The paradox of the Cop30: a four -lane highway in the heart of the protected Amazonia

The city of Belémin the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, he is preparing to welcome next November About 50 thousand participants in Cop30the world climate summit. To deal with this unprecedented influx, the local authorities have started a series of large infrastructure works, but one of these is the construction of a new highway To four lanes that will cross a protected area of ​​the rainforest

A few kilometers from Belém, the primary forest already gives way to a splan of corn land: here you already glimpse a partially built road, with the first stretches of dirt road that advance between the vegetation. On the sides of the track, piles of cut tree trunks are picked on the ground, tangible testimony of a deforestation, yet another, just occurred.

The construction site is in full business: excavators and bulldozers are practically eating the soil, opening gaps between centuries -old trees where thousands of cars will soon go to the center of Belém. This surreal scene – a highway under construction in the middle of the Amazon – makes the contradiction immediately visible that is making Brazil and the whole world discuss.

The Cop30 motorway

The idea of ​​building a new artery in the heart of the Amazon Forest was not born today. Already in 2012 the government of the Federal State of Pará – of which Belém is capital – had promoted the project of a “Avenida Liberdade“(PA-020 state road), only to set it aside for environmental fees. However, the work was dusted off in view of the Cop30 and officially authorized In the June 2024. The plan foresees 13.3 kilometers of asphalt with two lanes per direction of travelin addition to three viaducts and a bridge over the Aurá river. According to the authorities, this new communication route will serve to decongest Belém traffic In anticipation of the arrival of tens of thousands of visitors and delegates for the climate conference.

From an institutional point of view, the highway is presented as a strategic investment for local development. Adler Silveira, secretary of the Pará government infrastructure, even defined it as BBC “a sustainable motorwayAnd“explaining that corridors will be foreseen for the passage of wildlife, cycle paths and rising lighting along the way.

The local executive also insists on the fact that the work It will remain as a legacy for residents After the Cop30, facilitating connections in the Belém metropolitan area in the years to come. In short, the new infrastructure is part of a wider package of interventions to modernize the city in view of the summit: it includes the expansion of the international airport (which will have to go from 7 to 14 million passengers per year), the construction of new hotels and the modernization of the river port, in addition to the highway intended to connect more effectively Belém with the neighboring areas. For the governor and his supporters, these projects represent an opportunity for national development and pride, showing the world the ability of Brazil to organize a great event in the heart of the Amazon without giving up modern infrastructures.

The environment, on the other hand, is at risk all right

There Amazonian forestthe largest and most rich tropical ecosystem of the planet, plays a crucial role in carbon absorption and in the regulation of the global climate. It is therefore not surprising that the prospect of breaking down trees in a protected area for make room for a top of the climate It appears to many as an intolerable paradox. Obviously the widespread fear is that the forest is being sacrificed on the altar of an event which, by definition, should instead promote its safeguard.

From the environmental and scientific front, obvious concerns are read on ecological impacts of the new road. The path, in fact,, will cut the forest in twoleaving areas that were previously connected to each other: experts warn that this “will frag the ecosystem“, By interrupting the natural corridors used by the wildlife to move and find food. In essence, many species already threatened would be confined to smaller habitats portions, with less resources and survival opportunities.

Environmental organizations also underline thedomino effect that often a large road in Amazon entails: the opening of new access routes can favor further illegal deforestation and the expansion of invasive economic activities (such as the timber cut, the ledge of cattle and the mines) in areas so far remote.

In addition to scientists, also The local inhabitants raise their voices against the new highway. Many rural communities have lived for generations of the sustainable collection of fruits And the products of the forest, and fear of losing everything. Take away it would really be a paradox. The paradox of the Cop30.