In order to protect ecosystems, the Labor Party (PT) is promoting a legislative initiative so that, when designing new railway constructions, as well as modernizing existing ones, the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation considers wildlife crossings in its design and conservation plan .
The proposal by Deputy Ricardo Sóstenes Mejía Berdeja, referred to the Communications and Transportation Committee, proposes adding a second and third paragraph to Article 30 of the Railway Service Regulatory Law.
It stipulates that wildlife crossings will be understood as structures that are transversal to a railway line , with the aim of enabling the safe passage of wildlife to habitats fragmented by the construction of said line.
In the explanatory statement, it states that the railway has a significantly lower environmental impact compared to other means of transport , especially in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and use of resources.
In terms of land use, rail systems occupy less surface area per passenger compared to roads, meaning more people can be transported in less space, reducing habitat fragmentation.
“While building railways can impact biodiversity and local ecosystems, their comparatively smaller footprint in mass transit can help reduce pressure on the environment at large,” he said.
The document states that wildlife crossings are structures that run across a road, with the aim of enabling the safe passage of wildlife to habitats fragmented by the construction of transport infrastructure.
He explained that their operation may be restricted to the movement of fauna or they may be used for other purposes such as drainage, restoration of roads, waterways and livestock routes. These types of passages may be higher or lower than the road.
Situations where wildlife crossings must exist are in places where the affected fauna requires large areas of land for its development and proliferation, such as ungulates, medium and large carnivores, in regions where there is movement of seed-spreading fauna between habitats separated by the road and in infrastructure that crosses wildlife migration routes.
Also, if the road or railway passes through a stream, river or any other body of water, the hydraulic infrastructure can be used; for example, sewers, which can function as a passage for aquatic fauna, amphibians, reptiles and small mammals.
Likewise, when in one of the separated habitats there is a body of water that is used by the species that inhabit the region or when the fragmented habitats have large areas of native vegetation, such as in the case of forests and jungles.
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