Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon

The report argues that land transport infrastructure is a primary driver of deforestation in the Amazon, noting that until 2006, approximately 95% of deforestation occurred within 5.5 km of a road. To address this, the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio) proposes a roadmap based on three pillars: anticipating socio-environmental analysis in decision-making, improving the quality of socio-environmental studies, and increasing transparency. Key recommendations include introducing a pre-feasibility phase, utilizing a 'market access' approach to define indirect areas of influence, and creating a single publicly available georeferenced database for infrastructure projects. The report highlights systemic failures, such as the fact that 57% of primary documents for ten analyzed federal concessions were unavailable and that no analyzed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) completely complied with its terms of reference.

• Land transport infrastructure is a significant driver of deforestation in the Amazon; historically, about 95% of deforestation occurred within 5.5 km of a road until 2006. Specific planned projects in Pará, including the Ferrogrão railroad and highways BR-155/158, BR-163/230/MT/PA, and BR-230/PA, could cause 6,989 km² of deforestation over thirty years.
• The current decision-making process for infrastructure projects lacks linearity and clear competencies, often resulting in bidding processes occurring before environmental impact assessments (EIA) or Technical, Economic, and Environmental Feasibility Studies (EVTEA) are completed. The report recommends explicitly defining the order of steps and introducing a pre-feasibility phase to prevent low-quality projects from progressing.
• Socio-environmental studies often fail to meet their own standards; half of the EVTEAs analyzed by CPI/PUC-Rio did not comply with their terms of reference, and no analyzed EIA fully complied. The report suggests that EVTEAs should be conducted before and considered by EIAs to enable earlier analysis.
• Traditional methods of defining a project's indirect area of influence using buffers are imprecise. CPI/PUC-Rio proposes a 'market access' approach to estimate areas economically affected by a project, which can more accurately predict deforestation and carbon emissions, as demonstrated in the Ferrogrão railroad project.
• There is a critical lack of transparency and data availability regarding federal infrastructure projects in the Amazon. An analysis of ten federal rail and road concessions revealed that 57% of primary documents were unavailable or non-existent, and no approvals for EVTEAs were accessible despite requests under the Access to Information Law.
• The report recommends the creation of a single, publicly available database and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to track infrastructure projects and monitor impacts on conservation units, indigenous lands, and traditional communities.

APA

Climate Policy Initiative (2022). Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/roadmap-for-sustainable-infrastructure-in-the-amazon/

Chicago

Climate Policy Initiative. Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon. 2022. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/roadmap-for-sustainable-infrastructure-in-the-amazon/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Policy Initiative |title=Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon |date=4 July 2022 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/roadmap-for-sustainable-infrastructure-in-the-amazon/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatepolicyinitiative2022roadmap, author = {{Climate Policy Initiative}}, title = {{Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/publication/roadmap-for-sustainable-infrastructure-in-the-amazon/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }