Tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest are being cut down to construct a new four-lane highway for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.

More than half the world’s tropical forests have already been destroyed since the 1960s, mostly to enable the production of more food for the planet’s growing human population.

The state government claims that the highway is necessary to ease traffic to the city, which will host more than 50,000 people – including world leaders – at the climate conference in November. And although it touts the highway’s “sustainable” credentials, many locals and conservation groups are outraged at the environmental impact.

The Amazon plays an essential role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing important biodiversity, and many say this deforestation contradicts the spirit and intent of a climate summit.

Along the partially built 13km road into Belém, diggers and machines carve through the forest floor, paving over wetland to surface the road which will cut through a protected area. Logs are piled high in the cleared land, while lush rainforest towers on either side – a reminder of what was once there.

Claudio Verequete is a farmer who lives about 200m from where the road will be. He used to make an income from harvesting açaí berries from trees that once occupied the space.

Gesturing at the clearing, Verequete told the BBC: “Everything was destroyed. Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family.”

He stated that he has received no compensation from the state government and is currently relying on his savings to now survive. He worries the construction of the road will lead to even more deforestation in the future, now that the area is more accessible for businesses.

The construction of the road also leaves two disconnected areas of protected forest, which scientists are concerned will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife.

Prof Silvia Sardinha is a wildlife vet and researcher at a university animal hospital that overlooks the route of the new highway. She and her team rehabilitate wild animals that have suffered injuries, primarily caused by humans or vehicles.

Once healed, the animals are released back into the wild, something she says will be much harder if there is a highway through their natural habitat.

“From the moment of deforestation, there is a loss,” Prof Sardinha told the BBC. “We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, the natural environment of these species”.

Sardinha added: “Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed”.

Adler Silveira, the state government’s infrastructure secretary, listed the new highway as one of 30 projects being undertaken in the city to “prepare” and “modernise” it, so “we can have a legacy for the population and, more importantly, serve people for COP30 in the best possible way”.

And the Brazilian president himself, in a paradoxical statement, claimed that the COP30 meeting will provide an opportunity to focus on the needs of the Amazon, show the forest to the world, and present what the federal government has done to protect it.

Ahead of COP30, criticism is already growing over whether flying thousands of climate summit attendees across the world, and the construction of the infrastructure required to host them, is undermining the intent of the climate summit before it has even begun.

An estimated 15 billion trees are cut down every year across the world, driven by human overpopulation. According to environmentalists, the COP30 climate summit was an opportunity to highlight that the practice of deforestation cannot continue.

Submitted by Friends of Retha


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