The new road climbing out of the Amazon into the Andes
The Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is set to advocate for a controversial railway project that would traverse the Amazon rainforest during his upcoming visit to South America. This comes amidst rising concerns regarding the potential environmental impacts and effects on indigenous communities.
The suggested 5,300km route through Brazil and Peru is currently merely a line on a map, yet it promises to lower transportation costs for oil, iron ore, soybeans, and other crucial exports. However, this route would also cut through one of the planet’s most biodiverse regions.
This six-year initiative represents the latest Chinese infrastructure endeavor in Latin America, which also features projects such as a canal in Nicaragua and a railway in Colombia. The trans-Amazon railway receives support at the highest levels, as last year President Xi Jinping signed a memorandum regarding the project with leaders from Brazil and Peru. During his four-country tour of Latin America, set to kick off on Sunday, Li is expected to propose a feasibility study, according to reports from state-run Chinese media.
Similar criticisms arose with the Interoceanic Highway project, which traced roughly the same route, a decade ago. My journey along this road in 2011 revealed that many of the dire predictions had not materialized, while there were clear advatages from the road’s construction. However, negatives may have surfaced over time, and I have not revisited to determine if the initial positive outcomes continued once the road was fully operational.
Time to make a revisit!