- Brazil’s Supreme Court upheld a law removing 862 hectares (2,130 acres) from Jamanxim National Park, clearing a legal obstacle for the proposed Ferrogrão grain railway.
- The lower house in Congress also approved a measure reducing another Jamanxim conservation unit; although, the bill still must be voted on in the Senate.
- The project threatens Indigenous territories and key habitats for jaguars, giant otters and primates in an Amazonian region already facing extensive land grabbing and deforestation.
- Experts warn the ruling could make it easier to reduce protected areas elsewhere in Brazil for future infrastructure and development projects.
A ruling by Brazil’s Supreme Court has given new momentum to one of the most controversial infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon: The Ferrogrão railway. The plan is to link Sinop, in the grain-producing state of Mato Grosso, to the port of Miritituba in Pará, a key commodity export hub on the Tapajós River. Conceived by the agribusiness sector to reduce grain transportation costs, Ferrogrão is a priority project for President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s administration, despite warnings about its potential impacts on Indigenous territories and protected forests in an Amazon region already under significant socio-environmental pressure.
In May, the justices upheld a 2017 law that removed 862 hectares (2,130 acres) from Jamanxim National Park, a conservation unit located in Pará state, to allow Ferrogrão to pass through the protected area. The initiative had been challenged on the grounds that Brazil’s Federal Constitution requires a formal law to reduce the size of protected areas, rather than the conversion into law of a provisional measure issued by the executive branch.
“The STF decision does not give the green light to the Ferrogrão project, which still must undergo environmental studies and the licensing process,” said Alice Dandara de Assis Correia, an attorney at Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), a nonprofit that advocates for environmental and Indigenous rights. “But the courts have ruled that specially protected areas can be altered through an expedited process, an extremely dangerous shortcut that could pave the way for Congress to approve similar changes in other protected areas facing pressure from economic interests,” she told Mongabay by phone.
The justices said the law reducing the size of Jamanxim doesn’t automatically authorize the construction of the Ferrogrão, which remains subject to approvals and permits from federal agencies. Environmental groups and Indigenous peoples, however, view the decision as a setback for environmental protection. In their view, the ruling shows that protected areas can be reconsidered in the face of projects backed by agribusiness and other interests, increasing legal uncertainty.
Brazil’s Ministry of Transport welcomed the decision as a victory for Ferrogrão, saying that upholding the law reducing the protected area was “an important step toward strengthening and advancing the project.” The ministry reaffirmed that it is proceeding responsibly, in compliance with legal requirements, while continuing to refine the studies needed for the project. The Brazilian Association of Soy Producers, the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock and other agribusiness organizations also celebrated the decision.
In an email to Mongabay, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, IBAMA, declined to comment on the decision and said it is awaiting updated information from the Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Impact Report for the project as part of the licensing process.
The Amazon grain railway
Proposed by multinational companies to the Brazilian government in 2014, Ferrogrão is part of the Arco Norte project, a set of infrastructure initiatives aimed at improving logistical efficiency in northern Brazil and reducing shipping costs. The 933-kilometer (580-mile) railway, designed to transport soybeans and corn, would cut through protected forests and Indigenous territories, making it one of the Amazon’s most contested infrastructure projects.
Despite warnings about its socio-environmental impacts, the project has retained support across successive administrations. “The Brazilian government has taken a leading role in the Ferrogrão project because it recognizes its importance to the country’s agribusiness logistics sector,” Marcus Quintella, director of FGV Transportes, a higher education institution and think tank focused on transportation, logistics and urban mobility, told Mongabay by phone. “This political support is essential for the environmental permitting process to move forward, though significant uncertainties remain.”
Ferrogrão is still in the technical, economic and environmental viability study phase, the first of several steps required before the railway can proceed. In March, following a warning from the Federal Public Ministry about financial irregularities, socio-environmental risks and the lack of consultation with Indigenous peoples, Brazil’s Federal Court of Accounts kept its review of the project on hold, citing significant institutional, legal and financial risks.
For the review to resume, the National Land Transport Agency, an independent agency responsible for regulating road and rail networks, and the Ministry of Transport must submit updated studies based on adequate public engagement, including consultations with Indigenous peoples. The Ferrogrão route could affect 48 Indigenous territories.
According to Quintella, the Supreme Court’s decision may help advance Ferrogrão, but several uncertainties continue to hinder the project. “To make this major railroad project viable, investors need assurance that environmental permitting and other sensitive issues will be resolved.”
In 2025, Brazil weakened its environmental licensing framework, creating self-approving licensing and handing decisions to politicians.
A study published in November 2024 by the Amazônia 2030 project said that Ferrogrão is economically unviable and suffers from serious structural flaws, in addition to its significant socio-environmental impacts. The report said construction costs had been drastically underestimated and that the project would require more than 32 billion reais ($6.4 billion). The need for taxpayer money to support a project originally presented as a private-sector initiative has also raised concerns within Brazil’s rail sector, with companies already operating in the country assessing how the new railway could affect existing routes.
Conservation at risk
One day before the Supreme Court decision, the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s lower house of Congress, approved a bill to reduce the size of Jamanxim National Forest, a different conservation unit in the same region of Pará. As a result of the proposed change, approximately 486,000 hectares (1.2 million acres) were reclassified as an Environmental Protection Area, a category with lower environmental protections. The bill also allows mining.
The bill must still be approved by the Senate before being submitted to President Lula for sanctioning or vetoes.
According to experts, weakening protections is particularly concerning because the Jamanxim region has experienced extensive land grabbing and deforestation since the paving of BR-163, the main highway linking Brazil’s grain-producing central-west region to the Tapajós River corridor. These protected areas have played an important role in safeguarding jaguars, giant otters, primates and many other threatened species.
“This part of the Amazon, already under significant pressure from soybean transportation, is now seeing protected areas being compromised to make way for agricultural expansion,” Dandara, the nonprofit attorney, said. “Jamanxim National Park and Jamanxim National Forest were established as environmental compensation for the BR-163 highway. It is unwise to weaken these protections in light of plans to build a railroad that will exacerbate environmental impacts in the region.”
A technical note from the Climate Observatory, a network of civil society groups working on climate change, states that the bill approved by Brazilian lawmakers could increase deforestation and biodiversity loss and worsen the climate crisis. The group also says that the regularization of areas associated with land grabbing and illegal mining within federal conservation units could encourage the illegal occupation of state-owned lands and increase the risk of deforestation in other forested areas.
Brazil & China move ahead on 3,000-km railway crossing the Amazon
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