. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/4c6c1853-bc62-414b-b08d-4e5597b94274) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chico_Mendes_at_rubber_tree.png
- **1988-12-22** — The murder of Chico Mendes. Rubber-tapper and union leader Chico Mendes, who fought to save the forest, was murdered by ranchers in December 1988. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/40bfb8fc-8d7f-458f-b4df-188fd2e60cfb) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4d__S3lLYQ
### 2000
- **2000-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2000. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2000, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/e7932e6d-54b8-4bd5-b2ad-b10bd3dda381) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2001
- **2001-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2001. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2001, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/22df1d42-1414-46ef-ba20-d51549931418) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2002
- **2002** — Smoke and Fires — MODIS, 2002. NASA Terra/MODIS view of Rondônia, 2002 — smoke from hundreds of clearing fires drifts over the fishbone of cleared land. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/cb732ed9-2860-4f4e-860b-7873286f2b8c) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Deforestaci%C3%B3n_en_Rondonia,_Brasi_(NASA_Terra-Modis)_(4996295321).jpg
- **2002-11-17** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2002. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2002, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/330b2ebb-cf49-406a-a853-b642071dd9ae) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2003
- **2003-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2003. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2003, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/9fe121c4-b7c4-476f-b0e2-d3d064318bc7) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2004
- **2004-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2004. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2004, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/8d398fa2-ae26-4f24-969f-ad96e95d07b8) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2005
- **2005-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2005. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2005, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/ff3d96df-2590-42f6-bd91-26941c57d258) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2006
- **2006-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2006. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2006, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/1a035c3d-03a8-42cd-8e2c-4038d90d5705) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2007
- **2007-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2007. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2007, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/8bc1884f-5038-4325-b9a6-ac6d30d07a68) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
- **2007** — Fires on the Amazon Frontier, 2007. August 12, 2007. Red dots mark active fires along the frontier where forest is being converted to farmland in Rondônia. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/a4e09224-d59a-4b23-a27e-a18558be83b9) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fires_and_Deforestation_on_the_Amazon_Frontier,_Rondonia,_Brazil_-_August_12,_2007.jpg
### 2008
- **2008-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2008. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2008, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/3e610c73-f172-40fd-a6ac-64135b57f394) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2009
- **2009** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2009. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2009, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/d817042b-d349-4915-b0db-8cafaa54a68b) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2010
- **2010** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2010. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2010, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/19edce22-e29a-419d-a07d-928a1b7fe07b) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2011
- **2011-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2011. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2011, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/0ea6f05b-81e9-4a8a-a5a9-194b3cbe8475) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2012
- **2012-01-01** — Rondônia from Orbit — 2012. NASA satellite view of Rondônia in 2012, part of the Earth Observatory time series tracking the advance of clearing across the state. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/25f1d831-5b86-4698-a57a-ab344a79719b) Source: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/world-of-change/Deforestation
### 2014
- **2014** — Rondônia Deforestation — 18 June 2014. Landsat view, June 18 2014. Intact forest (dark green) is steadily replaced by the pale geometric grid of pasture and crops. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/4b256382-a6b8-44ff-91fc-baadc60b5bba) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rond%C3%B4nia_Deforestation_(18_June_2014),_Brazil_(34722156551).jpg
### 2015
- **2015** — Rondônia Deforestation — 21 June 2015. Landsat view, June 21 2015 — a year on from the 2014 frame, the cleared corridors widening along the access roads. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/66648d2c-18c5-4990-b180-85b7eacaaaf7) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rond%C3%B4nia_Deforestation_(21_June_2015),_Brazil_(34690697802).jpg
### 2016
- **2016** — Rondônia Deforestation — 25 July 2016. Landsat view, July 25 2016. By now the original solid forest survives mainly as islands inside a sea of cleared land. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/e09aa37e-dc62-46db-b530-a11806ce3984) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rond%C3%B4nia_Deforestation_(25_July_2016),_Brazil_(34296310700).jpg
### 2018
- **2018-01-01** — The logging roads. Illegal logging roads push ever deeper, opening the forest to settlers and ranchers behind them. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/23f1cd15-f691-4019-a8df-ec713c1f6555) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI6SX7B4I-w
### 2019
- **2019-01-01** — Illegal logging. Loggers strip the most valuable hardwoods first, in operations that are largely illegal. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/19467929-4126-470c-861c-1b10c9a23212) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi75uASPqdA
- **2019-01-01** — Land conflict and violence. The frontier is violent: land-grabbers, gunmen and the killing of activists and small farmers. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/8bbb044f-9013-48d4-ab3f-584d394b5c90) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-Ln8MgOXHg
- **2019-01-01** — The jaguar's shrinking world. The jaguar, the Amazon's apex predator, loses habitat and prey as the forest is cleared and burned. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/915de707-86a9-413c-88aa-7e3d1173dc01) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXMFZ-HgsAg
- **2019-01-01** — Cattle on the cleared land. Most cleared Amazon land becomes cattle pasture — Brazil's beef frontier drives the deforestation. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/96463331-f61b-49fb-be3d-55906ad8f81b) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s66r_00Zf60
- **2019-01-01** — The fishbone from the air. Drone and aerial footage reveals the herringbone 'fishbone' pattern of roads eating into the forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/fb704175-d61a-4e33-b311-d46433f7b004) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR-AWw7CIUY
- **2019** — The 2019 Amazon Fires. 2019’s fire season drew global attention as clearing fires across Rondônia and the wider Amazon sent smoke as far as São Paulo. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/6baf54de-13ca-4ab4-a505-6f03692b02e5) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qvUsPuxd-o
- **2019** — Cleared Land at Espigão do Oeste. Aerial view over Espigão do Oeste, 2019 — pasture and smallholdings carved out of what was continuous forest a generation earlier. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/72f52449-ea79-4002-b87f-e8b5a990ed38) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Espig%C3%A3o_do_Oeste,_Rond%C3%B4nia_(48431096872).jpg
- **2019** — Cattle and the Clearing Front. Footage from the Rondônia clearing front — logging, burning and the cattle ranches that replace the forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/a73e8d93-edd1-41ce-805f-a0fc3cfa1199) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJUSMiKQyY
- **2019** — Burning Beside the Highway. A fire set to clear land along an Amazon highway, 2019 — the same slash-and-burn method that drove Rondônia’s clearing for decades. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/ffeb708c-3e20-4396-88c6-faabd1de202d) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Queimada_em_Canutama,_AM,_%C3%A1s_margens_da_Rodovia_Transamaz%C3%B4nica_Activelly_burning_fire_yesterday_at_Canutama,_along_Transamaz%C3%B4nica_%22highway%22_(48551456541).jpg
- **2019-08-01** — The Bolsonaro years. Under President Bolsonaro (2019-2022), enforcement was gutted and deforestation surged to a 15-year high. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/86e72d1e-6659-4672-a919-7b02416b6870) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7GPESf43pY
- **2019-08-01** — The clearing front. On the ground at the frontier: chainsaws, bulldozers and the burning of freshly-felled forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/b5a81412-c1ff-48a1-82fa-ae99df254a7e) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quOoM0938n8
- **2019-08-23** — The 2019 fires. In August 2019 fires set to clear land raged across Rondônia and the Amazon, darkening the sky over São Paulo. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/88cf7cd0-5d5a-4b13-9b2e-2cfb18f83df5) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=568WcdbVRP8
- **2019-09-01** — Animals in the fire. The 2019 fires killed and injured countless animals; rescuers pulled survivors from the ash. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/8a118af4-a492-44a2-a219-ca56b60b53d3) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJx0YBB9Ghc
- **2019-11-01** — The forest guardians. Indigenous 'forest guardians' risk their lives confronting illegal loggers — several have been killed. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/d25e787f-b944-417e-be09-f48fa66f1fb0) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsXj15ECoCU
### 2020
- **2020-01-01** — The Uru-eu-wau-wau's fight. The Uru-eu-wau-wau people patrol their territory against invaders who burn and clear their forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/5b63cb36-8db1-4b81-8cd3-7b05d7ef6ac9) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL9wvdbk7A4
- **2020-01-01** — Uprooted communities. Traditional rubber-tappers, riverine communities and Indigenous peoples are pushed off the land they depend on. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/79cbe6e1-88ec-4963-8678-95d4c4c8988d) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Zduf8A-ok
- **2020-01-01** — Forty years from orbit. Time-lapse satellite imagery shows Rondônia's forest dissolving into farmland over four decades. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/daa14320-e7e0-4464-8a41-221cf06c137a) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMM82VJo0ME
- **2020-01-01** — The vanishing primates. Woolly monkeys, spider monkeys and titis lose the canopy they need to survive. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/dc61e8d4-6dbc-4fc1-99c4-b6d7996c154a) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMzmmH2ibE
- **2020-01-01** — Soy and the frontier. Beyond the cattle, soybean plantations push the agricultural frontier deeper into the forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/e259220f-5533-4cac-b19a-3c1a299b01c0) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Uh1ko9g51M
### 2021
- **2021-01-01** — Wildcat gold mining. Illegal 'garimpo' gold mining poisons the rivers of the Amazon with mercury. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/a4c19f5c-5ca7-4ee5-9637-b4feeb816e39) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwXZA1WuUfo
- **2021-01-01** — INPE and the deforestation alarm. Brazil's INPE space agency measures the forest loss that spiked to record highs around 2020-2021. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/cec18059-0c78-4831-bd14-6c3e3891a9de) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiHVGk99G40
- **2021-01-01** — A world of species, lost. The Amazon holds a tenth of the world's known species — deforestation drives many toward extinction. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/d0f926da-69a3-4d0c-9dd9-80e215bb9003) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ibgkwouP4g
### 2022
- **2022-08-01** — The scar seen from space. NASA and ESA satellites track the advancing deforestation front across the Brazilian Amazon. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/ec6fd41f-d969-4a98-8f87-4fa20dcbf33d) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWUmbsPGa2Y
### Undated
- **Undated** — The Fishbone Pattern. The signature "fishbone": settlers clear narrow plots perpendicular to a central road, leaving a herringbone scar visible from orbit. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/2d275ed9-4a26-44cf-9157-818fa599b4ea) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fishbone_Deforestation,_Rond%C3%B4nia,_Brazil_by_Planet_Labs.jpg
- **Undated** — Forest and Fields. Planet Labs high-resolution frame: the hard boundary between standing forest and the cleared fields that replace it. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/7422d963-8758-47a7-a6f1-e860fcc2be87) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forest_and_Fields,_Rond%C3%B4nia,_Brazil_by_Planet_Labs.jpg
- **Undated** — BR-364 — The Road In. The BR-364 highway. Paved through Rondônia in the 1980s, it opened the state to mass settlement — every fishbone branches off a road like this. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/b024a191-d646-49a7-b079-5b368502cec3) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Estradabr364.jpg
- **Undated** — BR-364 at Ji-Paraná. BR-364 running through Ji-Paraná, one of the boom towns that grew along the highway as colonists poured into Rondônia. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/10aadd2f-509e-4d38-9ea7-f41e24b90090) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BR-364emJipa.jpg
- **Undated** — What the Clearing Leaves. Degraded, fragmented forest — the thinned remnant left behind after selective logging and repeated burning. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/b253690d-3f9d-407e-8abe-e0194b3254e6) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reduced_Forest.jpg
- **Undated** — Uru-eu-wau-wau Territory. The Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Land in Rondônia — protected forest that invaders repeatedly clear and burn, often violently. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/3a84275e-9315-41e6-90ff-231c0c3cb473) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indigenous_Land_Uru-eu-wau-wau_area,_Rond%C3%B4nia.jpg
- **Undated** — Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve. The extractive reserve named for Chico Mendes — a model of protected forest where traditional communities harvest without clearing. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/96605c61-e79c-4a8b-ac56-38637723e60f) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reserva_Extrativista_Chico_Mendes_por_Alice_Leao.jpg
- **Undated** — Jaguar. The jaguar (Panthera onca) — apex predator of the Amazon, its range fragmented and shrunk by every road and pasture cut into the forest. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/59e5b048-113d-4caa-b7f4-86846bf81e12) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jaguar_(Panthera_onca_palustris)_male_Three_Brothers_River.JPG
- **Undated** — Brown Woolly Monkey. The brown woolly monkey, a canopy-dwelling Amazon primate that cannot survive where the forest is cleared. [scene](https://loreline.live/loreline/rondonia/scene/9702eac7-3095-4c4a-9b1a-57caacbbd7fe) Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brown_Woolly_Monkey.jpg

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60 moments · Attribution: Loreline (loreline.live) · Public contributions welcome.