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Progress threatens Brazil's vast wetlands
Foes say canal would drain the Pantanal
April 23, 1997
Web posted at: 11:17 p.m. EDT (0317 GMT)From Correspondent Marina Mirabella
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (CNN) -- Brazil's Amazon rain forest is famous for being the largest in the world, and because it is shrinking daily as civilization carves into its flanks.
But Brazil has another ecological treasure, the Pantanal, which just happens to be the largest wetlands in the world, and it, too, is endangered.
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Located in the heart of South America, the Pantanal is home to more than 2,000 species of birds and animals -- many of them rare. Until recently it was largely ignored, but no more.
The reason, inevitably, is that it is threatened by people and their hunger for progress.
"The Pantanal is a fragile and unique ecosystem which could be facing an ecological catastrophe," says Paolo Nogueira-Neto of the Brazilian Association for the Defense of the Environment.
What worries ecologists, naturalists and lovers of the wild is a plan to build a water highway called Hydrovia on the Paraguay and Parana rivers that cut through the Pantanal.
Foes say Hydrovia would drain Pantanal
The proposed 2,100-mile (3,400 kilometers) Hydrovia would link five South American countries: Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Bolivia.
Supporters of the project say it will lower transportation costs and provide a crucial link among members of the regional trading block known as Mercosur.
Opponents say the Hydrovia will severely alter the Pantanal's ecosystem.
"The project calls for straightening and dredging the rivers and removing rock formations to allow year-round shipping," ecologist Jean Pierre Leroy says. "All that will end up draining the Pantanal."
And that, argue ecologists, would kill many of the region's plants and animals.
There is also concern that the project would attract investment and people to the Pantanal, which would almost certainly harm the area's indigenous tribes.
Brazil has yet to approve Hydrovia
"More people would move out to that area to start new business and this would have a great impact. We know historically that this would have a great impact in Indian areas," says Claudia Menezes of Brazil Earthkind.
Dredging has already begun in Argentina and Bolivia, but Brazil has yet to approve the project. With most of the Pantanal located within its borders, it has the most to lose and the least to gain.
"We are conducting environmental impact studies," says Gustavo Krause, Brazil's environment minister, "and if they show that a Hydrovia will damage the Pantanal, we will not allow construction to go ahead."
The Brazilian government likely will decide later this year whether the Pantanal will be used to promote regional development or whether its unique ecosystem will be left undisturbed.
Related story:
- Brazilian peasants demand land, end to violence - April 21, 1997
Related sites:
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- Pantanal Wetlands web site (English & Portuguese
- The Pantanal Project (English, German & Portuguese)
- Pantanal do Mato Grosso do Sul (Portuguese)
- Wetlands links page
- CNN Travel Guide - City Guides - Brazil
- Brazil Facts
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