Clear cut section of a rainforest

Reading the title, you are probably thinking, that does not sound right. Why would representatives of a COP summit allow deforestation in the one and only Amazon rainforest? 

Thousands of trees in the Amazon rainforest are being cut down for a four-lane highway that is being built for the COP30 climate summit, which is set to be held in the Brazilian city of Belém from November 10-21, 2025. As mentioned by BBC News, “the eight-mile highway is being built to ease traffic to the city, which will host more than 50,000 people, including world leaders, at the conference. The state government touts the highway’s ‘sustainable’ credentials, but some locals and conservationists are outraged at the environmental impact… The Brazilian president and environment minister say this will be a historic summit because it is ‘a COP in the Amazon, not a COP about the Amazon.’” Let’s take a step back and think about this. 

World leaders at COP29

What is the COP30 climate summit (also known as the UNFCCC)? On the United Nations website, they explain, “Every year, countries that have joined the United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) meet to measure progress and negotiate multilateral responses to climate change… The UNFCCC is a multilateral treaty adopted in 1992…to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic (human-induced) interference with the climate system.” Who are the people attending this conference? Representatives from all countries that are Parties to the UNFCCC. This includes representatives from governments, observers (like NGOs and the private sector), and the media. The people that we trust to decide the future of our Earth have decided to build a highway in the middle of the largest tropical rainforest for a climate summit? BBC shares, “Adler Silveira, the state government’s infrastructure secretary, listed this highway as one of 30 projects happening in the city to ‘prepare’ and ‘modernise’ it, so ‘we can have a legacy for the population and, more importantly, serve people for COP30 in the best possible way.’” Speaking to the BBC, he said it was a “sustainable highway” and an “important mobility intervention” and added that it would have wildlife crossings for animals to pass over, bike lanes, and solar lighting. “New hotels are also being built, and the port is being redeveloped so cruise ships can dock there to accommodate excess visitors,” added BBC News. I don’t think that wildlife crossings, bike lanes, and solar lighting can come close to balancing out the harm this highway brings to the Amazon. 

First of all, the Amazon rainforest is home to many indigenous communities. It is also a ground to grow acai berries. The New York Post shared a story of an indigenous man named Claudio Verquete:

“Everything was destroyed,” said Claudio Verequete, who lives about a quarter-mile from the roadway in progress and used to make a living harvesting açaí berries from trees near his land, which are no longer standing. “Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family,” he told the outlet, noting he has not received any compensation from the government and is keeping his finances afloat by dipping into savings.

Considering that the Amazon is one of the most biodiverse forests in the world, deforestation will certainly cause a loss of biodiversity. “Not only does the Amazon encompass the single largest remaining tropical rainforest in the world, it also houses at least 10% of the world’s known biodiversity, including endemic and endangered flora and fauna, and its river accounts for 15-16% of the world’s total river discharge into the oceans. The Amazon River flows for more than 6,600 km, and with its hundreds of tributaries and streams contains the largest number of freshwater fish species in the world,” according to the World Wildlife Fund. The BBC reports, “The road leaves two disconnected areas of protected forest. Scientists are concerned it will fragment the ecosystem and disrupt the movement of wildlife… ‘Land animals will no longer be able to cross to the other side too, reducing the areas where they can live and breed,’ said Professor Silvia Sardinha.” As mentioned by Fox News, “Despite thousands of acres of rainforest being torn down, one of the core topics that the COP30 summit aims to address is the ‘preservation of forests and biodiversity,’ with Belém being the first COP summit held in the Amazon.” Cutting down thousands of trees will have a drastic negative effect on climate change. “Given the enormous amount of carbon stored in the forests of the Amazon, there is tremendous potential to alter the global climate if not properly stewarded. The Amazon contains 90-140 billion metric tons of carbon, the release of even a portion of which would accelerate global warming significantly” (WWF). The list of negatives just keeps going, especially considering that they are cutting through a protected area of the rainforest to build this highway.

It is obvious that not much thought has gone into the impacts this highway will have on the rainforest in the long run. Building this just for a single summit is quite absurd and selfish. What will it be used for after the conference? Due to the walls on either side of the highway, if the indigenous communities needed to use it to go to a hospital in any emergency, they wouldn’t even have access. Taking into account the harm, representatives should have decided to conduct the summit elsewhere instead of in the Amazon. In my opinion, it is unfair that we can let representatives get away with these actions when it is clearly doing nothing but terrible things to our environment. How ironic is it that they decide to deforest a beautiful forest for their “efficiency” and then decide to add the topic of “preserving biodiversity and forest” on their climate summit agenda, when they are clearly doing the opposite? This just serves as even more motivation for us, young people, to take our own action. We need to come together and fight for our future, instead of letting other people decide what should and shouldn’t be done. It’s now or never. Are you in? 

 

References

Wegrowski, B. (2024, September 11). Deforestation in the amazon rainforest. Ballard Brief. https://ballardbrief.byu.edu/issue-briefs/deforestation-in-the-amazon-rainforest 

Qin, Y., Wang, D., Ziegler, A. D., Fu, B., & Zeng, Z. (2025, March 5). Impact of amazonian deforestation on precipitation reverses between seasons. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08570-y 

Wells, I. (2025, March 12). Amazon rainforest cut down to build highway for cop climate summit. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9vy191rgn1o 

Nesi, C. (2025, March 16). Massive stretch of Amazon rainforest destroyed for upcoming Cop30 Climate Summit’s 4-lane highway: “this is a loss.” New York Post. https://nypost.com/2025/03/12/world-news/amazon-rainforest-destroyed-to-build-road-for-climate-summit/ 

About the Amazon. WWF. (n.d.). https://wwf.panda.org/discover/knowledge_hub/where_we_work/amazon/about_the_amazon/ 

United Nations. (n.d.). UN Climate Change Conferences. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/un-climate-conferences 

Kornick, L., & Fox News. (2025, March 13). Thousands of acres of Amazon rainforest cleared for Climate Summit Highway in Brazil. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/media/thousands-acres-amazon-rainforest-cleared-climate-summit-highway-brazil