Brazil.President Lula announces that a disused highway in the Amazon rainforest will be completed

Drought has put river transport in crisis in Brazil and President Lula has decided to complete an old disused highway in the Amazon forest.Environmentalists rise up.

• The BR-319 highway, which runs through the Amazon forest, was built and then abandoned during the military dictatorship.
• Now Lula has announced its completion to move river transport hit by drought to land.
• According to a study, the highway will increase deforestation fivefold.

The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, gave the green light to the completion of theBR-319 highway which runs through the Amazon rainforest.The project has been talked about for decades and the motorway is long 900 kilometers, had already been traced in the seventies.The environmental controversies then led to the interruption of the works and the regrowth of the Amazon forest, which thanks to his unique ability to absorb carbon dioxide is considered the green lung of the planet.

There drought unprecedented that is affecting Brazil has compromised the river transport and for this reason Lula announced the resumption of work for the completion of BR-319, which is already used in some sections.A decision that led to the mobilization of environmentalists and which is also causing internal disagreements to the government.

The highway in the Amazon rainforest

There BR-319 it was designed last century to connect, along a 900 kilometer route, the capital of the state of Amazonas, Manaus, with the city near the Bolivian border of Porto Velho.

The route had already been built in seventies during the Brazilian military dictatorship, then the works were suspended, the Amazon forest had grown back and only a few small sections at both ends of the highway were used.I approximately 400 kilometers of the middle section of the route are in a state of abandonment, with nature having reclaimed the area.

The far-right ex-president of Brazil, that Jair Bolsonaro who caused the data on deforestation to soar, during his mandate he repeatedly declared his desire to complete the motorway, despite scientists and environmentalists pointed out that this would pave the way for illegal logging activities by miners, loggers and farmers.Now, surprisingly, also the current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva he supported the project.

Lula like Bolsonaro?

“We are aware that, while the Madeira river it was navigable and full, the motorway did not have the importance it has now.We cannot leave two capitals isolated.But we will do it with the utmost responsibility." he declared Lula during a meeting in Manaquiri, in the state of Amazonas.

The route of the motorway runs parallel to the Madeira River, which until now has played a major role in transport of goods in the cities and villages of the Amazon rainforest.There drought which is affecting Brazil, which is also at the origin of the terrible season of fires underway, however, it has put transport in difficulty and for President Lula there are no other solutions other than completing the motorway, so as to move transport to land.

The president has already approved the asphalting of a first stretch of the highway along a fifty kilometers, but it will take a long time to make the entire route passable, because two bridges will also have to be rebuilt.

Although during Lula's current mandate Amazon deforestation has fallen compared to Bolsonaro's time, with a decline of 60 percent in the first year of government alone, the impact of completing the motorway could be dramatic.Second a study only the BR-319 highway could cause an increase in deforestation five times by 2030.This while already last July a federal court had blocked the project, because there were no guarantees against deforestation.And Lula's decision risks creating problems even within the government.The Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, took a stand against the completion of the motorway.