"Brazil-Peru railway promises faster trade to China, but at what cost?", Dialogue Earth, 29 May 2026

In February, the Brazilian government cemented the South American Integration Routes project, a network of five transport corridors designed to boost trade with Asia and neighbouring countries. The plan includes multiple route options, including a railway which would link up with the proposed bioceanic train.

Environmental experts warn the bioceanic corridor would cut through sensitive areas including the Amazon and the Andes. A study [...] suggested that dozens of protected areas and Indigenous communities within 40 km of the projected route would be impacted in Peru, alongside more than 100 conservation areas and Indigenous territories in Brazil. Some 320 agrarian reform settlements, given to landless farmers as part of land reforms, could also be affected.

[...] the railway’s Amazon section would affect a series of protected areas within a 40 km radius of the projected route. In Brazil, these include the Indigenous lands [...]

[...] new transport corridor could drive agricultural expansion: “There could be a surge in deforestation to increase plantations because a transport route would already exist.”

[...] a likely route, [...] could impact Andean protected areas including the Junín national reserve [...]