Texto:
The project has been on hold since 2021, due to a preliminary decision by the rapporteur, Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court. Moraes sent the lawsuit challenging the Ferrogrão project to the parties for conciliation. Agribusiness representatives consider the 'Ferrogrão' to be strategic for transporting corn and soybean production. Currently, most of the harvest is transported by truck to ports in the south and southeast via BR-163. However, the condition of the highway compromises the transportation of cargo. Indigenous people and organizations say that the 933 km of tracks will affect territories and conservation units. In Satarém, a city near Miritituba, organizations and indigenous people talk about their positions on the project in the region.

INTERVIEWS:

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement

Alexandre Chaves - President of the Commercial and Business Association of Santarém (ACES)

Lucas Tupinambá - Indigenous leader of the Lower Tapajós

Father Edilberto Sena - Tapajós Vivo Movement

AMAZON AGENCY:

script and production
JOHNATHANN KLISMANN

editing and finalization
ALEXANDRE ALMEIDA

VT time: 06'42"

***Soundtrack***

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement
"The railroad was created as an initiative on logistics in the Tapajós region, that is, the transportation of commodities, and on this side, soybeans and corn."

***harvesting machine audio***

narration - Father Edilberto Sena - Tapajós Vivo Movement
map:
"There are 933 km of railroad to simply serve the export of soybeans and corn from the state of Mato Grosso, that is, to serve agribusiness."

***harvesting machine audio***

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement
"This Ferrogrão issue will have several socio-environmental impacts, I think one of the biggest that could occur is the 'Fishbone' phenomenon.
Which scientifically would be a swelling of the roads. For example: the BR-163 highway. The road suffered somewhat from this phenomenon, which would be used for transportation and along the road there would be deforestation for projects, or even for soybean production itself. So, there will be a big increase in this sense, just like there was on the BR-163."

***truck audio on the road***

Alexandre Chaves - President of the Commercial and Business Association of Santarém (ACES)
"It is important and we are in favor of all investment, as long as it complies with the legislation so that it can make the sector competitive."

***audio movement in the soybean silo***

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement
"Ferrogrão will have several socio-environmental impacts on the territory, and that is what we debate so much. One of the debates that most involves Ferrogrão is an attempt to sell it as a green project."

***Soundtrack***

Alexandre Chaves - President of the Commercial and Business Association of Santarém (ACES)
"Everything that is said about the Amazon is full of environmental rules. And we at ACES - Commercial and Business Association of Santarém, understand that it should be this way. There must be strict rules on environmental issues. Because if there are not, we will not have legal security."

***Soundtrack***

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement
"The railroad will have to pass through several indigenous territories and settlements, and that's on the track. There will be a large deforested area and a transformation. Unfortunately, the course of some federal conservation units will have to be changed to allow the railroad tracks to pass through."

Lucas Tupinambá - Indigenous leader from the Lower Tapajós
"I am an indigenous leader from the Lower Tapajós and our position is against the railroad, because without consultation there can be no type of project that could directly affect the population that lives on the banks of the Tapajós River, and also from Miritituba to Sorriso. There are several indigenous populations, I'm mentioning here the Mundurucu people, the Kayapó people, who live on these banks. And also the peoples of the Lower Tapajós, such as the Tupinambá, Kumaruara, Maytapu people, among others. Without consultation there can be no railroad."

***Soundtrack***

Alexandre Chaves - President of the Commercial and Business Association of Santarém (ACES)
"We are currently aware that the railroad will not come to Santarém. We would like it to come so that it can be made economically viable, and thus reduce the costs of shipping grains and help our agricultural frontier, which currently represents more than 30% of the Gross Domestic Product - GDP, of the municipality."

***Soundtrack***

Lucas Tupinambá - Indigenous leader of the lower Tapajós
"Increasing the number of barges will, of course, make it impossible for fishermen from the villages where they get their daily food to come. Especially those who live in the villages and communities that are on the banks of the Tapajós River. These are immeasurable impacts on the food chain of these populations."

Father Edilberto Sena - Tapajós Vivo Movement
"Let's just take the negative consequences.
Why?
They're going to invade the Jamanxim National Park, they're going to invade indigenous lands, occupy our Tapajós River and increase the movement of the Tapajós River with the soybean and corn export convoys through this region."

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement
"It's a project that in some studies, such as the Infrastructure Working Group (GT), which is a GT with several organizations that conduct studies on infrastructure in the Amazon, it doesn't make financial sense for a public-private investment in a project that starts in Mato Grosso and goes to the Tapajós, knowing that there are other projects underway, other railroads that could transport soybeans to other parts of the country, that is, to the northeast or even the southeast."

**soundtrack**
**audio of trucks on the highway***

Alexandre Chaves - President of the Commercial and Business Association of Santarém (ACES)
"In 2023, Santarém exported more than 2 million and 700 thousand tons of soybeans. Corn was 619 thousand tons. In the first half of this year, we already have 2 million, 494 thousand tons of soybeans, that is, we will surpass last year's number by a lot. We have already surpassed corn, we exported more corn than in the whole of last year. It was 879 thousand tons. So, for Santarém, today, agriculture represents around 35% of the GDP - Gross Domestic Product in 2024, both from our internal production here in the metropolitan region that includes Santaré, Mojuí and Belterra, and from the movement of cargo, from the movement of products."

**soundtrack**

Father Edilberto Sena - Tapajós Vivo Movement
"I am radically in defense of the Amazon environment against this monster they want to build here, Ferrogrão, the grain railroad."

Johnson Portela - member of the Tapajós Vivo Movement
"We, as the Tapajós Vivo Movement, are totally against it in the socio-environmental sense, in the economic sense, in the political sense."

Alexandre Chaves - President of the Commercial and Business Association of Santarém (ACES)
"I believe it is important for Brazil, for Mato Grosso and the state of Pará. Going to Itaituba via the port of Miritituba is important because it will lower the costs of transporting grain and will make Brazil more competitive worldwide."

***harvesting machine audio***
***soundtrack****

END

Fuente: Agencia Amazon