The Bananal / Cantão Island Environmental Protected Area (APA) is the
largest Protected Area in Tocantins and integrates the second largest soy producing
region in the State, establishing a relationship of economic, social and environmental
interests that are often conflicting. This work presents the evolution and the main
factors that involve the soybean culture in the APA, demonstrating the growth of
more than 1,700% of the soy plantation areas in an eight-year period. Such
cultivation occurs in large farms, motivated by the climate and low land prices, with
the lack of qualified labor being the main difficulty encountered by soybean farmers.
This advance of soy promoted significant deforestation in the region, in the same
period in which there was a relaxation in the State's environmental legislation, which
allowed the occupation of previously protected areas. The analysis of the spatial
distribution of the soybean crop in the APA through satellite images, in addition to
proving the expansion of the crop, identified that 25% of the planted area is in
prohibited areas for planting, as determined by the Management Plan of the
Conservation Area itself thus proving non-compliance with environmental legislation
by local producers.
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