‘A landmark’: Brazil’s prosecutors hail court ruling to preserve Fordlandia 

Federal prosecutors in Brazil have celebrated a court decision mandating the preservation of Fordlandia, a 1928 city built by the United States industrialist Henry Ford in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

The court ruling was the result of decades of advocacy, as historians, activists and residents pushed for the crumbling site to be protected.

Some hope the site can ultimately be restored and used to anchor the local tourism industry in the Brazilian state of Para.

In a statement on Friday, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office called the court ruling a “landmark” decision that will rectify a gap in Brazil’s cultural preservation efforts.

“The complex has suffered from neglect for decades,” the office wrote.

“The ruling acknowledges the arguments presented by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in the case, highlighting the historical omission by public authorities.”

The decision requires the federal government, the state of Para, the local government in Aveiro and the National Institute of Historical and Artistic Heritage (IPHAN) to collaborate to protect the site.

“They must all act together to save the property, which is in an advanced state of decay,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Since the 1990s, an administrative process has been under way to determine whether Fordlandia should be preserved.

But prosecutors — on both the federal and state level — have pointed out that the “inertia” of the government towards the site has “put its conservation at risk”.

In Friday’s statement, the federal office argued that Fordlandia’s historical significance is clear.

“Fordlandia is a landmark chapter in the history of Brazil and world industry,” it wrote. “The project represented the American attempt to break the British monopoly on rubber, bringing cutting-edge infrastructure – like a hospital, running water, electricity and a cinema – to the heart of the Amazon in the 1920s.”

Construction on Fordlandia began in 1928, as Ford tried to corner the market on rubber production.

The founder of the Ford Motor Company, Ford was one of the wealthiest men of his time, and he invested nearly $20m in flattening a stretch of the Amazon and erecting his dream city, where he could enforce his vision for healthy living and efficient work.

The Fordlandia experiment ultimately failed. Workers rioted over the strict rules governing their behaviour, including a imposed diet composed of food items like oatmeal and canned peaches. Alcohol and tobacco were banned.

Ford, too, struggled, losing control over his company as competitors in the car industry started to dominate the US market.

But one of the key problems was the rubber itself. Ford’s plans for a vast plantation to supply his company with rubber for tyres failed, as the crops suffered from fungus and pests. By 1945, Fordlandia was sold to the Brazilian government for a meagre $244,200.

Still, in the decades since, thousands of residents have continued to live at Fordlandia. Without maintenance, though, the infrastructure has started to rot, and running water is unreliable.

Speaking to Al Jazeera in 2024, residents recalled how the city’s hospital burned down in 2012, and looters have ravaged the city.

“There was a good healthcare system. We could go to the hospital, and we were given medicine,” resident Raimunda Maria Silva Santos told journalist Eleonore Hughes.

Santos added that she had gone 30 days without water. “That golden age is behind us.”

Poverty remains high in the Brazilian Amazon. In the heavily forested state of Para, for instance, the poverty rate was 39.3 percent in 2023.

In Friday’s statement, federal prosecutors emphasised that, under the court decision, locals have a right to see Fordlandia restored.

“The district remains a fundamental site of memory for Brazilian society, which now has the legal right to demand its recovery and preservation for future generations,” they said.