Bolsonaro’s Amazon trains must be stopped

Despite increasing global concern, Jair Bolsonaro is determined to expand his exploitation of Brazil’s crucial natural resources. His latest project would rapidly deforest large areas of the Amazon. Bolsonaro’s plan? To construct a 1,000km railway system right into the heart of the Amazon rainforest – with trains passing within 500 metres of 726 official environmentally protected areas. The new railway, called Ferrogrão, would also entail construction within 10km of another 18 priority conservation areas.

The pretext for Bolsonaro’s plan is a problem that, while real, could be addressed through far less harmful measures. Currently, soybeans and other crops grown in the Brazilian midwest must travel at least 2,000km to reach seaports in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. The proposed railway would reduce transport costs and increase the competitiveness of these products in the international or national market by roughly 8%.

This underscores a key point of tension between Brazil and the international community. Countries in the global north became rich by exploiting their natural resources, including massive deforestation. Now that western European and North American countries are economically developed, they demand that Brazilians not do what they did: exploit our environmental resources so that we, too, can thrive economically.

According to research by the Climate Policy Initiative and PUC-Rio, a Brazilian university, constructing Ferrogrão will also encourage development on land around the railway. Under Bolsonaro’s current plan, this construction project will result in up to 2,043 sq km of deforestation – about 285,000 football fields – which will increase carbon emissions by 75m tonnes. There are economic costs, too: according to World Bank projections, each tonne of emission costs $25 – so Brazil would lose at least $1.9bn with this project.

Since Bolsonaro was inaugurated in 2019, deforestation has been the centrepiece of his environmental policies. In 2019, deforestation grew 85%, a record high in the past five years. In 2020, the National Institute for Space Research, a federal agency relentlessly attacked by Bolsonaro, announced that the deforestation rate in April was the worst for that month in six years.

Opponents of Ferrogrão may have the law on their side. By altering the territorial limits of the Jamanxim National Park, the project may violate the Brazilian constitution. My political party, the Socialism and Liberty party, brought a constitutional challenge before the federal supreme court, which has temporarily suspended Ferrogrão. Brazilian civil society and indigenous groups have mobilised against judicial approval.

The environmental impact study for Ferrogrão found it would have a disastrous impact on indigenous peoples and on the environment. The railroad would also increase the flow of cargo across the Xingu Indigenous Park, disrupting the lives of the Kayaopós people.

Standard environmental mitigation projects might be able to reduce some of these harms. But the Bolsonaro government has proved countless times its indifference to environmental issues and contempt for indigenous peoples. Bolsonaro governs according to the agribusiness interests that played a crucial role in financing his 2018 campaign and will no doubt help determine the success of his 2022 re-election bid.

Ironically, the titans of agribusiness should want to preserve forests. The rain that falls over the midwest is in part a product of the Amazon. Roughly 390 billion trees constantly pump water from the Atlantic into the atmosphere. Fewer trees mean less rain, and therefore less productivity and profit for agriculture.

Given the international interest in protecting the Amazon, it is not enough that only Brazilians fight the construction of Ferrogrão. The Amazon forest is a massive carbon bank and affects the whole planet’s climate. The more deforestation that is permitted, the more carbon dioxide goes into the atmosphere. We know the consequences: climate chaos.

The immensity of the Amazon rainforest – 5.5m sq km, 1m sq km larger than the total area of the European Union – makes it easy to believe that it is too large to be meaningfully harmed. Almost 15% has been deforested. When this number reaches 20%, the entire system will collapse, with a direct impact on the entire planet. There will be no return