'It's as if we've learned nothing': alarm over Amazon road project

[Judi Lynn]

1. 'Project of death': alarm at Bolsonaro's plan for Amazon-spanning bridge

Residents of riverside communities in the state of Pará are unconvinced by the Bolsonaro government’s claims of jobs and other benefits that a dramatic extension of a trans-Amazon highway would bring

by Dom Phillips in Santíssima Trindade
Tue 10 Mar 2020 04.00 EDT

From the veranda of her wooden home, Joaci da Silva looked out across her garden towards the waters of the River Amazon, and shuddered as she considered the future.

“Today we live in a paradise,” she said.

But the future of that paradise is in doubt after Brazil’s far-right president Jair Bolsonaro backed plans to build a bridge across the river, and extend a busy highway hundreds of miles through protected forests.

“We know there will be a big impact,” said Da Silva, 51, who – like many people in the tiny riverside community of Santíssima Trindade – fears the project will bring crime, noise and pollution. “It will bring some benefits and jobs, but there will be devastation.”

A short boat ride away from her home is the quaint colonial backwater of Óbidos; beyond that is 500km of rainforest stretching to Suriname – the “Calha Norte”, or “North Zone” of Pará state.

. . .

Auricélia Arapiun, 32, a law student and indigenous leader in Santarém, said that rather than developing the region, the government’s plans would “make the Amazon a desert”.

“This is a project of death,” she said.

. . .

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/mar/10/brazil-amazon-bridge-project-bolsonaro