Indigenous Leaders Fear Amazon Soy Port Could be Conduit for COVID-19

As the coronavirus pandemic reaches deep into Brazil’s Amazon, a ceaseless stream of trucks carry soybeans and construction workers to an expanding port complex in the heart of the forest.

Indigenous activists have opposed the Itaituba port in Pará state for nearly a decade, even before shipments began there in 2014.

But now the pandemic and expansion works are fueling new fears about the port’s impact on traditional communities and the biodiversity riches of the Tapajós river.

“There’s a flow of workers all the time. Nothing’s changed. It’s like the virus didn’t exist,” said Alessandra Munduruku – a leader of the Munduruku people – who lives in Praia do Indio, a village within 10 km (6 miles) of the grain port.

Local indigenous leaders say the complex in Miritituba district is illegal because the companies involved did not comply with an international convention, enshrined in Brazilian law, requiring prior consultation with traditional communities.

“The companies never listen to us,” Munduruku, who campaigns on indigenous rights throughout Brazil, said by phone.

Global agroindustry giants Bunge and Cargill are among about a dozen firms that use the Itaituba terminals to load grain grown as far as 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) away in big soybean-producing regions such as Mato Grosso and western Bahia.

Bunge and Cargill told the Thomson Reuters Foundation they operate legally and have met all the licensing requirements set by Semas, Pará’s environment secretariat.

‘No inspection, no control’
As construction work moves forward on a new port area, just down the river from the current terminals, Munduruku said villagers worry that new roads and construction will encroach further on the forest and their way of life.

Josenaldo Luna de Castro, a community leader from the city of Itaituba, said the traffic of heavy ships on the river since the port complex was established had hurt fish stocks, forcing more than 70% of fishermen to abandon their profession.

Now COVID-19 is exhausting scarce healthcare resources in other Amazon cities, including hard-hit Manaus, and Luna de Castro said Itaituba’s residents fear the long lines of truck drivers who arrive in the city each day could bring the virus with them.

“There’s no inspection and no control,” he said by phone from the city of about 100,000 people.

As Brazil’s coronavirus death toll surges, Pará state alone has reported more than 3,800 fatalities, more than 30 of them in Itaituba.

Nationwide, Brazil has seen over 743,000 cases and 38,500 fatalities for the virus, making it one of the countries hardest-hit.

maritime professional