Accessibility in the Legal Amazon: Delimiting the Area of Influence and Environmental Risks

The document examines the high socio-environmental costs of logistics infrastructure in the Legal Amazon, such as deforestation and carbon emissions. It proposes replacing inconsistent geographic-based delimitation of a project's 'area of influence' with a 'market access approach' based on international trade literature. Using the BR-319 highway as a case study, the report demonstrates how this method more accurately identifies affected populations and environmental risks, including impacts on 49 indigenous territories and 49 conservation units. It concludes with policy recommendations for the Brazilian Ministry of Infrastructure to mandate early risk assessments and transparent, public-domain methodologies for delimiting influence areas.

• Logistics infrastructure investments in the Legal Amazon often result in high socio-environmental costs that can outweigh the tax benefits of the projects, specifically regarding carbon emissions from associated deforestation.
• Improved accessibility through logistics projects encourages land grabbing and the expansion of agricultural frontiers, leading to biodiversity loss, illegal crime, and negative impacts on local rainfall and infant mortality due to fire-related air pollution.
• Past methods for delimiting the 'area of influence' for projects have been inconsistent and based on arbitrary geographic criteria, such as fixed distance or microbasins, rather than economic impact.
• The proposed 'market access approach' uses a metric of accessibility to identify regions where transportation costs and market entry/exit are significantly affected, allowing for earlier mitigation discussions and more effective community consultation.
• Applying the market access approach to the BR-319 highway project reveals a much larger and more complex area of influence than fixed-distance methods, encompassing nine municipalities in Amazonas state with over 320,000 residents.
• The area of influence for the BR-319 highway includes 49 indigenous territories, 49 conservation units, and more than 140,000 km2 of undesignated public forest.

APA

Araujo, R., Bragança, A., & Assunção, J. (2022). Accessibility in the Legal Amazon: Delimiting the Area of Influence and Environmental Risks. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AMZ-2030_Area-of-Influence.pdf

Chicago

Araujo, Rafael, Arthur Bragança, and Juliano Assunção. Accessibility in the Legal Amazon: Delimiting the Area of Influence and Environmental Risks. Climate Policy Initiative, 2022. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AMZ-2030_Area-of-Influence.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Araujo |first1=Rafael |last2=Bragança |first2=Arthur |last3=Assunção |first3=Juliano |title=Accessibility in the Legal Amazon: Delimiting the Area of Influence and Environmental Risks |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=June 2022 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AMZ-2030_Area-of-Influence.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{araujo2022accessibility, author = {Araujo, Rafael and Bragança, Arthur and Assunção, Juliano}, title = {{Accessibility in the Legal Amazon: Delimiting the Area of Influence and Environmental Risks}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2022}, month = jun, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/AMZ-2030_Area-of-Influence.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }