Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and reporter Georgina Gustin as they describe how a new Chinese-backed megaport in Peru could push the Amazon rainforest past its breaking point.

When a massive Chinese-backed port opened in Chancay, Peru, it was the realization, nearly two decades in the making, of a dream to revolutionize global trade by connecting South America to Asia with a straight-shot shipping route across the Pacific.

The port — Peru’s first project under the banner of China’s Belt and Road Initiative and China’s flagship infrastructure investment in South America — brings tremendous economic opportunities, but also environmental threats.

The port reawakens old ambitions of roads, railways and water routes that could connect the riches of the Amazon to the continent’s west coast and the world’s largest ocean, efforts that scientists warn could speed the destruction of the world’s most climate-critical ecosystem.

Georgina, our award-winning agriculture reporter who spent a month in Peru reporting this story, explains the enormous complexities and consequences flowing from the new port’s development and how its magnetic pull may spell disaster for communities and ecosystems in its orbit.

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