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As Brazil looks to boost its environmental credentials by hosting the United Nations climate summit, a proposal has been made to build a railway through it. Amazon That image threatens to be tarnished amid opposition from indigenous groups and environmentalists.
The Ferrogrão railway project would transport commodities including corn and soybeans from a city on the southern edge of the rainforest to a port along a major tributary of the Amazon River, about 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) away. From there, the goods will be transported to a large port near Belém, the host city of the COP30 conference, for export. China and other trading partners.
The Brazilian government hopes to move forward with the railway after the country’s Supreme Court rules on the legality of changing the national park’s boundaries to allow construction and the plans are approved by the congressional watchdog. the protestersPeople, including potentially affected indigenous populations, took to the streets and rivers in the Amazon this month to protest.
Currently, trucks carrying soybeans and corn through the rainforest have to travel on roads that are unpaved in places, causing the grain pushed to the side of the road each day to scatter. The proposed railway would follow a similar route from the city of Sinop to the port of Miritituba on the Tapajós River, a major tributary of the Amazon River.
By July 2023 – months after President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva returned to office – local officials estimated the rail project would cost around 20 billion Brazilian reais ($3.8 billion). Independent analysts estimate the price to be a third higher than this.
Asked about Ferrão and other projects in northern Brazil, where most of the country’s Amazon is located, Transport Minister Renan Filho said: “You can’t be one of the world’s biggest exporters without infrastructure.”
Speaking on TV Band, Filho said: “Today, different from the past, there is a lot of heavy cargo in central Brazil and it needs to be transported.”
New estimates are expected next year when Brazil’s transport ministry turns the study over to the congressional watchdog. According to local media reports, the government estimates that a train with 170 coaches could replace 422 trucks, reducing carbon emissions in the region. On the other hand, deforestation, for whatever reason, often leads to more development. This happened in the Amazon when Brazil began major highway projects in the 1970s.
Since returning to office, Lula has made stopping deforestation in the Amazon a central part of his agenda – and has made significant progress. This effort seems to run counter to a major train project.
indigenous groups speak
Experts say about 15 indigenous groups are scattered along the Ferrogrão route and the waterways leading to Barcarena, a port near Belém where grain is loaded onto ships for export.
“The cumulative impacts (from Ferrogrão), i.e. deforestation, monoculture and poisoning, show that comparing emissions is not enough,” Alessandra Mundurcu, leader of the indigenous population affected by the railway, said in a statement. He and other activists claim that anyone living in the basins of the Xingo and Tapajós rivers could lose their homes to farms if the railway increases shipping and makes agriculture more attractive.
Mariel Nakane, an analyst at the nonprofit socio-environmental institute Ferrogrão, told The Associated Press that Lula’s administration has done little to consult with indigenous groups.
“This administration said they would reach out to Native people, but they haven’t,” Nakane said. He also said there had been “zero conversations” with Lula’s predecessor, the former president. jair bolsonaro,
Government estimates suggest the railways could move 40 million metric tons (44 million tons) of soybeans and corn each year, doubling the current capacity via road – with the potential to reach 70 million metric tons (77 million tons). But according to the Socio-Environmental Institute, damage to rivers and their banks could push indigenous people away, increasing the likelihood of farming and deforestation.
Chief Raoni Metuktire, 93, whose Kayapo people will be among those most affected by the construction of the railway, joined more than 300 indigenous people and activists who took part in a flotilla of boats traveling to Belém to protest the railway as the COP 30 summit got underway. The conference is scheduled to end on Friday.
“I talked to Lula and (French President Emmanuel) Macron so that they don’t put oil around him and don’t allow Ferrogrão,” Metuktire told reporters in Belém last week.
The local population near Miritruba say soybean shipments are already polluting the water and banning fishing – the effects could worsen if a new railway increases shipping.
ongoing court battle
Melilo Dinis, a lawyer with the nonprofit Kaaboo Institute, which represents indigenous groups, said opponents of Ferreira are committed to fighting it in court and through administrative actions for as long as necessary. His organization is behind a class action lawsuit against the Brazilian government demanding 1.7 billion Brazilian reais ($320 million).
“We’ll sue it, we’ll take civil action, we’ll take it to government watchdogs, and we’ll even fight if we need to go to the environmental licensing stage,” Dinis told the AP.
Dinis says indigenous security groups wisely decided to opt out of government discussions on Ferrogrão last year, because they knew officials did not take their recommendations seriously.
“Negotiations with indigenous people take place in villages, within each individual’s cultural model. He thought the issue should be resolved by holding a meeting in the capital, Brasília,” Dinis said. “We were there for about eight months. We offered them 100 pages with suggestions. They completely ignored them.”
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