Name: Brazil to blast channel in Amazon river to increase shipping
Uploaded: 2025-11-03T18:57:33.136Z
Duration: 1 min 52 s
Description: With the United Nations COP30 climate summit set to get underway in Belem, Brazil in November, 300 miles upriver there are plans to blast an Amazon tributary in order to increase grains shipping as the soy frontier advances.

With the United Nations COP30 climate summit set to get underway in Belem, Brazil in November, 300 miles upriver there are plans to blast an Amazon tributary in order to increase grains shipping as the soy frontier advances.

Itupiranga

Brazilian regulators are advancing a $7.3 billion initiative to blast a channel through rocky outcroppings on the Tocantins River, a major Amazon tributary, to enable year-round barge traffic. The government expects the project to reduce freight costs and strengthen Brazil's position in the global grains market by streamlining soy and corn exports.

However, the plan has faced opposition from local fishermen and riverside communities who rely on the river for their livelihoods, as well as from federal prosecutors and researchers warning of potential harm to biodiversity and traditional ways of life. Environmental authorities have stated that measures will be taken to monitor and mitigate ecological impacts, including relocating turtle nests.

Brazil to blast channel in Amazon river to increase shipping

These massive rocky outcroppings on the Tocantins River are due to be blown up by the Brazilian government. Brazil regulators want to blast a channel on one of the largest tributaries in the Amazon Basin and turn it into an expressway for Brazil's booming tropical farm belt. Opening the riverway to barges year-round could clear the way for soy and corn exports to rival the Mississippi River, with claims it will cut freight costs and cement Brazilian supremacy in the global grains trade. But in turn it will cut off local fishermen like Welton de Franca from accessing the crucial waterway. I live on an island. All around here is water. There's no way for us to leave here except by canoe. We live off fishing, so I think it will cause a lot of harm. I'm against the project. Federal prosecutors are trying to halt the $7.3 billion project. They're urging the courts to consider impacts on riverside communities who live from the river. Many women survive by cracking coconuts. They sell the coconuts to buy food for their children. So with this waterway, all of that will have an impact because they will no longer be able to cross the river to collect coconuts from the other side. On the side where we live, there are very few coconuts left because they are devastating the area, killing the palm trees, poisoning them. Researchers warn the river's biodiversity would also suffer if blasting destroys these rare rapids where endangered fish gather, turtles breed and river dolphins feed. Brazilian environmental agency IBAMA says blasting will be managed, with provisions to monitor and relocate turtle nests. Brazil's government has forecast the riverway will also cut down on long, polluting truck trips.

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