The Brazilian city of Belem is going to host the COP30 Climate Summit in November this year. To prepare for the summit a new 4-lane highway is being built. Ironically, thousands of acres of Amazon rainforest is being cleared to build the highway. As per a report by BBC, the local government is claiming that the highway is ‘sustainable’.
The BBC report states that around 50,000 people are expected to visit Belem for the climate summit and the preparations for the highway are in full swing. Big diggers and logging machines are clearing the forest land, with chopped logs piled high on either side of the road.
Not just destryoying thousands of acres of trees, the highway is also slashing across the protected ecosystem, disconnecting the routes of animals. Local communities have complained that they have not got any compensation from the government for the disruption of their livelihoods.
The highway called Avenida Liberdade was planned as early as 2012, but had been shelved over environmental concerns.
