On the first day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), legal Amazon conservationists defended infrastructure projects – and indeed consolidated projects – with direct environmental impacts on the biome and traditional communities in different parts of the region.
The position of the Amazon governors was expressed on Monday afternoon (10), in the pavilion occupied by the Interstate Amazônia Legal consortium in the COP 30 Blue Zone, the main space for climate negotiations.
The governors of Pará, Amazonas, Amapa, Acre, Mato Grosso, Maranhão and Tocantins took part in the consortium’s first COP30 event – and they all spoke. Roraima Governor, António Denarium (PP), is participating in the COP30 conference, but was not present at the event. Marcos Rocha (Uniao Brasil) from Rondônia did not attend the conference.
At the end of his speech during the event at the pavilion, the Governor of the State of Amazonas, Wilson Lima (Uniao Brazil), showed a video clip covering the potassium exploration project in the state, in the Otazes region, and the natural gas exploration project in the Silves and Itapiranga region, which is managed by Eneva, one of the main owners of thermal power plants in Brazil, as solutions for the forest.
The potash project, run by Potássio do Brasil – an affiliate of the Canadian firm Forbes & Manhattan and other international and Brazilian investors – divided the region’s indigenous Mura people and attempted to establish mines in areas traditionally inhabited by indigenous people for more than a hundred years. There has also been an increase in conflicts with farmers in the region.
Potassium extraction has not yet begun, but the project has obtained licenses from the Amazonas government, through the Amazonas Institute for Environmental Protection, and is trying to raise funds.
The exploration of fossil fuels in the Silves and Itapiranga region, in turn, affects traditional communities, as the construction of new thermal power plants and the expansion of the extraction of natural gas, a fossil fuel, are expected.
The governor of Mato Grosso, Mauro Mendes (Uniao Brasil), defended the potash project in Amazonas. Potassium is the basis of fertilizers widely used in agriculture, and Mato Grosso should be its main destination.
Méndez also championed the Ferrogrão, the railway that, if implemented, would run 933 kilometers between Sinop (MT) and Itaituba (PA). Ferrogrão affects indigenous lands, fishing communities and small farms in the Itaituba region. It is defended by major international agribusiness companies, which operate terminals in the region, and has been seized by Lula’s government.
“We can’t leave here with just a few crumbs,” Mendez said. The governor asked, “How much does it cost to spend 15 years in a potash mine in Amazonas to obtain an environmental license? What is the cost of not owning a ferrograo and transporting (the grains) in thousands of trucks?”
“Here come Mr. (Emmanuel) Macron (President of France) and NGOs and say that (the railway) is attacking the planet,” Mendes added.
The governor of Amapa state, Clecio Luis (Solidarity), defended the oil exploration project on the Amazon coast. Lula and Petrobras lobbied the Ibama Institute (the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) to grant a license for oil exploration in Area 59, 160 kilometers from the coast.
At the UN Climate Change Conference (COP28), it was agreed to limit the use of fossil fuels, an issue that Lula addressed in his speeches at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), despite pressure for more oil on the Brazilian coast.
“On the one hand there is the preserved Amazon region, and on the other hand, the people who need dignified development, jobs and infrastructure,” said the governor of Amapa. “There are extremes that romanticize the Amazon. We don’t want to be outcasts, or refuges.”
In his speech, Clessio did not directly defend oil exploration off the coast of Oyabuki (AP). the BoundHowever, he defended the Petrobras project. “This is not a contradiction (regarding what the COP is proposing). We need jobs, and this is not our only bet. There is work to organize local production chains.”
The host of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP30), Pará Governor Helder Barbalo (MDB), said he shared the same “discontent” as Mato Grosso’s governor, but did not directly defend projects affecting the Amazon region and traditional communities.
In the Amazon Legal Consortium space, Barbalo introduced a program called Vale Bioamazônico, with a focus on the bioeconomy. According to the Pará government, the aim is to encourage research, technology and innovation, in order to add value to the permanent forest. The state government says the inspiration came from Silicon Valley, a region for high-tech companies in the United States.
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