Indigenous groups say Brazil plans Amazon grain train behind their backs

By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA (Reuters) -Indigenous people who see a threat to their ancestral lands from the construction of a railway to carry grains to a port in the Amazon on Monday pulled out of a work group created by the government last year to advance the project.

The Munduruku and Kayapo people, along with tribes from the Xingu reservation said in a letter to the Transport Ministry that the work group was not doing its job of discussing the 1,000-km (620-mile) Ferrograo railway with all parties.

The ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment, nor did state infrastructure company Infra S.A. responsible for the project.

The Ferrograo plan is backed by farmers and grain traders who say it would reduce reliance on roads and lower costs for transporting soy from the farm state of Mato Grosso to the river ports in the Amazon basin for export. Indigenous communities say they have not been consulted on a project that will affect their environment and lead to deforestation.

Brazil's Supreme Court last year suspended the plan pending more studies on the impact of the controversial railway.

"There is no respect. The government is not consulting us," said Alessandra Munduruku, winner of the 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize for her efforts to stop mining development in the Amazon. "They just want to grow and export more soy," she told Reuters outside the ministry.

In their letter to the transport minister, Indigenous communities said the studies were done with no discussion or involvement of the work group, and that transportation regulator ANTT was preparing to open bids for the construction of the railway. ANTT said there was currently no timing for an auction.

"From today onwards, we will no longer participate in the work group. But we will spare no effort to stop this destructive project," the letter seen by Reuters said.

The railway would lead to deforestation and affect the lands of 16 Indigenous peoples "all this to increase the profits of large transnational companies that export soybeans and corn."

The government says the railway would help protect the region overall by reducing heavy traffic on a highway joining the same points, and cut the use of fossil fuels in trucks.

Sydney Possuelo, Brazil's leading expert on isolated tribes, agreed the railway was "the lesser of two evils" as it would bring in less outsiders than an improved highway in a region already a hotbed for land grabbers, illegal miners and loggers.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Sandra Maler)