ENVIRONMENT-BRAZIL: UNESCO Listing of Pantanal Fuels Resistance to Waterway

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 29 2000 (IPS) - The listing of the Mato Grosso Pantanal in western Brazil, one of the world’s biggest wetlands, as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve has strengthened the position of environmentalists opposed to the expansion of the Paraguay-Parana Waterway.

The decision has put the Pantanal “in the global spotlight, thus requiring a greater commitment to its conservation,” Celso Schenkel, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) environment coordinator in Brazil, told IPS.

The Pantanal is taking on “a more international profile,” and awakening the attention of new actors, a phenomenon that will demand “greater care in the approval and execution of projects” like the waterway, said Glenn Switkes, coordinator in Latin America for the International Rivers Network, an advocacy organisation.

There are now 391 Biosphere Reserves in the world, located in 94 countries, Schenkel pointed out. The Pantanal was added to the list by UNESCO on Nov 9.

Another UNESCO committee is to declare the wetlands a World Heritage Site next month, which will further strengthen demands for conservation of the area, in accordance with international conventions.

The Pantanal will thus join the existing 630 World Heritage Sites of “outstanding universal value”, which include 128 natural sites, 480 cultural sites and 22 mixed sites.

The UNESCO initiatives came in response to a request by the Brazilian government of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, which is interested in securing international conservation status for the Pantanal in order to facilitate the financing of local projects.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has extended a 165- million dollar loan for the conservation and development of the wetlands.

But environmentalists warn that developing the waterway, a grandiose scheme that would connect Brazil’s soybean heartland to Buenos Aires, 3,442 kms to the south along the Paraguay and Parana river systems, and would involve dredging sections of the rivers and even changing their course at some spots, could cause severe damages to a unique ecosystem that is home to a wide diversity of fauna.

The waterway is being promoted by an inter-governmental committee set up by the members of South America’s leading trade bloc, the Mercosur – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – as well as associate member Bolivia. Economic planners in the five nations see the project as the key to tapping the region’s agricultural potential.

The 230,000 square km Pantanal, which extends from Brazil into Bolivia and Paraguay, is comprised of myriad small lakes and rivers, which flow slowly due to the gradual slope of the land.

Dredging and deepening the river beds would increase the water flows and begin to dry up the wetlands, jeopardising the area’s function as an enormous freshwater reserve, environmentalists protest.

The Paraguay and Parana rivers run southwards across the flatlands, through two Brazilian states and through Paraguay and Argentina. The Paraguay river is a tributary of the Parana, which flows into the River Plate, the world’s biggest estuary, located between Argentina and Uruguay.

The waterway has traditionally been used by the local population. But the idea is to make the rivers navigable by larger boats to pave the way for transport of goods on a larger-scale, which would entail modifications of the rivers at the shallowest and narrowest points.

One objective is to export soybeans grown in the state of Mato Grosso and in Bolivia, which “generate neither wealth nor employment for the people of the Pantanal, but would affect their economic activities, like ecotourism and fishing,” protested Alcides Faria, president of Ecology and Action, a non-governmental organisation in the state of Mato Grosso.

According to Faria, railway transport is a viable alternative for transporting the soybeans.

One battle currently being waged involves the port of Morrinhos on the upper stretch of the Paraguay river. The courts have blocked construction of the port, challenging the license granted by environmental authorities of the state of Mato Grosso.

Since the Paraguay runs across two states, the courts are demanding federal approval of the project.

Mato Grosso Governor Dante de Oliveira asked the federal government for help in promoting the project, which he sees as vital for the economy of his state. Meanwhile, a group of cabinet ministers and state governors has joined together with the aim of pushing through several Brazilian waterway projects currently blocked by legal challenges in the courts.

UNESCO recognition of the important environmental role played by the Pantanal will help put the Paraguay-Parana Waterway in the right light as part of the bigger picture of the wetlands and river basins, said Faria.

The governments and companies interested in the project are attempting to obtain the necessary permission from environmental authorities for each specific stage of the works, in an isolated manner, said the environmentalist. For example, they have tried to push through with the port of Morrinhos project without carrying out the necessary environmental impact assessments, he pointed out.

If state authorities can authorise works like the dredging of a stretch of river, the sum of each isolated activity could give rise to an ecological disaster, he warned.

“That is the biggest risk” that concerns the movement defending the preservation and sustainable development of the Pantanal, the activist said.

Faria also pointed to new threats, such as projects to install an iron and steelworks complex and a petrochemical plant in Corumba, a city located in the heart of the Pantanal, on the border with Bolivia.

The plans are fuelled by the existence of an iron and manganese mine in the area, the gas brought in by the recently inaugurated Bolivia-Brazil pipeline, and the outlook for cheap transport along the Paraguay-Parana Waterway.

“We hope the UNESCO initiatives serve as a wakeup call for the need for greater investment in conservation and sustainable development, in favour of local communities,” said Faria.