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Grande CarajáS, International Financing Agencies, and Biological Diversity in Southeastern Brazilian Amazonia
Author(s) -
OREN DAVID C.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
conservation biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.2
H-Index - 222
eISSN - 1523-1739
pISSN - 0888-8892
DOI - 10.1111/j.1523-1739.1987.tb00036.x
Subject(s) - amazon rainforest , geography , hydroelectricity , port (circuit theory) , environmental protection , forestry , ecology , engineering , electrical engineering , biology
The southeastern Brazilian Amazon region (here defined as the region south of the Amazon River, from the Xingu River east to the Atlantic coast), holds vast mineral, foresty, and hydroelectric resources, making it one of the humid tropics' most promising areas for concentrated economic development. Here I focus on the development project known as “Grande Carajás,” which encompasses most of the region in question, with primay activities at the iron ore mining site in the Serra dos Carajás, Pará at the Ponta de Madeira port facility near São Luís, Maranhão, and along the 890–kilometer railroad that links the two. Environmental planning requirements set by international financing agencies participating in Carajás have minimized the environmental impact of the project's direct planned development programs, provided research opportunities for Brazilian scientists, and secured indigenous tribal lands. Other development and colonization (both planned and unplanned) drawn to the Carajás economic axis have a potentially devastating impact on regional biological diversity and must be considered in a comprehensive analysis of the project's effect on regional tropical deforestation.