The lower chamber of Brazil’s Congress on Tuesday passed a bill to ease environmental regulations in order to build a highway through the heart of the Amazon.
The plan has been subjected to massive criticism as scientists believe that it will endanger the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
The bill still needs Senate approval.
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The bill provides for using conservation funds donated to Brazil, such as the $1.3 billion Amazon Fund supported by the United States and European allies, to finance the highway project.
As reported by Mongabay, the Minister of Transport had already announced the intention to use money from the Amazon Fund to make the environmental part of the project viable, and the current PL (Projeto de Lei) goes further and wants this money to also pay for the asphalt itself.
The roadway was created by a military regime eager to colonise the Amazon in the 1970s, but it was swiftly abandoned.
Most of the 900-kilometre roadway from Porto Velho in Rondonia state to Manaus in Amazonas state had deteriorated into a rutted dirt road by the late 1980s.
Much of the route is now impassable during the rainy season. Vehicles that attempt it during dry months crawl along the broken pavement, dodging huge potholes and jungle debris.
The news agency Reuters reported that the Amazon academics have said that the repaved road will cause an explosion of deforestation in Amazonas state, which is home to the majority of Brazil’s best-preserved rainforest due to a lack of roadways.
Every major highway project in the Amazon has set off a surge in land grabbing and illegal deforestation. Researchers say BR-319 would open a new frontier for logging that could push the rainforest past a point of no return.
The project’s supporters argue that it is vital to alleviate the isolation of the two connected states, Amazonas and Rondonia.
With the BR-319 out of operation for much of the year, Manaus is frequently only accessible by river or plane from the rest of Brazil.
The bill calls the highway “critical infrastructure, indispensable to national security, requiring the guarantee of its trafficability.”
It would authorize the use of donations received by Brazil to help the conservation of the Amazon for the “recovery, paving and increasing the capacity of the highway.”
(With inputs from agencies)
