Brazil has given the go - ahead to originate paving a massive main road through the warmness of the Amazon , a move that will likely prove disastrous for the health of the rainforest and endemic peoples . On July 28 , theBrazilian environmental authority ( IBAMA)gave a preliminary permit to start the paving and reconstruction of a of the essence part of BR-319 , a highway between Manaus , the capital of Amazonas , and Porto Velho , the capital of Rondônia , that runs through a pristine part of the Amazon rainforest .

The permit will allow construction and fix on a 405 - km ( 251 - knot ) stretch of the BR-319 , know as the “ trecho do meião . ”

BR-319 was opened by the military government in 1973 , but it quickly buckle under to the intensely wild environment of the Amazon and drop , finally becoming impassible by the late-1980s . Since 2015 , a “ maintenance ” program has made it marginally passable during the dry time of year , but it ’s still not an easy ride .

construct the road could be catastrophic for the natural environment . Not only will the roadworks and highway prove to be an unpleasant vault for wildlife , but the road will also provide loggers , miner , oil drillers , and ranchers with better accession to the rainforest , almost certainly drive further deforestation , home ground destruction , andconflict with Indigenous peoples .

spell in the journalAmbioearlier this year , biologist Philip Fearnside from the National Institute for Research in Amazonia drop a line why he believes the labor to rebuild BR-319 will be a “ societal , economic , and ecological disaster . ”

“ The immense area that would be give to the western United States of BR-319 holds gamy biodiversity and a fat diversity of Indigenous peoples , ” he wrote . “ This area holds an tremendous stock of carbon that , if liberate over a unforesightful period of long time , would be critical in pushing the globose climate system past a tipping point where a ‘ runaway greenhouse ’ would accelerate outside of human ascendance . ”

Proponents of the architectural plan to rebuild the highway fence that it will bring money and opportunity to the local people of Beruri , Borba , Tapauá , Canutama , Manicoré , and Humaitá . However , Fearnside believes the economic benefits of BR-319 are a fallacy , argue that pump route traffic through the Amazon is unlikely to prove more effective than other substance of conveyance .

“ political leader in Manaus are the most visible beneficiaries of BR-319 , since championing the highway project is a primal scheme for winning votes in the city , ” he writes .

One of the politicians celebrating the recent IBAMA permission was Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro , a leader whose reignhas become ill - famedfor its onset on the surround and the Indigenous the great unwashed whohave go in the Amazonfor generation .

“ Brazilians had already capture used to railroad car and trucks getting stuck on the BR319,”tweetedPresident Bolsonaro on July 29 . “ That time , fortunately , is come to an end . IBAMA give a prior permission to our initiative to pave the remaining 405 kilometer [ 251 mi ] of the highway , give up 30 years ago ! ”