Brazil Funds Amazon Highway   05/28 07:31

   

   SAO PAULO (AP) -- Brazil's government announced Wednesday that it will 
invest $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 Incio Lula da Silva's administration simultaneously announced 
an environmental protection plan to safeguard the forest from potential impacts 
from the highway, which connects the northern states of Amazonas and Rondonia 
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 Joao 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 2 million residents. The road runs alongside the Madeira 
River -- one of the Amazon River's main tributaries that has suffered from 
droughts that disrupt cargo transport.

   In Wednesday's ceremony in Iranduba, a city in Amazonas about 23 miles (37 
kilometers) 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 reelection to a fourth, 
nonconsecutive term in October.

   Government unveils protection measures

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

   The government also pledged to install inspection checkpoints, 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, Climate Observatory filed a lawsuit to overturn the 
2022 preliminary license 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 Wednesday that the entire highway will be under 
contract and undergoing work by the end of June.

   Amazon roads linked to 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 most 
well-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% of forest 
clearing occurs within 5.5 kilometers (3.4 miles) of roads. For every 1 
kilometer (0.6 miles) of official road, there are roughly 3 kilometers (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.

   Marcio Astrini, executive director of Climate Observatory, said the 
government is bypassing due process in implementing the 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."

   **

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