Proposed Amazon dam would fuel land speculation, deforestation, study says

[WorldNews]

By Chris Arsenault RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A proposed dam in the heart of the Amazon will lead to a wave of deforestation as remote areas of the world's largest rainforest are opened to agriculture, said a study from Brazilian researchers published on Tuesday. Local businesses with contracts to help build the proposed Tabajos dam complex are likely to use their profits to buy land in the Amazon for soy farming or cattle ranching, said the study published by the Federal University of Western Para in northeastern Brazil. Such land purchases would increase deforestation as developers push into the jungle, also imperiling the land rights of Munduruku indigenous people who live there, it said.

Continue reading...