SAO PAULO (AP) — Brazil’s government announced Wednesday that it will invest $75 million in the BR-319 highway cutting through the Amazon rainforest, a project environmentalists say could accelerate deforestation and worsen climate change. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration simultaneously announced an environmental protection plan to safeguard the forest from potential impacts from the highway, which connects the northern states of Amazonas and Rondonia with the rest of Brazil. “From an environmental standpoint, it will be the most modern road in the world,” Lula said during a ceremony in Amazonas state, accompanied by 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,” Lula said.The BR-319 highway was inaugurated in 1976 but remains largely unpaved. It cuts through the Amazon rainforest and reaches Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city, with more than 2 million residents. The road runs alongside the Madeira River — one of the Amazon River’s main tributaries that has suffered from droughts that disrupt cargo transport.
In Wednesday’s ceremony in Iranduba, a city in Amazonas about 23 miles (37 kilometers) from Manaus, the Brazilian government also announced local investments including projects by state-run oil company Petrobras and its subsidiary Transpetro in Amazonas. Lula was accompanied by local politicians who are expected to support his campaign for reelection to a fourth, nonconsecutive term in October.
