The indigenous people of Amazonia and the Survival NGO warned on Wednesday about the risk of destruction that would be for this population the construction of a railway through the Amazon forest from Brazil to Peru connecting the Atlantic Ocean to Pacific.
Survival, an organization for the defense of indigenous peoples, said in a press about the danger to the region that gives the Project that aims to unite the two South American countries through a railway that goes from Rio de Janeiro to Porto Ilo, Peru.
China, the biggest beneficiary of the project, would provide funding, training and construction of the railway that would allow a saving of thousands of kilometers and dollars to shipping companies carrying goods, mainly to Asian markets, that currently need to take a detour through Patagonia, in southern Argentina.
One of the products that would benefit from the Amazonian mega-project would be soybeans (genetically modified), which is mainly cultivated in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay and exported mainly to Asian markets.
However, this market of millions of people in Asia can endanger one of the largest nature reserves in the world: the Amazon rainforest.
O projeto ferroviário está há anos sobre as mesas de funcionários peruanos e brasileiros e foi retomado com a viagem do presidente da China, Xi Jinping, a vários países da América Latina, em julho de 2014, durante a qual se assinou um pré-acordo entre os ministérios dos Transportes de Peru e Brasil e a Comissão de Desenvolvimento de China.
The rail project is shelved for years on the desks of Peruvian and Brazilian officers and was taken up with the Chinese president’s travel in July 2014, during which a pre-agreement between Brazilian and Peruvian Ministers of Transport and China Development Commission was signed.
The original route of the railway would have a length of about 5.300 kilometers and several Chinese companies, including China International Waterand Electric Corporation (CWE), expressed interest to the project.
At first, Bolivia was not part of the plan. However, their participation would save many kilometers of route and fuel, with the rails ing through the northern departments of the country.
This was precisely one of the issues discussed by the presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and Peru, Ollanta Humala, together with their foreign ministers David Choquehuanca and Ana María Sánchez, yesterday (Tuesday), at the First Binational Cabinet meeting in Puno (Peru).
During the meeting, the heads of state studied the viability of the railway line construction. At the end, Morales announced that the “bi-oceanic corridor of San Lorenzo”, would by the Bolivian departments of Curral and Beni to get to Brazil.
Despite not having quoted values, Morales opined that the megaproject would also benefit to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Argentina on trade their goods.
However, Bolivia would be one of the most favored countries, as it has large reserves of minerals in its soil, such as iron, lithium and magnesium, whose largest market is China, which provides technology and training to the South American country.
Humala, in turn, announced that his country will study the transportation of gas from Camisea reserves to the southern coast of Peru for the creation of a “petrochemical complex”, a project that – said – would be willing to “share with the Bolivian people. “
According to Survival, this railway would cross the territories of indigenous peoples and would cause enormous damage to the biodiversity of the Amazon.
The construction of this railroad “would cause damage to lands and lives” of its inhabitants, since “would expose its territory to indiscriminate logging of trees, industrial exploitation, mining and invasion of settlers”.
Fearing the devastation that the machines would cause to this battered region of the planet, Survival demands that Peru and Brazil comply with the standards set by national and international organizations, which consider necessary to make a consultation with indigenous peoples, and, given the impossibility of with isolated peoples, demand respect to its territory to avoid the devastation of their living space.
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