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dam-l Judge Suspends Licensing for Tocantins-Araguaia Hidrovia
Judge Suspends Licensing of Hidrovia
Source: Folha de São Paulo by Wilson Silveira, September 23, 1999
Federal judge Clodemir Sebastião Reis, of Imperatriz, Maranhão state, has
suspended the environmental licensing process for the Tocantins-Araguaia
Hidrovia, one of the projects in "Advance Brazil", the principal program of
the government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
The Transportation Ministry, responsible for the prject, announced it will
immediate seek to overturn the restraining order.
The judge's decision was delivered to technicians at the Transportation
Ministry and Ibama (Brazilian Environmental Protection Agency) only minutes
before a pubic hearing which was to take place at Estreito, Maranhão, at 9
am on September 21. This would have been the first of five public hearings
meant to provide technical support to the decision making process by Ibama,
which is analyzing the licensing request by the Transportation Ministry for
construction of the hidrovia.
The Transportation Ministry still hopes the restraining order may be
overturned, so that the timetable for the hidrovia, which would be capable
of transporting 6 million tons of cargo per year, will not be affected.
Currently, according to the Transportation Ministry, two companies are
using the hidrovia. One of them estimates it will transport only 60,000
tons this year. There was no information available on the other company.
The action against the licensing process was taken by the Public Ministry,
which based its arguments on an open letter by four anthropologists which
worked on the environmental impact studies. According to them,
administrators of the hidrovia withheld unfavorable items in the
anthropological report before sending it to Ibama. The anthropological
report was prepared after consulting with about 20 indigenous communities
living in the river basin.
Soy Threatens the Amazon
Source: Folha de São Paulo by Marcelo Leite, September 23, 1999
The Consultation Seminar on Biodiversity in the Amazon has still not
reached conclusions on what should be prioritized for preservation. But it
appears to have reached a decision on what is inappropriate for the region:
soy.
The governor of the host state of Amapá, João Alberto Rodrigues Capiberibe,
made this clearest: "We don't want soy. If the governor cannot make this
decision, who can? We want to put together productive chains with manpower,
rarw materials, and local technologies."
That is, the opposite of the development poles in the Multi-Year Plan of
the federal government. These are seen as corridors for shipping soy.
"There is a lot of fear of soy", says João Paulo Ribeiro Capobianco, of the
Socioambiental Institute (ISA). The seminar is being carried out by a
consortium of NGOs, with coordination by ISA, and funding from the federal
government and the World Bank.
"Soy is entering as a element for consolidating the degradation of the
agricultural frontier," says Capobianco. Lumber cutters open the front of
destruction and then comes soy or rice. This alternative may not be as
destructive as cattle ranching, but has the worrysome characteristic of
bringing its own investment funds, unlike ranching which has been relying
on official subsidies which are now being lifted.
André Guimarães, of the World Bank office in Brasília, also views the
government's development poles with skepticism. Braulio Dias, director of
Biodiversity Conservation for the Environment Ministry, appears to be less
alarmed. He recognizes the risk to ecosystems that the development poles
bring, such as roads and hidrovias, and says these impacts should be
studied further. "If the poles improve access to European and Japanese
markets, they would benefit any product that has an export potential," he
said. "Brazil needs to diversify its exports."
Technology Only Increases Production
Braulio Dias affirms that Brazil has the technology to increase soy
production without extending the area planted. Besides this, he says that
if it were necessary to increase the planted area, Amazonia has a large
degraded area apt for this monoculture: southern Pará state.
As with other traditional plants in Amazonia, soy will run up against
climatic-ecological limits. Basically, the region lacks a season which
interrupts the growing cycle (dry, or winter) of the crop, as well as its
pests. "Annual crops in the humid Amazon are a great challenge. There is
greater potential for forestry and agroforestry, by managing palm trees -
such as pupunha, for example," he says.
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Glenn Switkes, Director, Latin America Program,
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
South America/América do Sul:
Tel/Fax/Message/Recados: +55 65 791 1313
email: glen@cba.zaz.com.br
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