The Pemon at 4forests.net
Probable Environmental and Social Impacts
- Opening of a 50m wide maintenance road through the Imataka Forest Reserve and
the cloud forest of Conaima National Park, providing access for logging and colonisation
of protected rainforest.
- Constructing 1500km of Pylons through some of the most naturally beautiful regions
of southern America.
- Unleashing industrial scale mining and logging operations in the region, which will
result in mercury poisoning and sedimentation of the river system and devastation of
the aquatic ecosystems.
- Sedimentation of the river system
supplying the Guri dam, reducing its
efficacy and longevity.
- Development of a second wave of
transport and urban infrastructure
around the mining centres.
- Increase in the migration flux in the
region resulting in colonisation and
deforestation for agriculture.
- Swelling of the fixed and transitory population in local towns leading to associated ur-ban
violence and narco-traffic, a growing problem in the region.
- Destruction of the traditional lands and rivers of the Penom, which provide them with
their subsistence.
- Introduction of disease and economic and cultural exploitation to the Pemon,
threatening their physical and cultural survival.