By Joaquim Leite*(Opinion) The Amazon Rainforest, often imagined as an enchanted forest, is a region of breathtaking beauty but faces the dual challenge of oil exploration and environmental preservation.This includes severe challenges like drug trafficking, illegal deforestation, and insufficient basic services like security, health, and education.Alarmingly, almost half of the municipalities in the North region lack potable water and sewage treatment, leading to environmental degradation and diseases like diarrhea, dengue, and malaria.Both the public and private sectors lack the capacity and resources to boost the local economy and ensure the well-being of the residents and the preservation of the Amazon.Nonetheless, discovering an oil reserve in a remote maritime strip of the region offers a massive opportunity for transformation.The Amazons dual challenge oil exploration and environmental preservation.
(Photo Internet reproduction)It is essential to approach oil and gas production research rationally and pragmatically without being swayed by romantic environmentalist views that have historically hindered the Amazons development and forest protection.Notably, Petrobras, a company with vast offshore experience and a carbon footprint 40% lower than the global average, was denied a research license.This highlights the need for an ideology-free approach to natural resource exploration.The Federal Government needs to be smart and quick in its approach by revising the royalty distribution model to favor the whole Amazon.It should also introduce new strategies, such as broadening the Social Tariff for Electricity and creating a strong payment-for-environmental-services program.These actions will boost the economy, lessen disparities, and strengthen environmental preservation.The potential US$200 billion investment in oil exploration on the Amazons maritime coast represents an opportunity to secure a green future for the entire region.Responsible exploration of natural resources makes it possible to benefit the countrys economic development and the region without compromising the forest.Perhaps, one day, the Amazon Rainforest will indeed become enchanted for all its inhabitants.Until then, the Amazon will keep being exposed to this dual challenge of oil exploration and environmental preservation.* Joaquim Leite was Minister of the Environment (2021 2022).This is a short version of his opinion piece published in Portuguese here.