Through peaceful mobilization, legal actions, unity, and deep roots in their ancestral territory, the indigenous peoples of Putumayo and some Afro-Colombian communities stopped the implementation of the San Francisco -Mocoa highway project funded by the IDB, a project considered by the government as a pillar of regional development and IIRSA Amazonas Multimodal Transport Corridor Tumaco-Belem do Para, the promotes infrastructure megaprojects to facilitate the extraction of natural resources, oil, minerals, biodiversity and ancestral knowledge of the Amazon.
BIC Executive Director Chad Dobson signed the letter to IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno after the approval of the San Francisco-Mocoa Alternate Road Construction Project. The letter notes how constructive dialogue with civil society led to many improvements in the project and encourages some of these commitments to be formalized during the general capital increase.
The environmental license of the project was granted by MAVDT in December of 2008 and includes strict environmental standards that guarantee the protection of ecosystems affected by the highway.
State-owned oil company Petroperu said Sunday protests organized by Indians in Peru’s Amazon region were causing fuel shortages in several jungle cities.
Recent reporting on the Pasto Mocoa Highway have included video of the actual highway that is currently one of the most dangerous roads in Colombia, referred to by some as the “Trampoline of Death.” As an IIRSA priority project with funding in preparation by the IDB, a proposed 50 km rerouting of the section between between San Francisco and Mocoa will pass through the 35,00 ha Upper Mocoa Forest Reserve with impacts on indigenous and farmer communities in the affected region. Among other impacts, the highway improvement is expected to increase investment in mining as indicated by the estimated increase in mining related traffic from zero vehicles to 180 vehicles daily.
By means of this bulletin, the BICECA project of Bank Information Center, seeks to bring news and relevant current information about particular aspects of projects and policies related with the Initiative for the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA). This publication is addressed to a diverse public of civil society organizations, native groups, students, academics and other people or entities that follows the different policies and projects of international financial institutions related the IIRSA project.
IDB Loan Approval Set for early 2009: The $200 million road project in Putumayo, Colombia is an anchor project for the IIRSA Amazonas Corridor and will unlock commercial traffic between the ports of Tumaco and Belem, as well as between Bogota and Quito.