'Noah's ark' in peril as cargo ships size up new routes

Plans to bring shipping to the Paraguay River threaten the world's greatest tropical wetland anda way of life

- Harriet Barber CACERES

As the evening sky turns violet, the animals of the Pantanal gather near the water. Capybaras swim in tight formation, roseate spoonbills add smudges of pink to the riverbanks, the rumble of a jaguar pulsates from the forest.

This tropical wetland is the world's largest, stretching across Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, and hosts some of the greatest gatherings of animals anywhere. Now, scientists say the survival of the entire biome is at risk.

"The Pantanal is like Noah's ark. It is ... a place where those at risk of extinction can survive," said Pierre Girard, a professor at the Federal University of Mato Grosso. "That could be about to change. The Pantanal, as we know it, could soon cease to exist." The 17m hectare wild expanse harbours one of the world's most biologically rich environments, with at least 380 species of fish, 580 types of birds and 2,272 different plants. It is one of the main refuges for jaguars and houses a host of vulnerable and endangered species, including giant river otters, giant armadillos and hyacinth macaws.

But plans are under way to revive a project to turn the Paraguay River, one of the Pantanal's main arteries, into an industrial shipping route for crops such as soya beans and sugar.

Proponents say the waterway would reduce costs and time for exporting agricultural commodities but critics warn that its creation - which involves building new ports, possibly straightening bends and large-scale dredging - would cause irreversible damage to the wetland and wildlife.

"It seems a high price to pay: destroying the Pantanal, one of the world's unique systems, to reduce the price of grain," said Carolina Joana da Silva, a professor at Mato Grosso State University. "It is a war - a war which risks extinction." In a communal fishers' work shed in Cáceres, 64-year-old Elza Basto Pereira, the head of the community, said construction materials began arriving along the river six months ago.