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Asphalt and Soya Dreams: Two Oceans, Two Countries and the Transoceanica Chinese economy drives road-building and deforestation in the Amazon Paving the Amazon rainforest to bring soybeans to China Tina Butler, mongabay.com April 17, 2005
The big push to reach the Peruvian ports is the economic allure of the Asian market. Brazil already sends 18 percent of its exports to Asia, with this figure likely to increase at a rapid rate. China is literally inhaling soybeans from Brazilian soya farms in the country’s central and western areas, especially in the state of Mato Grosso. These former rainforest regions are increasingly being converted into farmland, all to supply the growing Asian demand, particularly with China’s exploding urban population. Recently, Brazilian president,Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva led a delegation of several government representatives and hundreds of business leaders to China to encourage closer ties. After five days of talks on trade and diplomacy, a growing alliance was in the works. Brazil will supply the goods China requires and in return, China’s companies are positioning themselves to provide capital to help Brazil achieve massive expansion in its crumbling road, rail and port infrastructures. The Chinese interest is not limited to Brazil however, and this is where Peru, the Transoceanica and the controversy come in. Those welcoming the highway argue for the sake of economics. Construction of the road is expected to provide close to 20,000 jobs in Peru and once the highway is operational, businesses and even more job opportunities should open up in one of the country’s poorest and remote areas in the Andes and the rainforest. Traffic from the Transoceanica should also encourage investment in Peru’s inefficient and rundown ports, with a strong chance of economic backing by China. In Brazil, development is occurring much more quickly than in its neighbor, but once Peru gets its pavement, this imbalance is likely to shift. Linking to the Pacific is of such great importance to Brazil that the country has offered to help Peru finance this section of the highway, putting up $420 million of the $892 million cost. This willingness to sponsor the road construction reflects the potential economic gains to a country which has emerged as the key supplier of food to China. Brazil’s economy has surged this year, with agricultural produce accounting for more than 40 percent of exports. The goal of this road is to strengthen and enhance the link to the Asian market, transporting exports of beef, wood and wood pulp, soya and in the future, manufactured goods. Again this appears to be an irresistible opportunity for all those on the side of the road to advance economic opportunity for Peru. On the paved Brazilian side of the Transoceanica, the impact of the road is quite visible, even from the air. On either side of the thoroughfare, forest is cleared anywhere from a few hundred yards to miles of farmland extending away from the highway. Roadside towns are expanding, secondary roads branch off from the highway; everywhere one looks, significant signs of development, and deforestation, are apparent. And this is exactly what opponents of the Transoceanica, namely environmentalists, are afraid of happening on the Peruvian side. For the environmentalists, the Brazilian side of the Transoceanica is a sad precursor to what will happen in Peru, and not just any old land, but some of the most environmentally precious and unique land on Earth. According to many, while the road will bring profitable development to the area, development will hurt Madre de Dios more than it helps. Roadways alter patterns of human settlement, accelerate the destruction of natural habitat and aid in the transmittal of disease. Alfredo Garcia, an anthropologist in the state’s capital of Puerto Maldonado, believes the highway will bring many problems to local indigenous peoples, including displacement and acculturation. Further, black-market drug activity and prostitution will likely increase among other ills.
Another activity that will undoubtedly increase is illegal logging, as secondary roads are constructed and eager workers descend on the newly accessible and mahogany-rich forest areas. The consistent depression in world gold prices, a former top commodity export for Brazil, has resulted in a newfound interest in the highly-valued hardwood. More than half the state is federally protected through three national parks and a nature preserve and an additional quarter of the land is owned by indigenous communities and Brazil nut harvesters. There is not much legal mahogany to go around, so woodcutters are trespassing on federal land, creating illegal logging camps. And the few environmental enforcement officers have proven to be easily corruptible and readily shirk their responsibilities with the right amount of economic incentive. The concerns of the environmentalists are valid. Peru is currently bearing witness to its future simply by looking across the border to Brazil. And further back in history, Brazil has seen its own repercussions from roads. Several ill-advised World Bank-sponsored road and agricultural projects have had environmentally devastating results. Destruction of the rainforest in Brazil has accelerated since 1970, coinciding with the construction of the Trans-Amazonian highway. 4,892,700 acres (2,016,400 hectares) are lost annually and another 2,718,160 acres (1,100,000 hectares) are degraded by logging beneath the canopy. Peru’s current deforestation rates are an estimated 716,000 acres (290,000 hectares) per year. More importantly, Peru has a smaller area of forest and some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world, so the threat is that much more immediate and profound. Regardless of this very real environmental peril, the disputes between various parties regarding the Transoceanica project persist as each side holds fast to their beliefs. Brazil’s farming lobbies dismiss critics of the highway, stating concerns and objections are “ill-advised” and only “serving the interests of countries competing with Brazil in the export markets.” Other government bodies are more sympathetic, but do not see any other viable mode of propelling development and economic stability. Puerto Maldonado mill operator Alan Schipper Guerovitch claims opposition to the road is short-sighted because it leaves the country in a position where there is no way to develop, no possibility of growth. He told National Geographic correspondent Ted Conover, “I ask you, what nation in the world can sustain its people on only 20 percent of its resources? In a less developed country you need to produce something the world really wants, and what the world really wants now is mahogany.” Guerovitch’s statement, while specific to his own problematic logging practices, is pertinent to the larger issue at hand. With the heady economic importance of the highway in mind, there are other rifts between people regarding the Transoceanica. Back in 2003, two main routes were being discussed, with a possible third option in mind and a fierce competition broke out internally in Peru. The two states of Puno and Cusco became rivals, wrangling for a piece of the highway and its economic promise, resulting in clashes between residents, a brief takeover of local governments and even a few road surveyor officials being taken hostage. It seems everyone has a stake in the dream, regardless of the environmental cost. The Transoceanica is being viewed by many as South America’s infrastructure project of the century. Whichever side an individual or group is on, there is no denying the significant impact the highway will have on all the nations involved. Brazil has the opportunity to grow even more, Peru simply wants the same chance for Brazil’s economic success and China desires access to South America's growing agricultural basket. Will the environmental concerns be lost in the wake of the excitement surrounding the final achievement of this long-awaited road? Given China’s reportedly illegal and environmentally detrimental activity in other parts of the world, opening Peru up to this market seems even more inadvisable. But the promise of wealth is too seductive to resist. Links: Deforestation in the Amazon New species of river dolphin discovered in the Amazon (4/30/2008) Researchers have identified a new species of river dolphin in the Bolivian Amazon according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS). The announcement was made at a conservation workshop in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia. Judge suspends Amazon dam project due to legal questions (4/30/2008) A Brazilian judge has issued a restraining order on a controversial dam in the Amazon basin, reports International Rivers, a conservation group. Photos of newly discovered species in Brazil's Cerrado (4/29/2008) An expedition to Brazil's Cerrado has turned up more than a dozen undiscovered species. Conservationists say the discoveries add urgency to protecting the grassland habitat which is rapidly being converted for agriculture. No sacrifices to ending deforestation in the Amazon, only gains (4/29/2008) Regular columnist and co-creator of Brazil's environmental news website, O Eco, Sergio Abranches has great credibility in Brazil's eco-awakening. A professor of political science, Abranches uses his unique talents to reach a widening audience in Brazil for environmental, energy, and climate change news and discussion. He speaks expertly on any number of topics: from Amazonian deforestation to the current food crises to economic and political transformations for a warming world. 'Soy King' says Amazon deforestation could help solve global food crisis (4/28/2008) Clearing the Amazon rainforest for soy farms will help address the global food crisis, said Blairo Maggi, the governor of Brazil's chief soy-producing state, according to the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. Brazil prepares to launch attack on NGOs working in the Amazon (4/27/2008) Brazil is planning a crackdown on foreign NGOs working in the Amazon rainforest, reports Reuters. Tourists may also be required to inform officials of their travel plans in the region under the newly proposed rule. Fruit-eating bats ingest dirt to counter toxic plant compounds (4/23/2008) Pregnant and lactating frugivorous bats ingest dirt in order to detoxify plant compounds in the fruit they eat, report researchers writing in the journal PLoS ONE. Amazon farming technique may fight global warming (4/11/2008) Fifteen hundred years ago, tribes people from the central Amazon basin mixed their soil with charcoal derived from animal bone and tree bark. Today, at the site of this charcoal deposit, scientists have found some of the richest, most fertile soil in the world. Now this ancient, remarkably simple farming technique seems far ahead of the curve, holding promise as a carbon-negative strategy to rein in world hunger as well as greenhouse gases. Rainforest peoples form alliance to demand payments for forest carbon credits (4/7/2008) Rainforest peoples from 11 nations have formed a coalition to demand a greater say in future climate negotiations. Amazon soy ban seems to be effective in reducing explicit deforestation (4/3/2008) An industry-led ban on soy production in the Amazon appears to be proving effective at reducing new clearing for explicit soy production, according to a survey published Monday by Greenpeace and the Brazilian Vegetable Oils Industry Association. The moratorium, which was signed by some of the largest soy crushers in the Amazon in response to a campaign by environmental group Greenpeace, went into effect in October 2006. While soy is believed to be having an indirect impact on deforestation by driving up land prices and competing with the dominant form of land use in the Amazon — cattle ranching — the news is a hopeful sign for conservationists. Land invasions undermine Amazon forest law (4/3/2008) Land invasions are undermining a Brazilian law that requires ranchers to keep 80 percent of their land forested, according to reports from the Amazon state of Mato Grosso. A run up in land prices, driven by surging soy and cattle production in the region, combined with a lackadaisical response from law enforcement authorities are blamed for the incursions. Investing to save rainforests (4/2/2008) Last week London-based Canopy Capital, a private equity firm, announced a historic deal to preserve the rainforest of Iwokrama, a 371,000-hectare reserve in the South American country of Guyana. In exchange for funding a "significant" part of Iwokrama's $1.2 million research and conservation program on an ongoing basis, Canopy Capital secured the right to develop value for environmental services provided by the reserve. Essentially the financial firm has bet that the services generated by a living rainforest — including rainfall generation, climate regulation, biodiversity maintenance and carbon storage — will eventually be valuable in international markets. Hylton Murray-Philipson, director of Canopy Capital, says the agreement — which returns 80 percent of the proceeds to the people of Guyana — could set the stage for an era where forest conservation is driven by the pursuit of profit rather than overt altruistic concerns. Corn planting to drop 8% in 2008 (3/31/2008) The UDSA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) expects American farmers to plant 86 million acres of corn in 2008, down 8 percent from last year. The news comes amid record high prices for competitive crops including soybeans and wheat. Private equity firm buys rights to ecosystem services of Guyana rainforest (3/27/2008) A private equity firm has purchased the rights to environmental services generated by 371,000 hectare rainforest reserve in Guyana. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the agreement is precedent-setting in that a financial firm is betting that the services generated by a living rainforest — including rainfall generation, climate regulation, biodiversity maintenance and water storage — will eventually see compensation in international markets. Railroad could reduce Amazon deforestation relative to proposed highway (3/24/2008) Building a railroad instead of improving a major highway could reduce deforestation and biodiversity loss in the heart of the Amazon rainforest says an Brazilian environmental group. Markets could save forests: An interview with Dr. Tom Lovejoy (3/20/2008) Market mechanisms are increasingly seen as a way to address environmental problems, including tropical deforestation. In particular, compensation for ecosystem services like carbon sequestration — a concept known by the acronym REDD for "reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation" — may someday make conservation a profitable enterprise in which carbon traders are effectively saving rainforests simply by their pursuit of profit. Protecting rainforests and their resident biodiversity would be an unintentional, but happy byproduct of profit-seeking endeavors. Do parks worsen deforestation through 'leakage'? (3/17/2008) The creation of protected reserves may be pushing development to neighboring areas, confounding overall conservation efforts in regions where development pressures are high. Such "leakage" -- as the displacement is called -- makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of protected areas strategies. Amazon environmentalist gunned down in Peru (3/14/2008) After reporting a truck loaded with mahogany illegally logged from the Amazon rainforest, Don Julio Garcia Agapito, a Peruvian environmentalist was gunned down by unknown assailants on February 26th, 2008. He is survived by his family. Predator of the world's largest macaw key to its survival (3/13/2008) In a bizarre biological twist, a new study shows that the Hyacinth Macaw depends on its greatest predator, the Toco Toucan, for continued survival. Industry-driven road-building to fuel Amazon deforestation (3/12/2008) Unofficial road-building will be a major driver of deforestation and land-use change in the Amazon rainforest, according to an analysis published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Improved governance, as exemplified by the innovative MAP Initiative in the southwestern Amazon, could help reduce the future impact of roads, without diminishing economic prospects in the region. 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Roads in the rainforest typically result in significant deforestation from colonists and commercial developers. The 
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