Tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest are being paved over in Brazil to make way for a new four-lane highway ahead of an upcoming climate summit.
Belém, which is set to host the 30th UN Climate Change Conference with the Conference of the Parties (COP30), has already begun clearing the forests in preparation for hosting more than 50,000 people this November, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Though the state government hopes the new highway will ease traffic issues ahead of the summit, there have been some growing concerns.
Wildlife veterinarian and researcher Professor Silvia Sardinha warned that there was a “loss” from deforestation since animals “will no longer be able to cross to the other side too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed.”
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“We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, the natural environment of these species,” she told the BBC.
Adler Silveira, the state government’s infrastructure secretary, insisted to the BBC that the new highway would be a “sustainable highway” and an “important mobility intervention.” He also said there would be wildlife crossings for animals in the area.
Locals themselves had mixed reactions to the development, with some claiming “there will be no benefits” to the new highway, while others said the city “as a whole is being improved.”
According to the BBC, the state government of Pará, where Belém is located, has been planning on constructing a highway known as “Avenida Liberdade” since 2012, but the project has repeatedly been “shelved” because of environmental concerns.
In addition to the new highway, Brazil’s federal government plans to expand its airport and construct a new 500,000-square-mile city park.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Pará state government for a comment.
In an email, the COP30 summit told Fox News Digital the organization was “solely focused on climate negotiations and does not oversee matters related to infrastructure.”
Despite thousands of acres of rainforest being torn down, one of the core topics that the COP30 summit aims to address is the “preservation of forests and biodiversity,” with Belém being the first COP summit held in the Amazon.
In a letter published on Monday, COP30 president-designate André Aranha Corrêa Do Lago also touted the upcoming summit as a way to support forests and reverse deforestation.
“When we get together in the Brazilian Amazon in November, we must listen to the latest science and re-evaluate the extraordinary role already played by forests and the people who preserve and rely on them,” he wrote.
“Forests can buy us time in climate action in our rapidly closing window of opportunity. If we reverse deforestation and recover what has been lost, we can unlock massive removals of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere while bringing ecosystems back to life.”
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