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. It identifies critical failures in the current project life cycle, including a lack of linear decision-making, poor quality of socio-environmental studies, and a severe lack of transparency. To address this, the authors propose a roadmap based on three pillars: anticipating socio-environmental analysis, improving study quality, and increasing transparency. Key recommendations include introducing a pre-feasibility phase, requiring Technical, Economic, and Environmental Feasibility Studies (EVTEA) to precede Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA), and implementing a georeferenced database (GIS) to track projects and their impacts on conservation units and indigenous lands.

• Land transport infrastructure is a major 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 30 years.
• The current decision-making process for infrastructure projects lacks linearity and clear competencies, often resulting in projects undergoing bidding before completing environmental impact assessments (EIA) or Technical, Economic, and Environmental Feasibility Studies (EVTEA).
• The report recommends a restructured project life cycle that introduces a pre-feasibility phase and ensures the EVTEA is conducted before the EIA. This sequence is intended to prevent low-quality projects from reaching a point of no return and to improve technical consistency.
• Socio-environmental studies often fail to meet their own requirements; half of the EVTEAs analyzed by CPI/PUC-Rio did not comply with their terms of reference, and none of the analyzed EIAs fully complied.
• The report advocates for a 'market access' approach to define the indirect area of influence for projects, arguing that traditional buffer-based methods are insufficient. For the Ferrogrão railroad, the market access approach identifies a larger indirect area of influence than simple buffers, affecting deforestation and carbon emission predictions.
• There is a significant lack of transparency in federal land concessions in the Amazon; 57% of primary project documents were unavailable or non-existent, and no EVTEA approvals were found despite requests under the Access to Information Law.
• The authors recommend the creation of a unified, publicly available database and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to track infrastructure locations and their overlap with conservation units, indigenous territories, and traditional communities.

APA

Chiavari, J., Antonaccio, L., Araujo, R., Barros, A. C., Bragança, A., & Cozendey, G. (2022). Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Roadmap-Infra-Amazon.pdf

Chicago

Chiavari, Joana, Luiza Antonaccio, Rafael Araujo, Ana Cristina Barros, Arthur Bragança, and Gabriel Cozendey. Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon. Climate Policy Initiative, 2022. https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Roadmap-Infra-Amazon.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chiavari |first1=Joana |last2=Antonaccio |first2=Luiza |last3=Araujo |first3=Rafael |last4=Barros |first4=Ana Cristina |last5=Bragança |first5=Arthur |last6=Cozendey |first6=Gabriel |title=Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon |publisher=Climate Policy Initiative |date=July 2022 |url=https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Roadmap-Infra-Amazon.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chiavari2022roadmap, author = {Chiavari, Joana and Antonaccio, Luiza and Araujo, Rafael and Barros, Ana Cristina and Bragança, Arthur and Cozendey, Gabriel}, title = {{Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure in the Amazon}}, institution = {Climate Policy Initiative}, year = {2022}, month = jul, url = {https://www.climatepolicyinitiative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Roadmap-Infra-Amazon.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }