An eight-mile stretch of Amazon rainforest is being cleared to make space for a new four-lane highway that’s being built in Brazil to ferry delegates to a climate conference later this year. The forest is being cleared ahead of the COP30 climate summit, which will take place in Belém, Brazil.
Global leaders, oil companies, and other parties interested in how we power our cities come together every year at the COP summit to talk about ways to try and clean up the planet. In November 2025, the conference will descend on Belém, and infrastructure being constructed for the conference is already tainting its reputation.
To help all those incredibly important people get to Belém, workers are carving an eight-mile slice out of the Amazon rainforest that will make way for a brand new four-lane highway, reports the BBC. How very environmentally-minded of them.
The new highway was first touted back in 2012 by the local government, but was repeatedly put on hold due to environmental concerns. Now that work is underway on the project, those concerns are being cried out louder than ever:
Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side – a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km (8 miles) through the rainforest into Belém. Diggers and machines carve through the forest floor, paving over wetland to surface the road which will cut through a protected area.
Locals are now concerned that this highway could just be the start of the deforestation–for which Brazil already has a track record–with one asking the BBC what happens when someone wants to build a gas station or warehouses along the new route?
As well as hacking at the very environment that the COP30 meeting is set up to protect, the new highway could also have a lasting impact on the animals and wildlife that live around the conference location.
Experts warned that highways running through wild areas like the Amazon rainforest can be major causes of injuries to wildlife, which may never have come across a fast-moving car before. So this project could both cut away safe spaces for wildlife and increase the chance of injury or death to some animals. Not a good look for a controversial conference ostensibly about protecting the planet.
In response, local authorities have claimed that the project will be a “sustainable highway,” adds the BBC. As such, it could feature wildlife crossings that allow animals to pass over safely, as well as bike lanes and solar lighting.