PHYSICAL INTEGRATION IN THE SOUTH AMERICAN AMAZON: THE INCLUSION OF THE ORBITS OF INTRAREGIONAL CIRCULATION IN THE PUBLIC AGENDA

Abstract

The objective of this article is to discuss the issue of transportation infrastructure in the South American Amazon with emphasis on a multiscale approach, from the 2000s onwards, aiming to integrate the national/subnational scale to the public agenda of the subcontinent. Based on a broad diagnosis of difficulties, possibilities and multiple dependencies related to physical integration strategies for the Amazon, we debated to what extent these strategies, which aspire to serve as international logistics, comply with the orbits of intraregional circulation. Firstly, we considered the intra-regional difficulties and demands regarding the transport infrastructure in its various modalities; second, the evolution of recent physical integration strategies at the subcontinental level; and third, the multiple dependencies interrelated to the accumulated infrastructural problems that concern the national/subnational scale. Our hypothesis is that a good part of the difficulties, demands and intra-regional socioeconomic dynamics depend on the articulation of three processes (connectivity, accessibility, and capillarity) as part of an effective cooperation and coordination efforts among Amazonian countries to strengthen intermodality. We employed a methodology based on a comprehensive literature review and specific secondary information, separating the Amazon into three large portions: Brazilian, Andean and Caribbean. In the final considerations, attention is paid to the construction of a public agenda of intermodal physical integration oriented at the Amazon’s intra-regional development.

Keywords

• south american amazon
• physical integration
• multiscalarity
• river transport
• intraregional development