The Geolocation of Social Media Posts about the proposed UC-105/Interoceanica Centro Road in the Amazon borderlands of Peru

Keywords: Key words: Peru, Brazil, Amazonia, Borderlands, Social Media, Roads
Session Type: Virtual Poster Abstract
Day: Sunday
Session Start / End Time: 2/27/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/27/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 62

Abstract

Tereza Hernandez, David S. Salisbury, Lindsey Barnard, Stephanie Spera

The construction of roads throughout the Amazon rainforest continues to provoke debate. Some suggest roads are a solution to lift remote populations out of poverty, provide job opportunities, and connect them to economic global markets. Others argue that roads breed corruption, become channels of social upheaval, and contribute to deforestation and other detrimental environmental impacts. Here, we focus on a Peruvian road to the Brazilian border, the “Interoceánica Centro” promoted by some and denigrated by others. Results show a diversity of actors and organizations from various locations and scales sharing their perspectives on roads as public necessity, national interest, and economic integration or as a threat to the biological and cultural diversity of the borderlands. In this study, the geolocation of scores of public social media posts from Facebook and Twitter were mapped across 2.5 years using Geographic Information Systems while the actors, organizations, and road discourse of the posts were analyzed. The text, images, maps, graphics and photographs shared online add to conversations that transform the Amazon borderlands into a critically important landscape and medium to debate the relationship between sustainability, connectivity, culture, and environment.