VZCZCXRO9528
RR RUEHAST RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM
DE RUEHBR #0895/01 1831633
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 011633Z JUL 08 ZDS
FM AMEMBASSY BRASILIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2024
INFO RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 0316
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 0335
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 0491
RUEHUP/AMEMBASSY BUDAPEST 0309
RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN 0353
RUEHOR/AMEMBASSY GABORONE 0312
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 0318
RUEHLC/AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE 0319
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE 0839
RUEHSV/AMEMBASSY SUVA 0298
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0534
RUEHBU/AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES 5657
RUEHSG/AMEMBASSY SANTIAGO 0450
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ 6355
RUEHPE/AMEMBASSY LIMA 3880
RUEHQT/AMEMBASSY QUITO 2533
RUEHBO/AMEMBASSY BOGOTA 4642
RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION 6932
RUEHGE/AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN 1529
RUEHMN/AMEMBASSY MONTEVIDEO 7442
RUEHPO/AMEMBASSY PARAMARIBO 1583
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 4167
RUEHRG/AMCONSUL RECIFE 8226
RUEHSO/AMCONSUL SAO PAULO 2351
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO 6356
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEBAAA/DOE WASHDC
RUEHC/DOI WASHDC
RUEAWJA/DOJ WASHDC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RUEANAT/NASA HQ WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
RUEHRC/USDA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 11 BRASILIA 000895 
 
C O R R E C T E D COPY - ADDED SENSITIVE CAPTION 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PASS USAID LAC/RSD,LAC/SAM,G/ENV,PPC/ENV 
TREASURY FOR USED IBRD AND IDB AND INTL/MDB 
USDA FOR FOREST SERVICE: LIZ MAHEW 
USDA FOR FOREIGN AGRICULTURE SERVICE:CJACKSON 
INTERIOR FOR DIR INT AFFAIRS: KWASHBURN 
INTERIOR FOR FWS: TOM RILEY 
INTERIOR FOR NPS: JONATHAN PUTNAM 
INTERIOR PASS USGS FOR INTERNATIONAL: JWEAVER 
JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENT NATURAL RESOURCES:JWEBB 
EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL: CAM HILL-MACON 
USDA FOR ARS/INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH: GFLANLEY 
NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL: HAROLD STOLBERG 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV EAGR EAID TBIO ECON XR BR
SUBJECT: INFRASTRUCTURE THREATENS AMAZON FOREST CONSERVATION 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  001.4 OF 011 
 
 
¶1. (U) SUMMARY. Vulnerability of Amazonian rainforests is increasing 
as a result of rising commodity prices and regional infrastructure 
integration, as well as global climate change and fire practices. 
This is the first in a two-part series addressing the regional 
impacts of agricultural expansion and infrastructure (Part 1), and 
climate change and fire (Part 2) on Amazon forest conservation. 
Uncontrolled expansion of ranching (cattle), farming (soy, cane 
sugar, palm oil), and logging, poses a serious threat of 
deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon biome.  Expansive 
plans for transnational road systems (e.g., Inter-Oceanic Highway) 
and the Madeira hydroelectric waterway complex continue to move 
ahead in the southwestern Amazon basin, promising to trigger 
considerable change in some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the 
continent, and fortify a growing East-West trade axis driven by the 
rising economic demands of Asian markets.  Although regional 
coordination has proven challenging amongst Andean and Amazon 
countries, examples of cross-border governance in these integrating 
regions offer hopes for future improvement in resource management 
and environmental conservation.  This cable draws from information 
in peer-reviewed articles (Philosophical Transactions, v. 363) and 
country research.  END SUMMARY. 
 
COMMODITY PRICE INCREASES DRIVE LAND USE IN AMAZON RAINFOREST 
 
¶2. (U) The Amazon rainforest is home to one out of every five 
mammal, fish, bird and tree species in the world.  The trees of the 
Amazon forest contain between 90-140 billion tons of carbon, 
equivalent to 9-14 decades of global human-induced carbon emissions. 
 The Amazon biome plays a vital role in the global water balance by 
evaporating eight trillion tons of water through Amazon forests each 
year, influencing atmospheric circulation on a global scale.  NOTE: 
A biome is defined as a major regional ecological community 
characterized by distinctive life forms and principal plant and 
animal species.  This cable is focused on the issues related to the 
ecological community of the Amazon rather than on what each country 
legally considers as Amazon (e.g., states of the Legal Amazon in 
Brazil).  END NOTE. 
 
¶3. (U) Higher global commodity prices offer compelling incentives 
for farmers, corporations, and nations to increase the productive 
capacity of agricultural properties and lands which have been 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  002.4 OF 011 
 
 
considered unproductive.  In the Amazon basin, rising commodity 
prices are pushing the agricultural frontier deeper into pristine 
lands that lack access to existing infrastructure.  In a model 
driven by agricultural expansion, regional economic success is 
linked to expanding infrastructure that facilitates transportation, 
market access, and capital mobility. 
 
¶4. (U) By default, the spread of agricultural production and 
infrastructure into the Amazon basin alters natural vegetation and 
land conditions.  Deforestation and forest degradation are the most 
immediate consequences of land use changes.  However, the intrusion 
of agriculture and roads into pristine regions also modifies the 
traditional land use practices and socio/economic conditions of 
indigenous inhabitants and riverine populations in the Amazon biome. 
 NOTE:  The FAO defines forest degradation as the impoverishment of 
woody material caused by human activities such as over-grazing, 
over-exploitation (for firewood), repeated fires, or other natural 
causes.  Degradation may occur as a rapid or gradual reduction in 
biomass, changes in species composition, and soil degradation.  END 
NOTE. 
 
¶5. (U) Uncontrolled expansion of ranching (cattle pastures), 
farming, road building, and logging poses the most serious threat 
for deforestation and forest degradation in the Amazon basin, 
particularly in the more remote transboundary regions.  Wood 
extraction for charcoal production is blamed for a second wave of 
forest degradation that follows the first deforestation sweep for 
high-value logs.  Deforestation also closely follows roads and other 
infrastructure developed for oil and gas extraction.  New challenges 
in the forest frontier arise from the potential expansion of 
biofuels. 
 
¶6. (U) Illegal logging has already degraded forests in the eight 
countries of the Amazon basin.  Claiming 62 percent of Amazon basin 
land, Brazil is responsible for 80 percent of its deforestation. 
Recent reporting indicates that forests in one third of the 
Brazilian Amazon state of Rondonia have been damaged.  A sense of 
lawlessness pervades Rondonia, a state in which logging trucks 
become kings by night, and the buzz of saw mills is heard from 
sunset to sunrise. 
 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  003.4 OF 011 
 
 
¶7. (U) The devastation in Rondonia is largely connected to the 
BR-364, one of the primary regional highways connecting the 
Brazilian cities of Porto Velho and Rio Branco and passing into 
Peru.  This highway lays the initial axis of what will become the 
Inter-Oceanic highway, a high priority transboundary integration 
project for Brazil-Bolivia-Peru.  Social conflicts along this 
alignment grow every day more intense between developers, extractive 
actors, migrants, and indigenous communities.  Transnational border 
and social conflicts in the Amazon basin have historically posed 
intermittent regional security concerns owing to disputes over land 
tenure rights, land use in indigenous reserves, resource allocation, 
and extraction rights in the mining, oil/gas, timber, and 
agricultural sectors. 
 
¶8. (U) Although lower than Brazilian statistics, there are also 
serious threats from Amazonian deforestation in Bolivia, Ecuador, 
Peru, and Colombia, primarily from commercial logging, agricultural 
expansion, fuel wood collection, subsistence agriculture, 
slash-and-burn land-clearing for cattle pasture, illegal drug 
cultivation, mining, and oil/gas development.  Although oil/gas 
exploration in Peru is reportedly a minor contributor to 
deforestation, 75% of the Peruvian Amazon is marked for oil/gas 
concession; such exploration also plays an active role in 
deforestation in Ecuadorian. 
 
GOVERNMENTAL REGULATORY APPROACHES: FORM OR FUNCTION? 
 
¶9. (U) With Brazil's recent change in Environment Minister (REFTEL 
08 BRASILIA 750), environmental shows of force have been making 
headlines weekly.  In a recent crackdown on illegal logging, the 
Brazilian government seized thousands of cattle grazing on public 
land in the Amazon rain forest.  In May, Brazil's environmental 
protection agency seized several tons of grain, mostly soy and corn, 
grown on illegally deforested lands.  In June, sixty steel companies 
across Brazil (not all in the Amazon) were charged nearly USD$250 
million in fines for using illegally harvested forest charcoal.  In 
spite of these recent actions, and after three years of decline, 
deforestation in Brazil's Amazon basin appears to be accelerating 
again, likely in response to international demand for agricultural 
products.  It is hoped that Brazil's new forestry law (2006), will 
help preserve forests through strategic planning, land tenure 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  004.4 OF 011 
 
 
programs, implementation of forest concessions (job creation), and 
promotion of sustainable forestry. 
 
¶10. (U) Bolivia is reported to be the world leader in tropical 
forest certification, according to the World Wildlife Fund.  In 
2005, Bolivia's certified forest sector generated USD$16 million 
from exports.  Bolivia's government has passed laws requiring the 
logging industry to replant forests to ensure sustainability; 
however, loopholes have made it possible for many firms to bypass 
the requirement. In Peru, the Research Institute of the Peruvian 
Amazon reported that 95 percent of the country's mahogany is 
harvested illegally.  As of early 2006, not a single commercial 
logger had been imprisoned in Peru for illegal logging.  Peru's 
recent creation of an Environmental Ministry and the stringent 
forestry requirements of the U.S.-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement 
promise to bring about positive changes in logging, processing, and 
prosecution in the Peruvian Amazon.  In Ecuador, legally harvested 
wood essentially does not exist.  Since 2000, the poorly-funded 
Ministry of Environment has attempted to decentralize responsibility 
for logging enforcement by placement of officers in remote regions, 
in an effort to combat Ecuador's reported 3% average annual 
deforestation rate.  Corruption persists, however, as certification 
of illegally-harvested wood continues. 
 
INFRASTRUCTURE EXPANSION IN SOUTHWESTERN AMAZON RAINFOREST 
 
¶11. (U) Infrastructure development in the name of regional economic 
integration poses a significant challenge to environmental 
sustainability in the Amazon basin.  IIRSA, the Initiative for 
Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (adopted 
2000), aims to meet regional connectivity needs via the physical 
integration of transport, energy, and telecommunications 
infrastructure for twelve South American countries.  IIRSA 
supporters emphasize the need for improved transportation systems, 
the desire to harness surplus sources of energy, and the goal to 
ease economic isolation of small- and medium-sized populations 
across South America.  Environmental concerns of IIRSA focus on the 
extensive alterations to landscapes and livelihoods that would occur 
with the creation of 10 integration and development hubs. 
 
¶12. (SBU) Just as IIRSA projects intend to improve efficiency of 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  005.4 OF 011 
 
 
resource extraction from the South American heartland, the projects 
may also accelerate cross-continent transportation of agricultural 
products to overseas markets.  This regional integration offers a 
potential realignment of the formerly dominant North-South trade 
axis between Latin America, Europe, and the U.S., with a new 
East-West trade axis directed towards the growing economic demands 
of Asian countries (e.g. China and India).  COMMENT:   As the 
economies of China and India grow exponentially, there is the 
possibility that the current North-South axis of U.S.-dominated 
trade will be diluted by an East-West axis based on investment from 
Asian countries and raw materials exportation from regional players 
(Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, and Bolivia).  Such an East-West 
axis, offering Asian investors a "geopolitical window" into South 
America, could have negative implications for the environment and 
foreign relations in the region. END COMMENT. 
 
¶13. (U) Two high priority IIRSA programs are examined here with a 
focus on potential environmental impacts in the tri-border MAP 
region of Peru-Brazil-Bolivia: 
- The Inter-Oceanic Highway road/rail connections from Brazil, 
Bolivia to ports in Peru; and 
- The Madeira Dam complex (producing hydroelectric power and 
hydrovias (waterways) for transport from Bolivia to the Atlantic). 
 
¶14. (U) The MAP region in the southwestern Amazon biome draws it 
name from the 3 contiguous regional provinces of Madre de Dios 
(Peru), Acre (Brazil, neighbor state to Rondonia), and Pando 
(Bolivia).  This region (300,000 km2 land and 700,000 inhabitants) 
is characterized by tremendous biological and cultural diversity, as 
well as high vulnerability to climate change owing to its location 
in the drought-prone southwestern Amazon.  The region is predicted 
to lose 67 percent of its forest cover and 40 percent of its 
mammalian biodiversity by 2050 if current trends in land use and 
road construction are maintained, according to Soares-Filho (Federal 
University of Minas Gerais) and colleagues. 
 
ROAD CONSTRUCTION: OFFICIAL AND UNOFFICIAL 
 
¶15. (U) Although road building is considered instrumental to the 
viability of contemporary economic activity for South America, it 
also increases habitat/forest fragmentation and the ecological 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  006.4 OF 011 
 
 
vulnerability of the Amazon forest.  In the MAP region, the IIRSA 
Inter-Oceanic highway project (under construction) entails the 
construction/renovation of 2603 kilometers of highway connecting the 
Amazonian state of Acre (Brazil) with Peruvian port cities (Ilo, 
Matarani, and San Juan de Marcona), passing close to the Bolivia 
border. 
 
¶16. (U) Discussions of infrastructure expansion, however, cannot 
simply focus on the planning and construction of official roads.  An 
axiom of infrastructure development in the Amazon biome is that 
'road construction begets more road construction'.  Infrastructure 
synergies demonstrate that the paving of official roads motivates 
unofficial road construction, introducing intersecting forest 
extraction networks that penetrate deeper into pristine territories 
to exploit natural resources beyond official corridors. 
 
¶17. (U) Official roads are interregional highways that link major 
cities, appear on official maps, and form sparse networks, leaving 
large blocs of forest intact.  Official road construction via 
official government projects receives attention from regulatory 
agencies and financial institutions. 
 
¶18. (U) In contrast, unofficial roads are narrow, often winding 
paths that yield highly fragmented forest mosaics and exacerbate 
ecological vulnerability.  These unofficial, unmonitored roads are 
built to gain access to land or timber, or in order to support local 
livelihoods and community development.  Environmental consequences 
of unofficial road construction can include: deeper forest access 
for raw material extraction, habitat/forest fragmentation, 
introduction of exotic species, intensified and expanded 
agricultural burning, stream degradation, and increased forest fire 
risk. 
 
¶19. (U) Beyond road construction, pipeline alignments from oil and 
gas exploration have historically created similar deforestation and 
degradation outcomes.  Pipeline alignments in the Amazon biome have 
opened remote regions to migration and settlement ahead of official 
roads, resulting in a proliferation of secondary roads that fragment 
the Amazon rainforest into isolated forest blocks.  Current 
expansion of secondary roads is less tied to pipelines and more 
linked to official roadways providing transportation for 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  007.4 OF 011 
 
 
agricultural products, timber, and access for resource exploration. 
 
CONSTRUCTION OF HYDROELECTRIC DAMS AND WATERWAYS 
 
¶20. (U) IIRSA's Madeira River complex, a transboundary industrial 
hydroelectric and hydrovia (waterway) complex planned for the MAP 
tri-border region, will also alter the southwestern Amazon basin 
with extensive construction, an agricultural "boom" anticipated to 
result in significant expansion of soybean cultivation, and an 
immigration influx predicted to draw more than 100,000 new settlers 
to this vulnerable region. 
 
¶21. (U) The Madeira River project is a coordinated international 
development project intended to facilitate regional and 
international trade.  The project consists of two dams in Brazil's 
Rondonia state, the San Antonio and Jirau, the Brazil-Bolivia 
bi-national Guajara-Mirin dam, the Cachuela-Esperanza dam on 
Bolivia's Beni River, as well as a series of navigation locks that 
will create a 4,200 km hydrovia into the navigable Amazon basin. 
 
¶22. (U) In December 2007 a Brazilian consortium won the auction for 
construction and operation of the planned 3,150 megawatt (MW) Santo 
Antonio hydroelectric dam.  In May 2008, a French, Suez-led 
consortium won the auction for the upstream planned Jirau dam (3,300 
MW), only 80 km from Bolivia.  These projects are expected to supply 
8% of Brazil's energy demand, 75% of which is currently supplied by 
hydroelectric dams.  With so many hydroelectric eggs in one energy 
basket, energy specialists question whether Brazil will have enough 
alternative generation capacity and flexibility to meet demands 
during prolonged periods of drought.  Energy needs in Bolivia and 
Peru are less dependent upon hydroelectric power.  COMMENT:  The 
headwaters of all three Madeira River tributaries are located in the 
Peruvian and Bolivian Andean highlands.  Consequently, glacier melt 
driven by climate change is likely to have a major impact on future 
hydroelectric potential for the Madeira River complex.  At present, 
only 30% of these Andean glaciers have been studied, and it is 
estimated that 80-90% of the studied glaciers have already lost 30% 
of their area since the 1960s.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶23. (U) Although no attempt has been made to assess the cumulative 
impacts of the massive Madeira complex, a myriad of environmental 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  008.4 OF 011 
 
 
concerns surround the construction of the two dams, including: 
deforestation and inundation of indigenous lands; decimation of a 
diverse native fish population; public health disease outbreaks 
(yellow fever, malaria); water quality deterioration and mercury 
contamination of river and ground waters; and river bed 
sedimentation yielding diminishing hydroelectric efficiency. 
 
INFRASTRUCTURE IMPLICATIONS ACROSS THE AMAZON BASIN 
 
¶24. (U) Other transboundary IIRSA projects that will directly affect 
areas of high biological diversity and indigenous preserves include: 
Manta-Manaus corridor (Ecuador, Brazil); hydrocarbon extraction in 
Peru; Pucallpa-Cruzeiro do Sul (highway integration between Brazil 
and Peru); hydroelectric plant Coca-Codo-Sinclair (Ecuador); and 
Northern Corridor Bolivia (roads).  The breadth of these projects is 
indicative of the grand ambitions for infrastructure development in 
the Amazon basin, which can lead to cumulative and indirect impacts 
far beyond those considered in project-specific environmental impact 
assessments. 
 
¶25. (U) In particular, the Manta-Manaus corridor (from Ecuador into 
the mainstream Amazon River port city of Manaus in Brazil), proposed 
to pass over the Andes through one of the best preserved sections of 
the Amazon rainforest, is cause for concern.  While the Ecuadorian 
government is proposing to limit new road construction to the last 
60 km west of the river port at Coca, current highway expansion and 
increased traffic along the route will no doubt have environmental 
repercussions.  This corridor promises to position Ecuador as a 
bridge for access to markets elsewhere in South America, and to both 
the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.  Members of the Ecuadorian 
government have referred to it as "the alternative to the Panama 
Canal." 
 
A TENSION AMIDST DEVELOPMENT 
 
¶26. (U) The growing tension between implementation of a sustainable 
(environmentally sound) economic model and the continuation of an 
extractive development model is increasingly apparent in the MAP 
region and elsewhere in developing countries of South America.  The 
tension arises from a variety of factors including internal and 
regional politics, social movements of native populations, 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  009.4 OF 011 
 
 
environmental conservation efforts, and international economic 
pressures responding to global commodity price increases. 
 
¶27. (U) The tri-nation MAP region occupies a strategic position in 
the regional natural resource economy owing to the convergence of 
waterways, the expansion of the agricultural frontier, growing 
interest in biofuels, and the substantial oil/gas resources of Peru, 
Ecuador, and Bolivia. 
 
¶28. (U) However, as the case of the Madeira River Dam makes clear, 
this strategic position does not necessarily benefit native 
populations, nor does it assist efforts to protect vulnerable 
regions of high biodiversity.  Instead, the two strong drivers of 
resource extraction and infrastructure development intensify 
pressures to remain in the trap of an unsustainable economy at odds 
with sustainability and environmental conservation.  NOTE: The 
Bolivian government toned down its originally strong criticism of 
the Madeira River project to maintain political support in a 
geo-political landscape dominated by development institutions 
financed by the continent's largest economies (i.e., Brazil).  END 
NOTE. 
 
¶29. (U) The MAP Initiative was launched in the year 2000 to promote 
extra-governmental leadership and collaboration between 
professionals and community leaders in the tri-national frontier 
region of Bolivia-Brazil-Peru.  This initiative fosters 
participation of local communities, NGOs, universities, and 
government agencies in a hybrid regional governance model, which is 
understood as a social, economic, and political process in which 
civil society and governments are engaged towards their own 
self-management.  The MAP initiative has shown preliminary success 
in building capacity and achieving a regional governance approach to 
infrastructure improvement, economic development, resource 
management, and ecosystem protection in this transboundary area 
where cultural wealth stands beside economic poverty. 
 
¶30. (SBU) Tension between a sustainable environmental development 
model and a resource extraction model are evident in Ecuador, where 
President Correa has offered to forgo development of the ITT 
(Ishipingo-Tambocoha-Tiputini) field in Ecuador's Yasuni National 
Park, home to uncontacted tribes, if the international community 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  010.4 OF 011 
 
 
will compensate Ecuador for the profits it estimates it would earn 
over 35 years of drilling, or $350 million annually (REFTEL 07 QUITO 
1497).  The innovative offer has been on the table for a year, and 
Correa has said that if donors do not agree by October 2008, he will 
allow development.  Chinese oil companies are interested in the 
field, and have met several times with the government; so far the 
international community has offered only $1,000 to set up an ITT 
conservation secretariat.  COMMENT: The proposal has been presented 
as a choice between conservation and extraction, with no middle road 
in sight; this will no doubt lead to tension with indigenous groups 
if and when the field is developed.  END COMMENT. 
 
REGIONAL CHALLENGES AND ALTERNATIVE GOVERNANCE MODELS 
 
¶31. (U) Recently reported increases in regional Amazonian 
deforestation demonstrate how conservation efforts can founder in 
the face of the twin pressures of a global economy with rising 
commodity prices and national governments accelerating their 
economies via infrastructure integration. 
 
¶32. (U) Despite the ecologically sensitive rhetoric of governments 
in Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, and other South American 
countries, planning for IIRSA's transboundary mega-development 
projects continues to move ahead, promising to permanently alter 
some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on the planet, as well as the 
peoples that inhabit them.  At the same time, there is a growing 
awareness among scientists, environmentalists, social movements, and 
some government representatives that innovative models of governance 
are needed to mitigate the negative socio-economic and ecological 
effects of infrastructure and agricultural expansion on the Amazon 
rainforest. 
 
¶33. (U) As an example of institutional strengthening, USAID's 
regional Initiative for the Conservation in the Andean Amazon (ICAA) 
builds capacity for enhanced governance and increased transparency 
within infrastructure development.  ICAA's Working Group on 
Infrastructure analyzes IIRSA projects, generates policy briefs, 
provides training for improved mitigation and compliance and 
convenes international finance agencies with civic and public 
stakeholders across the sector.  A recent ICAA workshop brought 
together Ministerial representatives, indigenous leaders, 
 
BRASILIA 00000895  011.4 OF 011 
 
 
conservationists, and infrastructure analysts to assess the current 
framework and gaps of the social-environmental assessments used to 
determine financing and mitigation measures in IIRSA infrastructure 
projects. 
 
¶34. (U) Experiences in Brazil, Bolivia and Peru have shown, however, 
that working at a regional level is indeed a challenge, especially 
with current tensions between Andean nations and between the USG and 
Latin America.  In an increasingly politicized environment, Bolivian 
threats to suspend international cooperation programs, tensions 
between Peru and Bolivia, tensions between Colombia and Ecuador, and 
Brazilian sensitivity to regional environmental projects (and NGO 
involvement) all suggest that political issues must be carefully 
considered in order to effect improved environmental conservation 
and regional cooperation on priority environmental issues. 
 
¶36. (U) This cable was coordinated and cleared with Embassies in 
Lima, La Paz, Quito, and Bogota, FAS in Brasilia, and USAID and USFS 
in Washington. 
 
SOBEL