Brazil creates four Amazon reserves as plans to pave rainforest highway advance

Brazil's government created four new sustainable-use reserves covering more than 668,000 hectares in the Amazon, timed to offset environmental damage expected from paving the BR-319 highway through one of the rainforest's most intact stretches. President Lula signed the decrees on Sept. 8; the reserves will be managed by the Chico Mendes Institute, with buffer zones adding another 109,718 hectares of lighter protection where mining could still be allowed.

Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco touted a 73% drop in deforestation from 2022 to 2025 and a further 43% drop by mid-2026, following the failed repaving push under former president Bolsonaro that had driven a 144% deforestation spike. But policy specialist Suely Araújo notes the Chico Mendes Institute's budget hasn't grown to match its new territory, and enforcement in a region where officials have been ambushed and offices burned remains entirely undemonstrated.

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