A massive swath of protected rainforest in Brazil has been slashed to build a new four-lane highway, paving a direct path into the city hosting an upcoming summit on climate change.

Dubbed the Avenida Liberdade highway, the new stretch of highway cuts across tens of thousands of acres of rainforest located on the outskirts of Belem, where more than 50,000 people, including world leaders, are anticipated to gather in November for the COP30 Climate Summit, according to a report from BBC News.

Government officials say the new roadway is “sustainable,” but with its placement through the Amazon – which plays a vital role in the planet’s biodiversity by absorbing carbon – many have spoken out against the construction.

“It is a cruel irony that a highway destroying the Amazon rainforest is being built for a climate summit meant to protect it,” the Executive Coordinator of YouthNet Global, Sohanur Rahman, said in a statement condemning the project.

The annual COP event, which stands for “The Conference of the Parties,” gathers policymakers from across the globe to address many of the same issues caused by the Avenida Liberdade‘s construction, including carbon emissions, biodiversity loss, and deforestation. Previous events have been criticized for having multiple people fly to a central location and contributing to air pollution.

Locals in the region are worried about the roadway’s effects on the swath of rainforest.

“From the moment of deforestation, there is a loss,” a wildlife veterinarian and researcher with University Animal Hospital in Belem, Professor Silvia Sardinha, said.

“We are going to lose an area to release these animals back into the wild, the natural environment of these species.”

State Infrastructure Secretary Adler Silveira has defended the project, calling it an “important mobility intervention.”

“We can have a legacy for the population and, more importantly, serve people for COP30 in the best possible way,” he said, according to Daily Mail.

Farmer Claudio Verequete, who lives about a tenth of a mile from the roadway construction, has already lost income due to the project after the trees he harvested acai berries from were chopped down.

“Everything was destroyed,” he said to BBC News. “Our harvest has already been cut down. We no longer have that income to support our family.”

He also fears that more deforestation will occur in the future.

“Our fear is that one day someone will come here and say: ‘Here’s some money. We need this area to build a gas station, or to build a warehouse.’ And then we’ll have to leave.”

“We were born and raised here in the community. Where are we going to go?”