|
About | Contact | Mongabay on Facebook | Mongabay on Twitter | Subscribe |
|
|
Railroad could reduce Amazon deforestation relative to proposed highway mongabay.com March 24, 2008
The Institute for Conservation and Sustainable Development of Amazonas (IDESAM), together with the state of Amazonas, have teamed up to host a debate on the paving of BR-319, a highway that links the capital cities of Manaus and Porto-Velho, but is presently impassable. Environmentalists say that paving the road could increase deforestation pressures in Amazonas, a state where 98 percent of the forest is still intact. Instead, IDESAM and Amazon propose building a railway system between the cities. "Building a railway system would have considerably less impact, avoiding a great deal of the forest loss predicted for the future, while still achieving the economic benefits associated with improving the transportation infrastructure within the Brazilian Amazon," said IDESAM in a statement.
Still, there is intense pressure from development interests to pave the BR-319. Through the Avança Brasil program, Brazil has proposed $43 billion in infrastructure improvement and expansion projects in the region through the year 2020. Improved infrastructure can improve the economic viability of logging, cattle ranching, and agricultural products like soybeans and sugar cane.
Tags: threats to the amazon amazon Roads deforestation Amazon Deforestation infrastructure rainforests south america latin america brazil forests environment green News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing
|
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER 
Photos HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS 
CALENDARS 
CANVAS BAGS 
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Copyright mongabay 2010 Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions generated from mongabay.com operations (server, data transfer, travel) are mitigated through an association with Anthrotect, an organization working with Afro-indigenous and Embera communities to protect forests in Colombia's Darien region. Anthrotect is protecting the habitat of mongabay's mascot: the scale-crested pygmy tyrant. |
