Interventions in the Paraguay River to increase heavy-vessel navigation (Hidrovia Paraná-Paraguay) would cause irreversible damage to the Pantanal, the largest wetland in the world.
WAMU-NET is currently engaged for the survival of an entire biome, menaced by a waterway project to transform the Paraguay River into a 700 km navigation channel and the Pantanal into a dryland for industrial monocultures.
The Pantanal is the world's largest wetland: it has been acknowledged by UNESCO as a World Heritage and as a Man and Biosphere Reserve; also, it includes six Ramsar sites, several indigenous reserves with distinctive traditional water cultures, and also unexplored archeological heritage.
A statement made by 40 scientists, coordinated by prof. Karl Matthias Wantzen (UNESCO Chair ‘River Culture’ at the Univ. of Tours, France) and promoted also in cooperation with the UNESCO Chair at TU Delft (prof. Carola Hein) is available here