The Tocantins-Araguaia waterway is one of the Brazilian government’s priority projects for transporting soy, corn, meat, minerals and other commodities to ports in the Amazon Rainforest. The project calls for more than 2,000 kilometers (more than 1,200 miles) of navigable channels in these two rivers, which cross the Amazon and the Cerrado savanna biomes, and is part of the so-called Arco Norte project, a set of infrastructure plans to improve logistical efficiency in northern Brazil to trim shipping costs. Making these water channels viable requires a series of structural interventions: dredging, rock removal, construction of dams and locks, and port expansion. Public prosecutors and environmental organizations have spoken out against these initiatives, saying they threaten ecosystems and hundreds of traditional communities in six Brazilian states. One of these battles centers on the plan to blow up a natural rock formation called Pedral do Lourenço in Pará state. Spread across 43 km (27 mi) of the Tocantins River, this rock formation is an obstacle to ship navigation during the dry season, from June to December, blocking the passage of boats coming from the Tocantins and Araguaia rivers, which converge just before the formation. The blasts would affect 35 km (21.7 mi) of it. The National Department of Transport Infrastructure (DNIT) plans to create a navigable channel about 100 meters wide in this stretch by blasting rocks, supplemented by dredging before and after the area. In an email to Mongabay, the department said the 36-month project will be carried out by a…This article was originally published on Mongabay