Brazil Allocates $75 Million to Upgrade BR‑319 Highway and Launches New Amazon Protection Initiative

SÃO PAULO — Brazil’s government announced Wednesday a $75 million investment to upgrade the BR‑319 highway that traverses the Amazon rainforest, a project critics fear could speed deforestation and intensify climate change impacts.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration concurrently unveiled an environmental protection plan aimed at mitigating the road’s potential effects on the forest. The highway links the northern states of Amazonas and Rondônia with the rest of the country.

“From an environmental standpoint, it will be the most modern road in the world,” Lula said at a ceremony in Amazonas state, alongside 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,” he added.

The BR‑319 highway, inaugurated in 1976, remains largely unpaved. It cuts through the Amazon rainforest, reaching Manaus—home to more than two million people—and runs alongside the Madeira River, a major tributary that has suffered drought‑related transport disruptions.

During the ceremony in Iranduba, a city about 23 miles (37 km) from Manaus, the government also announced local investments, including projects by state‑run oil company Petrobras and its subsidiary Transpetro in Amazonas. Lula was accompanied by regional politicians expected to support his bid for a fourth, non‑consecutive term in October.

Officials presented a video outlining the new protection measures, which include environmental monitoring of a 50‑kilometer (31‑mile) strip on each side of the road along its entire length. They emphasized the need for a stronger state presence given the route’s passage through one of the rainforest’s most sensitive areas.

The plan calls for inspection checkpoints, enforcement agency bases, and the creation of new conservation units. A private contractor is slated to be hired in 2028 to assist with enforcement.

Earlier in the week, Lula visited a section of the highway, posing with machinery and workers and operating equipment as work continued on the dirt road.

Environmental groups, including the Climate Observatory, have challenged the project in court. In 2024, the Observatory filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2022 preliminary license for paving BR‑319, alleging that officials ignored warnings from Brazil’s environmental agency and failed to secure Indigenous consultation and climate impact studies.

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.

The Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest, is vital for global climate regulation. The road cuts through one of the biome’s most intact regions, which hosts numerous protected areas and Indigenous territories.

Scientific research shows that new roads in the rainforest trigger deforestation and the proliferation of illegal side roads. A 2014 study in *Biological Conservation* found that 95 % of forest clearing occurs within 5.5 km (3.4 miles) of roads, with roughly three unofficial kilometers generated for each official kilometer.

Marina Silva, former environment minister in Lula’s administration, testified last year that deforestation in the BR‑319 region surged after roadwork announcements. She resigned in April to run for Congress.

Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, argued that the government is bypassing due process by introducing protective measures only after paving began. He said a deforestation‑prevention plan should have been discussed, approved, and implemented before construction started.

“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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