Tree Huggers

This will probably be less destructive than a road or a mining project, but if this increases trade with China, then it increases the profit incentive for production of all of those deforestation-linked commodities that are produced in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes, and possibly in the Atlantic Forest as well. The main problem is therefore not the destruction caused by the railway itself but by the production of the things that it transports.

Another (potential) problem with this railway is that it creates a new profit incentive for deforestation. If speculators buy land in key locations along the railway and deforest it in anticipation of the demand for a settlement or trading hub, the damage is done, even if nothing is ever built there. Better than the semi-permanent destruction of having a town or road or mining project or cow pasture there, and maybe it won't happen at all, but it still isn't exactly good news. If the railway were replacing a road network which would be closed off and allowed to reforest itself, then that would be progress.