SOUTH AMERICA:
Reconciling Mega-projects and the Environment
Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES,  (IPS) - Following announcements of several large-scale joint infrastructure projects among South American countries, social organisations have called for common legislation to protect natural resources and the environment.

"The environment knows no political borders. We share natural resources, and are jointly responsible for their protection," Cecilia Iglesias, of the Environmental Network Civil Association and a member of the governmental Argentine Civil Society Consultative Council commission, told IPS.

As a result of Venezuelan efforts, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay finally signed onto the "Pipeline of the South" construction project, already agreed by Caracas, Brasilia and Buenos Aires. The 8,000-kilometre pipeline will extend from Venezuela's Caribbean coast to the Río de la Plata estuary (between Argentina and Uruguay).

"We are very concerned, not only about the Pipeline of the South, but also about the wider-reaching Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA), which is working to unify South America's 12 countries through bridges, roads, dams and oil and gas pipelines, but at a high financial and environmental cost," warned Víctor Ricco, of the non-governmental Centre for Human Rights and Environment (CEDHA).

IIRSA was created at the 2000 regional summit in Brasilia to help coordinate infrastructure initiatives among governments in the region, and served as a launching point for the South American Community of Nations, which was formally established in 2004 in the Peruvian city of Cuzco.

The projects will be funded through loans from the Andean Development Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank and the Financial Fund for the Development of the Plata Basin, among other credit entities.

In all, 335 mega-infrastructure projects are currently in the works, most of which are focused on energy, transport and telecommunications, with a combined estimated price tag of 37.4 billion dollars.

"Information on these projects is scarce, but we do know they will sharply increase debt loads. If Mercosur incorporated regulation addressing the integral interconnectedness of ecosystems, we could see the combined impact of these projects," said Ricco. The main proponents of the joint infrastructure plans are Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela, full members of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) along with Paraguay and Uruguay. Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru are external associates of the bloc. The need to see natural resources from a regional and environmental perspective was also a concern raised in the "1st Regional Meeting for a Productive and Service-oriented Mercosur" held Jul. 19-21 in the central Argentine city of Córdoba, parallel to the Jul. 21 summit of Mercosur leaders in the same city.

"A river is connected to a basin, a watershed and an aquifer, and the bloc's environmental regulations need to protect ecosystems as a whole," Ricco told IPS.

Among the proposals put forward by civil society organisations involved in the meetings was that "highly polluting activities and industries should be regulated within a regional environmental protection framework that recognises ecosystems as integral units." They also recommended harmonising environmental protection standards among the bloc's member countries, guaranteeing access to public information and carrying out regional environmental assessments.

"Independently of each project's environmental impact study, a strategic assessment would examine the region as a whole, without political boundaries, before the projects are implemented," explained Iglesias.

Environmentalists say this strategy would help prevent bilateral conflicts, such as the current dispute between Buenos Aires and Montevideo over the construction of two paper pulp mills on the east bank of the Uruguay River, which forms a border between Argentina and Uruguay.

The pulp mills are being built close together on the Uruguayan side of the river, the use of which is governed by a 1975 bilateral treaty.

This year the Argentine government brought the matter to the International Court of Justice at The Hague, alleging that the treaty had been breached. While the issue has not yet been definitively resolved, the Court ruled on Jul. 13 against Buenos Aires's request to order a halt to the construction of the plants.

"There is no question -- the conflict between Argentina and Uruguay could have been prevented if Mercosur had protocols to deal with the installment of highly polluting industries, especially if they guaranteed access to information on the impact of such projects," said Ricco.

However, this is not the first time controversy has arisen due to the international nature of a project's potential environmental impact. The Pascua Lama mining project in the Andes mountains has faced opposition because it threatens glaciers on both sides of the Argentine-Chilean border.

Ricco said economic development that compromises the ability of future generations to satisfy their needs is unacceptable. "The Mercosur vision should be founded on sustainable development, in order to help prevent potentially irreversible damage," he maintained.