Brazil’s Amazon megaprojects threaten Lula’s green ambitions

On Jan. 1, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva walked up the presidential palace ramp with Indigenous leader Raoni Metuktire, distinguished by his yellow hat and wooden lip plate.

A large railway that would increase deforestation in Metuktire’s ancestral area could sour relations between the socialist leader and the Kayapó chief. It’s one of several mega-projects that opponents and experts warn will ruin the ecosystem and damage Lula’s newfound environmentalist reputation.

An oil drilling project near the Amazon River’s mouth, a highway across some of the Amazon rainforest’s most protected areas, and a huge hydropower dam’s license renewal are others. “Lula discusses the environment, illegal mining, and Indigenous territories. He knows a lot but needs more. “We’re still very worried,” said Munduruku Indigenous leader Alessandra Korap, who won the Goldman Environmental Prize for fighting illegal mining.

Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s predecessor, reduced environmental regulations and increased deforestation to a 15-year high. The far-right leader appointed military and agribusiness cronies to environmental agency posts. Trampled indigenous rights.

After narrowly defeating Bolsonaro last year, Lula has prioritized environmental protection and Indigenous rights in his third term. He resumed successful international donations for the Amazon Fund, launched a military effort to evict illegal miners from Yanomami land, vowed to eradicating all unlawful deforestation by 2030, and reopened Indigenous area demarcation.

However, big infrastructural projects challenge Lula. Some in Lula’s Workers’ Party believe they’re necessary for job creation and growth, while others think they’re disastrous. Brazil, a developing nation, demands social benefits.

OIL-DRILLING PROJECT
Brazil’s environmental agency, Ibama, will decide soon whether to approve drilling near the Amazon. Suely Araújo, former Ibama leader and public policy specialist with the Climate Observatory, said approval would lead to drilling throughout the region.

Coherence matters. Lula’s climate and environmental comments are spot-on. Oil exploration increases fossil fuels. “Inconsistency,” Araújo stated.

Offshore discoveries funded health, education, and social welfare during Lula’s first tenure.

“To a large extent, this vision remains, meaning it will be very difficult to persuade the government to give up strategic projects, even when there are significant social environmental risks,” said Maiara Folly, head of CIPO, a climate and international relations think tank.

More off Brazil’s northern coast is sought as production peaks in the coming years. It has a coral reef and unexplored mangroves.

Araújo warned of tide-borne leakage.

Petrobras has allocated nearly half of its five-year, $6 billion exploration budget to the area. CEO Jean Paul Prates claimed the first well will be temporary and that offshore drilling has never leaked.

In March, Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira called the area the “passport to the future” for northern Brazilian development. Lula called past offshore oil discoveries the same.

Eighty civil society and environmental organizations, including WWF Brasil and Greenpeace, want the license revoked until further examination.

Hydroelectric Dam
Lula designed and Dilma Rousseff completed the Belo Monte hydroelectric project on the Xingu River. Supporters regarded it as a means to create jobs and boost Brazil.

Indigenous peoples and environmentalists vigorously resisted it, and studies indicate its harmful effects. Civil society organizations say tens of thousands were displaced, and experts ascribe a local violence rise to lost jobs. The Xingu’s Volta Grande, or Big Bend, has lost water. Fish, a staple of many Indigenous communities, vanished.

Lula is considering renewing Belo Monte’s license. The dam’s owner, Norte Energia, violated multiple license restrictions last summer, the regulator stated.

Local media said that Norte Energia offered over 2,000 fisherman 20,000 reais ($4,000).

Researchers in the region wrote a letter to environmental journalism website Sumauma in January urging Lula and his government to investigate and punish dam-related crimes and injustices.

“Any government really committed to conserving the Amazon and fighting the climate crisis is obliged to recognize the problems caused by Belo Monte and to fix the damage and impacts,” the letter read.

Locals want Norte Energia to use water in a way that sustains river life before renewing the license.

Folly alleged Rousseff’s government pressured the license’s issuance. “Nobody is going to be coerced, as they were before, and this represents a total change,” Marina Silva told Sumauma in March.