Environmental Viability of Land Transport Infrastructure in the Amazon

The document analyzes 14 large-scale railroad and highway projects in the Legal Amazon, finding significant gaps in the viability phase. Key issues include the lack of a mandatory sequence between Technical, Economic and Environmental Viability Studies (EVTEA) and Environmental Impact Studies (EIA), and a severe lack of transparency, with 57% of essential documents unavailable. The authors recommend mandating that EVTEA precede EIA to identify risks earlier and establishing a centralized database for all concession documents.

• The viability phase for federal railroad and highway concessions lacks clear procedural rules, leading to uncertainty regarding the order of stages and the responsibility for obtaining the Preliminary License.
• There is no legal requirement for Technical, Economic and Environmental Viability Studies (EVTEA) to precede Environmental Impact Studies (EIA), which undermines the coherence of the viability phase and prevents early-stage socio-environmental risk assessment.
• Transparency is severely limited in the viability phase; 57% of the main documents and information for the 14 analyzed federal highway and railroad concessions in the Amazon were unavailable or missing.
• Information regarding infrastructure concessions is fragmented and contradictory across different government agencies, such as the PPI and VALEC, which provide conflicting data on project starting points.
• The lack of transparency regarding the criteria used to approve EVTEA and the unavailability of approval documents is identified as one of the major weaknesses of the entire concession process.

APA

Cozendey, G., & Chiavari, J. (2021). Environmental Viability of Land Transport Infrastructure in the Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Environmental-Viability.pdf

Chicago

Cozendey, Gabriel, and Joana Chiavari. Environmental Viability of Land Transport Infrastructure in the Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative, 2021. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Environmental-Viability.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cozendey |first1=Gabriel |last2=Chiavari |first2=Joana |title=Environmental Viability of Land Transport Infrastructure in the Amazon |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=June 2021 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Environmental-Viability.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cozendey2021environmental, author = {Cozendey, Gabriel and Chiavari, Joana}, title = {{Environmental Viability of Land Transport Infrastructure in the Amazon}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2021}, month = jun, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/PB-Environmental-Viability.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }