The great highway that is destroying the Amazon to connect the city that will host COP30
Lula's government denies that the project has anything to do with the summit, but it is expected to facilitate the arrival of the 50,000 participants in this global meeting at the edge of the rainforest.
The construction of a major highway deep in the Amazon rainforestThe fact that it crossed a protected area has sparked international controversy due to its alleged connection with the UN summit against climate change This year's COP30, being held in Brazil. Regional authorities responsible for the project claim it has nothing to do with COP30, but the fact is that the highway under construction—which has deforested a 13-kilometer-long strip of land—will carry a good portion of the 50,000 summit participants to the host city, Belém do Pará.
Images of the open, deforested jungle cleared to make room for this four-lane highway, two lanes in each direction, went viral a few days ago when the BBC denounced the project, which "is being built for the COP30 climate summit." The COP30 extraordinary secretariat responded immediately to the BBC with a statement asserting that the construction of this highway was not under the jurisdiction of Lula's federal government and that it was not included among the 33 infrastructure projects planned for COP30. The government of the state of Pará, responsible for the project, has also stated that the highway is not part of the works planned for COP30, although an article published on November 28, 2018, by Agência Pará did mention this road as one of the projects to facilitate the climate summit, a reference that, after the controversy, State of Para OnlineThe controversial highway, dubbed Liberty Avenue, is a project dating back to 2012, but it had been postponed and halted several times due to resistance from local communities and environmental concerns. In 2023, when it had already been announced that Brazil would host the 2025 summit, the environmental impact study was published, which "concludes that the project is technically and environmentally viable," even though the same report also admitted that the construction would cause "terrestrial animals to be displaced into adjacent environments" and "losses or death due to possible changes in water quality in rivers and streams generated by indirect erosion events."
Liberdade Avenue actually crosses "the Belém metropolitan environmental protection area", a region of high biodiversity on the banks of the Guamá River and in riverine areas connected by streams where species such as white-pitted toucans and the common squirrel monkey live (Saimiri sciureus) and the capuchin monkeys of the type SapajusThree endangered plant species also live there. Some of the local communities that depend on harvesting and selling açaí complain that the construction has destroyed many of the trees that supplied them with this fruit. Local communities also complain that the estimated flow of 24,000 vehicles per day, once operational, will increase noise pollution and bisect the habitat of many of these species, putting even more pressure on fragile ecosystems. The Kilimbola communities have been the most vocal opponents of the project.from Abacatal and the riverbanksof Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes, two communities that live in the jungle near the Guamá River and that will be separated from the city of Belém by this road. Quilimbolas and riberinhos are traditional Brazilian communities descendants of the slaves who fled to the jungle in the 17th and 18th centuries and who today normally live off their own crops and what nature provides, but who usually do not have land titles.
“The forest is being destroyed, and we residents have no guarantee of environmental protection,” said Diana dos Santos Araújo, leader of the Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes community, on the Estado do Pará website. A protest last October against the highway forced a meeting between the affected communities and the regional government, which promised them collective compensation, including a multi-sports court, a bridge, daycare centers, a health center, and running water. The Pará government also claims that the controversial highway will be a “sustainable” road because it “includes dedicated bike lanes, eco-friendly paving for the bike path, and solar lighting.”
Hotel construction, port expansion, and soaring Airbnb prices
But the highway isn't the only symptom of the pressure that hosting an international event of the magnitude of COP30 is placing on the Amazon. The city of Belém, capital of the state of Pará and considered the gateway to the Amazon, is rushing to build and prepare spaces to accommodate the more than 50,000 visitors expected to arrive for the summit between November 10 and 21. The Amazonian capital only has hotel capacity for 18,000 people, so new hotels are being built and more than 5,000 new Airbnb listings have been added with prices ten times higher than usual. The Brazilian government will even charter two ocean liners, which will be docked at the Outeiro port in Belém, to provide 4,500 beds for COP30, as explained by the country's authorities to a UN delegation that visited the city last month to oversee the preparations. There is also construction underway at the port to expand its capacity. Lula's choice of this city to host the climate summit was intended to place the Amazon's key role in the fight against climate change and the problems this ecosystem faces at the center of the debate. But the question remains whether the event's ecological (and social) footprint could end up exacerbating these problems even further.