Ione Wells

I'm standing in what was once a protected area of the Amazon rainforest. There are huge lush green trees on either side as you would expect but through the middle there is now this huge cleared space where a new highway is being built. There are piles of logs on the side where trees have been deforested.

This is where the government is building a new highway to ease traffic for the city ahead of the COP climate summit. You can see machines and diggers clearing and paving the road. Claudio Veracchi lives in the forest about 200 metres from here. He used to make his living from harvesting acai berries from trees here. Now that isn't possible. Those acai trees are gone.

This is where the government is building a new highway to ease traffic for the city ahead of the COP climate summit. You can see machines and diggers clearing and paving the road. Claudio Veracchi lives in the forest about 200 metres from here. He used to make his living from harvesting acai berries from trees here. Now that isn't possible. Those acai trees are gone.

The government in Brazil has made a big deal about hosting the COP summit in the Amazon, about it being used to show the world the importance of protecting the Amazon. And yet preparations for this summit have already deforested some of the last remaining protected forests in this area.

The government in Brazil has made a big deal about hosting the COP summit in the Amazon, about it being used to show the world the importance of protecting the Amazon. And yet preparations for this summit have already deforested some of the last remaining protected forests in this area.

Someone who knows a lot about the potential impact that the road might have here is Professor Silvia Sarginha, a vet and wildlife researcher. At this university hospital, she looks after injured wild animals and releases them back into the wild, something that now might get a lot harder.

Someone who knows a lot about the potential impact that the road might have here is Professor Silvia Sarginha, a vet and wildlife researcher. At this university hospital, she looks after injured wild animals and releases them back into the wild, something that now might get a lot harder.

This highway is part of a whole range of construction works that are happening in this city to prepare it to host tens of thousands of people for COP in November. New hotels are being frantically built, the airport is tripling in size, a conference centre is being developed and the port is getting ready to hold cruise ships to house some of the people that there won't be hotel rooms for.

This highway is part of a whole range of construction works that are happening in this city to prepare it to host tens of thousands of people for COP in November. New hotels are being frantically built, the airport is tripling in size, a conference centre is being developed and the port is getting ready to hold cruise ships to house some of the people that there won't be hotel rooms for.

Adler Silveira, the state government's infrastructure secretary, thinks the highway and other works here will bring benefits.

Adler Silveira, the state government's infrastructure secretary, thinks the highway and other works here will bring benefits.

In Veropesso, the city's huge open-air market, some business owners are hopeful all this development will bring positive economic benefits to their region.

In Veropesso, the city's huge open-air market, some business owners are hopeful all this development will bring positive economic benefits to their region.

That's the hope of those who organise these climate summits too. But with tens of thousands of people flying around the world to attend them and the infrastructure needed to host them, scrutiny is growing over whether they're counterproductive to their cause.

That's the hope of those who organise these climate summits too. But with tens of thousands of people flying around the world to attend them and the infrastructure needed to host them, scrutiny is growing over whether they're counterproductive to their cause.

In Brazilian politics, he rose up before he was elected, he was in the army, he was in Congress, and then eventually, of course, won Brazil's presidency in 2018.

In Brazilian politics, he rose up before he was elected, he was in the army, he was in Congress, and then eventually, of course, won Brazil's presidency in 2018.

I think one of the reasons, though, he became very well known across the world was really the platform and the rhetoric that he stood on.

I think one of the reasons, though, he became very well known across the world was really the platform and the rhetoric that he stood on.

He campaigned on a platform of very socially conservative populist policies at a time when that was a bit of a zeitgeist around the world and other parts of the world to aimed at voters generally quite frustrated with crime, with corruption, with the economy not being very good. I think there's a kind of familiar nostalgia that he appealed to that we've seen with other populist figures as well.