Yet another controversial project between Brazil and Peru

From a geographical standpoint, they are not really far apart, but in commercial terms, they are separated by a deep chasm. The paradoxical relationship between the Peruvian city of Pucallpa (capital of the Ucayali region) with its Brazilian counterpart Cruzeiro do Sul (the most isolated city in the state of Acre) – and that, at least in theory, could benefit from a 220 kilometer highway – led to the surfacing of yet another controversy in the last few weeks, like those that are generated when one wants to handle the Amazonian biome without the sad ending of degradation.

Although this matter has taken at least a year of discussions — and many more if we consider the longstanding desire to bring the two oceans, the Pacific and the Atlantic, together through land routes — the alarm was sounded in October 2010, when Provias Nacional, the office of Peru’s Transportation and Communications Ministry (MTC) released a summons for the devising of a “Pre Investment Study on a Profile Level” to get on with the construction work of this particular highway.

Was the path clear? Hardly. The great problem, as pointed out by Mariano Castro, from the Peruvian Society for Environmental Rights (SPDA), is that there are no specifics with regard to the route in the ‘Reference Terms’ of that convocation, though it establishes that the point of arrival, as from the city of Pucallpa up to the border with Brazil would be mark 67, a delicate location for an understandable environmental reason: it lies within the Reserved Zone Sierra del Divisor (ZRSD), an important protected area in Peru.

“We can anticipate treeless landscapes or with fragmented jungles”, says David Salisbury, geographer of the University of Richmond (Virgina, US), who knows this territory (under pressure) quite well. Both he and Castro warned against the risk for the extremely high biodiversity present in these ecosystems and towards the probably 300 natives of the Isconahua ethnic group who are probably living in a regime of volunteer isolation. “The risks are extremely high”, says the employee of the SPDA.

The existence of these indigenous people living in a situation of vulnerability is so real that the Peruvian State itself, through its Regional Government of the Ucayali Region, created on June 11 1998 the ‘Isconahua Territorial Reservation’, to preserve the land occupied by these people and their right to use its natural resources. Later, in April 2006, the executive power of Peru established the already mentioned ZRSD, which includes the reservation and that encompasses, in all, an area of 1478,311.39 hectares, covered with tropical forest.

This vast territory, marked off until a definition is reached as to what type of protected area it is to become (in Peru, the ‘Reserved Zones’ are transitory categories), is a vast store of biodiversity, which in ecological and even economic terms, is worth much more than the highway itself: from 3 thousand to 3.5 thousand species of plants (at least 10 are new to Science), 570 species of birds, some 300 of fish (14 new to Science) and 64 of mammals. Of these last, 38 are not common – they are actually quite difficult to find in other parts of the Amazon Rainforest.

“We already know that 65% of deforestation in the Amazon occurs up to 50 kilometers from a paved road”, adds Salisbury, while demonstrating his concern for the uacari (Cacajao calvus), a species of iconic primate of the ZRSD which would be in a situation of vulnerability. The area has also been studied by Chicago’s Field Museum, adjacent to the Serra do Divisor National Park, which contains 843,000 hectares and also holds an enormous biodiversity of animal and plant species.

This is also an Amazonian sector which is considerably conserved, with great potential for ecotourism and biodiversity research. “The small amount of impact in existence today would be multiplied if the highway is built”, indicates Pedro Tipula, of the Bem Comum Institute (IBC), another of the institutions who have criticized the building of this road, whose major benefits will be for the lumber industry. Forest concessions dangerously surround the ZRSD.

“We have information – adds Tipula – that incursions are also being made into the reservation zone for wood extraction purposes”. This raw material (wood) would be one of the few products to motivate the flow of interchange between Pucallpa and Cruzeiro do Sul that currently counts only on a connection through an air taxi service employing small aircrafts. Aside from that, Castro reminds us that there is no “defined and consolidated territorial ordering” that can offer any references for a sustainable development.

For all these reasons, the need for the building of this highway is extremely arguable, since it would cost more than 300 million dollars (besides maintaining social and environmental costs), and that for Peru it would mean a line of some 120 kilometers by 7 meters wide (or more, depending on the route), finally connecting Pucallpa to Lima, the Peruvian capital city, over a 781 kilometer highway. In Brazil, the route would connect to the BR-364 highway.

Theoretically, the proposal can even seem interesting, even more so if one considers that the highway, if it is actually built, would make the Interoceanic Center a reality, one of the three ways of connecting the Pacific with the Atlantic (Interoceanic South already exists, and the north portion is underway), and would contribute to consolidate the IIRSA (the South-American Regional Infrastructure Integration Initiative). However, the same initiative establishes that the entire project must be accomplished “within a standard of territorial development which is equitable and sustainable”.

According to Amaru López, manager for Provias, the Peruvian entity responsible for building this highway, “the government is acting responsibly and is taking all environmental measures in developing road projects”. The same employee states that “all means of transportation have their advantages and disadvantages”, an opinion which is quite different from those belonging to the Regional Group for Monitoring Megaprojects in Ucayali, a collective where SPDA, ICB, communities of indigenous people and other entities are grouped.

The majority is of the opinion that the highway is a very risky enterprise and the only feasible alternative for a land connection between both cities would be through railway. Furthermore: according to Castro, Law 29207, proclaimed in Peru on March 25 2008, declared the building of this Brazil-Peru railway line as of “public need and national interest”. And although there’s no official information of the project’s actual route, it should be considered as one of the possibilities of interconnection between both cities and countries.

“There is no coordination whatsoever between both projects”, points out Castro, highlighting the fact that, actually, the same Peruvian MTC would be promoting on one side the highway and on the other, the railway. But if the decision tends towards the use of trains – that cause less environmental damages because they do not encourage dispersive human concentrations – the actual route must be very carefully thought out and must lie a distance away from the delicate ecosystems of the ZRSD. In the end, the goal should be to blend infrastructure with conservation.

Up to today, the competition launched by Provias was cancelled as soon as the Getinsa and Integración Vial consortiums presented themselves, for not fulfilling the pre-requirements. Now, a new summoning should be released. According to the SPDA, if it is cancelled once again, the Peruvian State may directly choose the company that will handle this “Pre Investment Study on a Profile Level” in order to build the Pucallpa – Cruzeiro do Sul highway, whose route hasn’t been defined as yet.

Is this highway inevitable? Once again, Amazonian ecosystems are about to be the end receivers of risk and especially of insufficient discussions. It has not been made clear, for instance, if the 169 Covenant of the OIT, that states that a “prior and informed consultation” with the indigenous people must be undertaken if the construction work interferes in their territories, will be respected. The Peruvian MTC says that they will be respected, but the Isconahuas, the Shipibos and the Asháninkas, who also live in the region, don’t seem so sure that their rights won’t be overrun once again.