Bolivia approves highway in Amazon biodiversity hotspot as big as Jamaica

Controversial 190-mile road will strip national park and home to thousands of indigenous people of its protected status, making it vulnerable to deforestationBolivia has given the go ahead to a controversial highway which would cut through an Amazon biodiversity hotspot almost the size of Jamaica and home to 14,000 mostly indigenous people. President Evo Morales enacted the new law opening the way for the 190-mile (300km) road through the Isiboro Sécure Indigenous Territory and National Park, known as Tipnis, its Spanish acronym. The road will divide the park in two and strip it of the protections won in 2011 when a national march by thousands of protesters ended in clashes with the police and forced the government to change its position. Continue reading...