New deal pushes Amazon’s controversial ‘tipping point road’ ahead

The 885-kilometer (550-mile) highway in Brazil between the cities of Manaus and Porto Velho, BR-319, is one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in the Amazon. Local politicians argue that repaving the road — left in disrepair for decades and unpassable during the rainy seasons — would reconnect Amazonas state, where Manaus is the capital, with the rest of Brazil, leading to a new era of prosperity in the region. Environmentalists, however, fear a catastrophe, since the road slices through one of the rainforest’s most conserved areas, home to 69 Indigenous territories and 41 conservation units. Some critics argue that BR-319’s renewal could push the Amazon to its tipping point, at which the rainforest converts into a savanna. “BR-319 is the first domino in a chain of effects t