Gov’t unveils US$75m investment in highway through the Amazon

SAO PAULO (AP):

Brazil’s government announced yesterday that it will invest US$75 million in the BR-319 highway cutting through the Amazon rainforest, a project environmentalists say could accelerate deforestation and worsen climate change.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration simultaneously announced an environmental protection plan to safeguard the forest from potential impacts of the highway, which connects the northern states of Amazonas and Rondônia with the rest of Brazil.

“From an environmental standpoint, it will be the most modern road in the world,” Lula said during a ceremony in Amazonas state, accompanied by Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco.

“Any foreigner who comes here to weigh in on the climate issue, we will show what we’ve done here,” Lula said.

The BR-319 highway was inaugurated in 1976 but remains largely unpaved. It cuts through the Amazon rainforest and reaches Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, with more than two million residents. The road runs alongside the Madeira River — one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries — which has suffered from droughts that disrupt cargo transport.

At yesterday’s ceremony in Iranduba, a city in Amazonas about 23 miles (37 kilometres) from Manaus, the Brazilian government also announced local investments, including projects by state-run oil company Petrobras and its subsidiary Transpetro in Amazonas. Lula was accompanied by local politicians who are expected to support his campaign for re-election to a fourth, non-consecutive term in October.

Officials showed a video outlining environmental protection measures for the highway, including monitoring of a 50‑kilometre‑wide (31‑mile‑wide) strip on each side of the road along its entire length. They said the highway requires a stronger state presence, as it runs through one of the rainforest’s most sensitive areas.

The government also pledged to install inspection checkpoints and enforcement agency bases, and to create new conservation units. It said it would hire a private company in 2028 to support enforcement.

On Tuesday, Lula visited a section of the highway, posing with machinery and workers and appearing to operate equipment as work continued on the dirt road.

Environmental groups, including the Climate Observatory, have challenged the project in court. In 2024, the Climate Observatory filed a lawsuit to overturn the 2022 preliminary licence for paving the BR-319 highway, arguing that officials ignored technical warnings from Brazil’s environmental agency and failed to require key safeguards, such as Indigenous consultation and climate impact studies.

Subsequent legal challenges briefly halted a related bidding process in April, but a higher court soon overturned the suspension.

Minister George Santoro said that the entire highway will be under contract and undergoing work by the end of June.

DEFORESTATION

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, plays a critical role in regulating the global climate. The road cuts through one of the biome’s best-preserved regions, home to dozens of protected areas and Indigenous territories.

Scientific research has shown that opening new roads in the rainforest drives deforestation, spurring the spread of illegal side roads. A 2014 study published in the journal Biological Conservation found that 95 per cent of forest clearing occurs within 5.5 kilometres (3.4 miles) of roads. For every 1 kilometre (0.6 miles) of official road, there are roughly three kilometres (1.9 miles) of unofficial roads.

Marina Silva, a former environment minister in Lula’s administration, said during a Senate hearing last year that deforestation in the BR-319 area surged immediately after roadworks were announced. She resigned in April to run for Congress.

Márcio Astrini, executive director of Climate Observatory, said the government is bypassing due process in implementing measures to safeguard environmental protections. A plan to prevent deforestation along the highway, he said, should have been discussed, approved and implemented before paving began — not at the same time, as is happening now.

“Just the simple announcement under (former President Jair) Bolsonaro’s government that the road would be rebuilt nearly doubled land grabbing and deforestation in the area. Laying asphalt there creates another incentive,” Astrini said. “If there are no protection measures in place, it just becomes yet another driver of deforestation.”