, opens new tab is developing huge fields.While the region holds great potential for Petrobras the firm has faced stiff resistance from local Indigenous communities in Oiapoque and federal prosecutors related to its bid to drill there.Reporting by Fabio Teixeira; editing by David Evans Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab , opens new tab Browse an unrivalled portfolio of real-time and historical market data and insights from worldwide sources and experts. , opens new tabScreen for heightened risk individual and entities globally to help uncover hidden risks in business relationships and human networks. © 2025 Reuters. All rights reserved Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times Gostaria de receber as principais notícias do Brasil e do mundo O jornal Folha de S.Paulo (1921 - 2025) é publicado pela Empresa Folha da Manhã S.A surrounded by mangroves and close to a recently discovered 600-mile reef is divided over what BP and Total might bring and what they might destroy Anchored in shallow, cloudy waters just a few hundred yards from the mangrove swamps that dominate this wild and empty coastline, the fishermen rolled in their nets. The three men had spent five days at sea and their catch glittered on the deck. “It’s good fishing,” said Cleyton Celeiro, 26, who feeds his wife and two children with money earned on trips to the Amapá state coast, on the far north-eastern corner of the Amazon. “It’s beautiful, I like it. I’m proud to be a fisherman.” But the bucolic peace is threatened by two of the world’s biggest oil companies’ plans to start drilling a hundred miles or so out to sea. This alarms Celeiro. As he manoeuvred his tiny boat to a waterside gas station in Oiapoque said drilling would mean a ready supply of cheaper fuel not realising that crude oil would be refined elsewhere This dishevelled and sleepy town of 25,000 on Brazil’s border with French Guiana has become the latest frontline in a global battle between oil companies pushing for new reserves and environmentalists who argue the oil should be left in the ground ‘It is beneficial for the municipality,’ says Maria Garcia Photograph: Dom Phillips/The GuardianWhile some countries are backing away from fossil fuels Brazil is heading in the opposite direction Its business-friendly government encourages international oil companies to invest here and advocates development in protected Amazon areas BP and Total are among several companies who bought exploration rights in the mouth of the Amazon basin in a 2013 tender But environmentalists say this area is too sensitive to risk Even BP admits that in the short-term “exploration phase”, the benefits for Oiapoque will be minimal: they renovated the airport and will pay local taxes, but that’s it. “They will take our oil, take it far away and leave nothing for us,” said Diva Almeida, 53, before a public hearing held by BP and the Brazilian government’s environment agency, Ibama, in Oiapoque in November. “It is really bad.” But for oil companies, the lure of this basin and its estimated 15.6bn barrels of oil is powerful. Geologists and oil executives compare its geology to that found off the coasts of oil-producing nations such as Nigeria, directly across the Atlantic. Exxon has made major oil finds in Guyana, just up the coast. And as the global oil price slowly recovers from a three-year slump, Brazil has become a hotspot. Read moreThe state-run oil company Petrobras is producing record volumes from the vast ultra-deep reserves found off the country’s south-east coast as they lie beneath a thick layer of salt within the earth Total and BP bought shares in new pre-salt areas but that has not dampened BP’s appetite for exploration off Oiapoque During a six-hour boat trip to the Cabo Orange park warden Ricardo Motta Pires said an oil leak would be catastrophic for its mangrove swamps which flood in daily tides and would be impossible to clean He described how pieces of a rocket fired from French Guiana had ended up in the mangroves “There could be a combination of factors that bring it here Ricardo Motta Pires worries about the impact of an oil leak on the park’s mangroves Photograph: Dom Phillips/The GuardianAt a public hearing the next day in Oiapoque BP technicians said their computer modelling showed that in the event of a leak oil would have a 0% chance of reaching the coast and an 8.3% chance of reaching the coral reefs – described by scientists as a whole new ecosystem “The exploration activity generates negative impacts but they are small and do not last long,” Décio Maia operations manager of the Aecom environmental consulting outfit hired by BP and has presented Ibama with a critical analysis of the modelling used “The evaluation found some gaps and oversights in the way the models were implemented and validated,” Greenpeace said Oil executives compare the reef's geology to that found off the coasts of oil-producing nations such as Nigeria directly across the AtlanticGreenpeace analysis of Total’s environmental licence application found that the company calculated up to a 30% risk of oil reaching the reef in the event of a leak One of Total’s planned wells is just 28km from the reefs BP officials explained they sought a licence for five months of exploration work involving one drill-ship a whole new licensing procedure would be required before extraction When asked by the Guardian how they could ensure there would be no damage to the coral reef technician Paula Castellões said the reef system was in shallower water than the planned oil well and was being monitored “Care is being taken that direct operational impacts don’t occur,” she said A public hearing in Oiapoque BP technicians say computer modelling shows that in the event of a leak oil has an 8.3% chance of reaching the coral reefs Photograph: Dom Phillips/The GuardianBP declined interview requests and did not reply to emailed questions “Safety will be BP’s priority in any drilling applying the best practices and technology to ensure safe operations and protect the environment,” the company said in a statement “As there is no certainty that any commercial quantity of oil or gas will be found by this proposed exploration we could not speculate on the potential for future development.” In March, Britain’s trade minister Greg Hands met Paulo Pedrosa, Brazil’s deputy minister for mines and energy, and raised the concerns of UK-based oil firms Shell, BP and Premier Oil over “taxation and environmental licensing” according to a British diplomatic cable released by Greenpeace The environmental licensing applications Total and BP presented have run into problems Ibama sent Total’s application back for more work warning that this was the third and last chance the company had to get it right In November Ibama also sent BP’s application back and requested more analysis At another BP hearing in state capital Macapá a researcher at the Amapá State Scientific and Technical Research Institute who contributed to BP’s studies criticised the firm’s environmental impact report ‘They will take our oil and leave nothing for us’: Diva Almeida at the public hearing in Oiapoque Photograph: Dom Phillips/The GuardianShe said the report downplayed the impact an oil leak could have on plankton in the area which plays an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide Studies have found the plankton is highly productive because it is fed by nutrients from the Amazon river plume information has become as clouded as the waters Locals hope for jobs and improvements to the city’s creaky infrastructure “It’s a good idea; it will bring jobs for everyone,” said Alenilson Maciel a labourer who lives beside a rickety wooden road bridge using Oiapoque only as a stop-off for crew flights said BP had turned down the town’s demand for three pickups and two cars “The company does not want to give anything,” he said but we won’t hold things back because it is beneficial for the municipality.” For many years Oiapoque suffered from illegal gold mining and dredging from “garimpeiros” until the gold ran out and they moved operations further into the forest according to a former miner Ronilson da Silva ‘If it doesn’t damage the environment .. with Juraci Amaral and Daniel Sousa in the Taparabú fishing community Photograph: Dom Phillips/The Guardian“I am against any oil investment here,” he said Unlike Oiapoque, a 10-hour bus journey from Macapá, much on dirt roads through forests, Rio de Janeiro has an established oil industry. Its state government depended heavily on oil taxes and was hit hard when oil prices tumbled. While it struggles to pay salaries, its former governor Sérgio Cabral languishes in jail after being convicted of crimes including corruption and money laundering Others worry that even rumours of an oil boom will send people rushing into Oiapoque causing rural slums to grow up and crime to soar as has happened near other Amazon developments such as the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant “There will be a big problems with security,” said Priscila Barbosa a teacher from the local Karipuna indigenous tribe Amapá state government officials said they supported plans to drill for oil and even floated the idea of building a refinery to process it “Everybody wants better education and a better quality of life,” said communication secretary Gilberto Rodrigues arguing that Amapá gets nothing for keeping most of its forest intact and can’t exploit it because of Greenpeace.” Metrics details The epidemiological surveillance of malaria is a necessary intervention for eliminating the disease from the planet The international border zones of the Amazon continue to be highly vulnerable to malaria since population mobility impedes elimination cases of malaria have had an essential reduction in Brazil this trend was not confirmed in municipalities along the border This study aimed to establish the epidemiology of the disease during the last 13 years in Oiapoque a Brazilian municipality at the international border with French Guiana to develop strategies for the control/elimination of malaria in these areas Data collected from 2003 to 2015 from the Malaria Epidemiological Surveillance System was used despite the important reduction in cases (68.1%) the annual parasite index remained a high epidemiological risk The disease is seasonal in that the period of highest transmission occurs between September and December with one of these lasting 15 months between August 2006 and October 2007 There were changes in the epidemiological profile with imported cases representing 67.7% of cases from 2003 to 2007 and representing 32.9% of cases from 2008 to 2015 (p < 0.01) The greatest number of cases was among Brazilians coming from the artisanal gold mines of French Guiana There were also changes in the profile of autochthonous malaria with an increase in urban cases from 14.3% in 2003 to 32.3% in 2015 (p < 0 .01) The burden of malaria in indigenous areas was also very high (67.3% in rural areas) in 2015 There were changes in the parasite species profile with a significant decrease of cases of Plasmodium falciparum (p = 0.01) representing 9.7% of cases at the onset of the study accounted for 34.2% of case notifications (p < 0.01) in 2015 74% of cases in 2003 and 55.9% in 2015 (p < 0.01) were among men The fragility of local health services in cross-border areas continues to be an obstacle for malaria elimination In the border area between Brazil and French Guiana multiple factors have contributed to the occurrence of malaria but in-depth research is needed to understand its main determinants to identify the best possible measures of disease control This study analyzed the epidemiology of malaria in this border area to propose strategies for the control and/or elimination of the disease in this area Distribution of imported and autochthonous cases between 2003 and 2015 and API during the study period indigenous and other rural cases during the study period Distribution of indigenous cases by base poles and other villages Proportion of malaria cases between men and women between 2003 and 2015 Endemic curve of malaria cases in the municipality of Oiapoque between 2003 and 2015 Of reported cases, 28,326 (51.3%) were autochthonous and 26,858 (48.7%) were imported from other municipalities or countries. Two periods can be observed: the first from 2003 to 2007 and the second from 2008 to 2015 (Fig. 1a and b) 67.7% of case notifications were imported cases from another country 1.4% was imported from another municipality there was a change in the pattern of case notifications with a decrease in the number of imported cases and an increase in autochthonous cases and 0.4% imported from another municipality The changes in percentages of cases imported from other countries and other municipalities in the two periods were statistically significant (p < 0.01 and p < 0.05 French Guiana was the country which exported the most cases to the municipality of Oiapoque between 2003 and 2015 with 98.1% of internationally imported cases coming from that country The majority of these cases were among artisanal gold miners working in illegal mines in French Guiana and/or Suriname 40.1% (10,710/26,733) were of Plasmodium falciparum Of autochthonous cases, 8803 (31.1%) originated in urban areas and 19,523 (68.9%) in rural areas (Fig. 1b) 14.3% (134/938) of cases were urban and 85.7% (804/938) were rural urban areas accounted for 53.7% (1269/2365) of cases and rural areas accounted for 46.7% (1096/2365) there was a decrease in case notifications 32.3% (333/1029) of cases were registered in urban areas This difference was statistically significant (p < 0.01) Spatial distribution of the incidence of malaria in the urban areas of the municipality of Oiapoque between 2003 and 2015 The API in 2015 in the Manga coverage area was 145.2 cases per 1000 inhabitants; in Kumenê it was 107.8 cases per 1000 inhabitants; and in Kumarumã The remaining villages had an API of 254.7 per 1000 inhabitants The remaining cases of the rural area (6390 cases 32.7% of the total) occurred in different locations It should be noted that a location known as “Ramal km 8,” of only 44 inhabitants was the site of 590 (86%) of the 686 cases in the rural non-indigenous area in 2003 This same location significantly contributed to the malaria burden over several years malaria was considered extinct and only two cases of malaria were reported Other rural locations also presented moments with important numbers of cases: of which areas used for relaxation and shopping among gold miners along the Oiapoque River Proportion of cases by parasite species and rate of Falciparum + vivax between 2003 and 2015 Cases of malaria and rate of proportion of men and individuals under 15 years between 2003 and 2015 This study aimed to establish different transmission scenarios of malaria in a municipality along the international border of Brazil and French Guiana The municipality of Oiapoque is considered a high epidemiological risk area for malaria It can be defined as an unstable region with endemic malaria and prone to outbreaks Transmission varies both from month to month and year to year such as illegal miners who cross the border with French Guiana and malaria among the indigenous population and in urban areas of the municipality The burden of malaria among these different scenarios has changed over the study period Geographic location the municipality of Oiapoque-Amapá State Brazil This information is extremely valuable because it demonstrates that this difficult to access population in addition to the humanitarian concern of their prolonged illness Their lack of adherence to antimalarial treatment can produce resistant strains Another important observation was the increase in malaria among the indigenous population The indigenous villages in the municipality present some peculiarities: Manga Village is accessible through route 156 allowing the inhabitants to reach the municipal center with greater ease but it takes 5 hours of travel by boat along various rivers to reach the Kumarumã Village The indigenous residents of Kumenê Village are even more isolated: to arrive at this community and travel may take even longer depending on the tides Distances are a challenge for health care providers Despite the problem of malaria in these communities policies for the indigenous population have suffered a crisis With the administrative decentralization of malaria control programs to the municipalities and transfer of indigenous health (originally under the National Foundation of Health—FUNASA) in 2005 to the Secretariat of Indigenous Health (SESAI) no one assumes ongoing responsibility for malaria in these areas there was an important number of cases in different moments of the study period Cooperation between health sectors and social actors in the municipality is essential The support of the population and other actors can strengthen surveillance and control and enable the elimination of malaria in the near future The city of Oiapoque originated as a military post in 1907 by the Brazilian government to protect the territory against the French This post was later transferred to the location where Clevelândia do Norte is currently located and four districts: Clevelândia do Norte (an army post) Vila Velha (an agro-extractive settlement) Vila Brasil (serves as a support for mines infiltrated in French Guiana) and Taparabú (supports fishermen along the maritime coast) The municipality also includes environmental reserves: Cabo Orange Park and Tumucumaque Mountains Park highlighting the Karipuna ethnic group in the villages within the Kumenê coverage area and Galibi in the Kumarumã and Palikur coverage areas and the Palikur residing in one route connecting these areas to the state capital Macapá: a road to the south of about 600 km with unpaved especially during the rainy season when many portions of the road are impassable because of quagmires Both the distance to the capital and intense rains in the region limit traffic every year and create barriers to accessibility for the local population The trip by bus from Macapá to Oiapoque lasts around 10 h during the dry season Oiapoque is one of the poorest municipalities in the state of Amapá (10th poorest) with a human development index of 0.658 (considered low) The local economy is based on mineral extraction (mining) retail (Brazilian products sold to the Guyanese public services (with a major portion of the public payroll dedicated to the military) and vegetable extraction (especially of acai) in addition to the sale of horticultural products in the local market Subsistence fishing and hunting of several native species found in the rivers and forests of the region also exists The sex trade frequently occurs in tandem with mining and weekend tourism activities Cross-border interactions are harmful in this region because of the need for Brazilians to hold visas to enter French Guiana versus the accessible entrance of Guianese into the Brazilian territory Updated and scanned cartographic maps of the study area were obtained Due to the absence of the Oiapoque municipal master plan the polygons of the urban districts were constructed based on planning reports used by Google Earth Pro v Thematic maps were elaborated with the Annual Parasite Incidence (API) grouped by risk level and year according to the Ministry of Health guidelines for the epidemiological risk stratification of malaria the averages and standard deviations of cases of every month during the 13 years of the study were calculated The upper limit was calculated by adding standard deviations with the average and the lower limit was calculated by subtracting the standard deviation from average cases which surpassed the upper limit of the average the average and standard deviations were calculated again for each month after the exclusion of the “epidemic months.” Additionally, a “control diagram” or “endemic curve” considered “normal” for this municipality was developed. Afterward, graphs with both the expected and observed number of cases were made. Months were considered an epidemic if they exceeded the expected upper limit (Additional file 2) All the data was stored and analyzed using Epi Info v.6.0 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the chi-squared test (χ2) was utilized to analyze differences in proportions of sex A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant A Geografia da Saúde na Faixa de Fronteira Continental do Brasil na Passagem do Milênio Tese [Doutorado em Geografia] - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; 2005 Transmissão da tuberculose na tríplice fronteira entre Brasil SIVEP/MALÁRIA. Casos de malária de 2000 e 2015. 2016. http://portalweb04.saude.gov.br/sivep_malaria/ Consultative malERA. An updated research agenda for basic science and enabling technologies in malaria elimination and eradication. PLoS Med. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002451 Malaria in the Americas: trends from 1959 to 2011 Situação epidemiológica da malária na região amazônica brasileira Time trends and changes in the distribution of malaria cases in the Brazilian amazon region Ferreira MU, Castro MC. Challenges for malaria elimination in Brazil. Malar J BioMed Central. 2016. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1335-1 SIVEP/MALÁRIA. Casos de malária de 2003 a 2015. 2017. http://portalweb04.saude.gov.br/sivep_malaria/ Projeto Piloto Para Realização de Diagnóstico dos Determinantes da Malária em Municípios de Alto Risco na Faixa de Fronteira da Região Amazônica Brasília: Ministério da Saúde; 2011 Malaria on the guiana shield: a review of the situation in French Guiana Malaria pattern in French Guyana (author’s transl) agriculture and farm jobs: a good recipe for Plasmodium vivax in French Guiana The burden of Plasmodium vivax relapses in an Amerindian village in French Guiana Investigation of a sudden malaria outbreak in the isolated Amazonian village of Saül Pommier de Santi V, Dia A, Adde A, Hyvert G, Galant J, Mazevet M, et al. Malaria in French Guiana linked to illegal gold mining. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016;22:344–6 Recuperado de: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4734546/ in illegal gold miners in French Guiana in 2015: a hidden but critical malaria reservoir Douine M, Sanna A, Galindo M, Musset L, Pommier De Santi V, Marchesini P, et al. Malakit: an innovative pilot project to self-diagnose and self-treat malaria among illegal gold miners in the Guiana Shield. Malar J. 2018;17:1–8 Recuperado de: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-018-2306-5 Malária e migração no Amapá: projeção espacial num contexto de crescimento populacional Belém: Tese [Doutorado em Desenvolvimento Sustentável do Trópico Úmido PDTU] - Universidade Federal do Pará; 2005 SIVEP/MALÁRIA. Casos de malária urbana entre 2003 e 2011. 2013. http://portalweb04.saude.gov.br/sivep_malaria/ Dinâmicas sociais na fronteira entre o estado do Amapá e a Guiana Francesa: Um estudo sobre Oiapoque Macapá: Dissertação [Mestrado em Desenvolvimento Regional] - Universidade do Amapá; 2011 Paludisme Plasmodium falciparum chez les Ambrindiens Wayana de Guyane française History of malaria research and its contribution to the malaria control success in Suriname: a review Novel strategies lead to pre-elimination of malaria in previously high-risk areas in Suriname Douine M, Mosnier E, Le Hingrat Q, Charpentier C, Corlin F, Hureau L, et al. Illegal gold miners in French Guiana: a neglected population with poor health. BMC Public Health. 2017. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-017-4557-4 White NJ. Review series antimalarial drug resistance. J Clin Invest. 2004. https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI200421682.1084 Análisis espacio temporal de la malaria en Bolivia Rio de Janeiro: Dissertação [Mestrado em Saúde Pública] - Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública; 2010 de SJR, dos SACF, Almeida W de S, Albarado KVP, Magno LD, da RJAM, et al. Situação da malária na Região do Baixo Amazonas, Estado do Pará, Brasil, de 2009 a 2013: um enfoque epidemiológico. Rev Pan-Amazônica de Saúde. 2015. https://doi.org/10.5123/S2176-62232015000400006 Cotter C, Sturrock HJW, Hsiang MS, Liu J, Phillips AA, Hwang J, et al. The changing epidemiology of malaria elimination: new strategies for new challenges. Lancet. 2013. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60310-4 Censo Demográfico 2010. IBGE, Brasil. 2010. https://ww2.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/default.shtm Download references The authors thank Fiocruz for the grant received This work was financing by the Program Papes VI of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) The datasets used and analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request Rafael dos Santos Pereira & Martha Cecilia Suárez-Mutis MSMG read the initial version of the manuscript and suggested some modifications All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript The Human Research Ethical Committee of the Institute Oswaldo Cruz (IOC/Fiocruz) gave study approval (Approval number 647/11) The authors declare that they have no competing interests Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations Geographic location of the Polos Base within the municipality of Oiapoque-AP Brazil Epidemiological database of the municipality of Oiapoque- Ap Brazil Download citation DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41182-019-0150-0 Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. yet doesn’t A mammoth suspension bridge in the Amazon connects Brazil and French Guiana but remains off-limits to travelers and commuters The bridge connects Brazil to French Guiana, the only piece of land on the South American mainland that is still part of a former colonial power. But even though it was finished two years ago, it still hasn’t opened. On the Brazilian side, a tiny, rust-covered sign reads simply: Stop. For Oiapoque, a town that time and the rest of Brazil seem to have forgotten, it might as well be a bridge to nowhere. Samuel Nogueira, a passenger on Domingos’ canoe, passes under it every day as he goes to work. Nogueira checks his phone absent-mindedly for something to distract him on the 15-minute commute to his job in French Guiana, but there’s never any service in Oiapoque, which locals generously call the “beginning of Brazil.” So he returns to watching the thick forest pass him by. “Of course, if the bridge were actually in operation, my life would be much easier,” says Nogueira, who lives in Brazil but works washing cars in French Guiana, earning the more valuable euros. “But I can’t complain about this ride either. It’s insanely beautiful.” Although people here curse the Brazilian government for the mysterious delay, and blame what they say must be incompetence or corruption, no one in town knows for sure why the bridge hasn’t opened. “Only Jesus knows,” says Manuel da Veracruz, who has worked as a catraeiro, or canoe shuttle driver, for more than 20 years. “It could be [2015], it could be 2016, it could be never.” Oiapoque has the feel of a place in a magical realist novel, an intensely hot town spread over a few streets along the Oiapoque River that is at once sleepy and famous for the vices common in border outposts. To reach it from the nearest Brazilian state of Para, where car-washer Nogueira was born, most visitors have to take a boat through the Amazon for 24 hours or more. Hundreds of people sweat and sway on hammocks as the boat winds through the dark green jungle. Once they arrive in Macapa, the capital of Amapa state, they still have to spend 10 hours on a truck or 4x4 bus that can make it over the unpaved roads to Oiapoque. It serves as a last stop for the Brazilians heading into French Guiana, where the pay is better. They head for the capital, Cayenne, where some Brazilians can work legally; a de facto free zone near the river (the French gendarmes check passports later, along the highway miles into the country); or up the coast to illegally fish or pan for gold. In the years since the bridge was finished, residents have been watching and waiting to see how their lives will change. “Our job will be over, at least in its current form,” says Jose Domingues Carvalho Pinto, president of one of the two canoe taxi cooperatives. He says they’ll find new jobs or try to shift to tourism along the river, if the bridge brings more people in. “Our fear is that people simply won’t stop in Oiapoque at all anymore. We don’t even have a town square. Do you see anything around here worth stopping for?” In the same breath that canoe drivers and others worry about how their lives will change when the bridge opens, they blame the Brazilian government for the delays. “We have to hold this government accountable. They don’t do anything. Bunch of thieves,” says David Nascimento, 32, an automobile taxi driver who has been waiting for years now to transport passengers over the bridge. He cruises toward the bridge, past the dirt and rocks of an unfinished customs outpost on the Brazilian side. He stops to chat with the security guard about when it may open, or how the border rules with France, as the neighboring country is called here, will work. He doesn’t know. “I used to work over in France, as a waiter. But the cops over there are so annoying, always caring about who has papers or who doesn’t. Now I have my papers in order for both sides, and I make more driving here.... I’m just waiting for the link to open up,” Nascimento says, fiddling with the radio before driving away. The bridge to connect Brazil to French Guiana has long been an official priority of both governments. The project was initially developed by then-Presidents Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, but then passed on to their respective successors, Francois Hollande and Dilma Rousseff. Over past years, though, construction delays in Brazil’s push to develop became frustratingly common, and the country failed to meet a majority of its promised infrastructure improvements before the World Cup in June and July. With a completed highway and bridge, French Guiana would be easier to reach for many Amapa state residents than any other part of Brazil. And it would open up the small country. French Guiana is not just controlled by France — it is France, just as much as Hawaii is the United States. Downtown Cayenne, three hours on good roads from the border, consists of quaint, low-slung colonial architecture, and Chinese and Brazilian immigrants work alongside Francophone locals in its restaurants and shops. Food, just like television, is imported from France. If the bridge opened up, however, they’d be able to import goods directly from Brazil. As it is, just some items, such as huge watermelons, make it across on canoes. The prefect of Guiana, the representative of the French president in Guiana, blames the deadlock on the delays on the Brazilian side. “The bridge has effectively been done for two years … however, the Brazilians are not ready. In fact, even if the [customs] facility on the Brazilian side were finished, the Brazilian police have no one to control the border,” says Prefect Eric Spitz, adding that there is no road to Oiapoque from any Brazilian population center and that Brazilian insurance doesn’t cover drivers in French Guiana. On the Brazilian side of the border, the outgoing governor of Amapa state, Camilo Capiberibe, said a few days later he was “very optimistic” the project will be finished, perhaps even this year. Speaking from the governor’s residence overlooking the Amazon River in Macapa, Capiberibe said not all the blame should be placed on Brazilian construction delays. “There’s also a problem of political will to sign all the accords between the two countries,” Capiberibe said. “On the French side, authorities are afraid of what the opening of the bridge will mean.” Brazilians need a visa to enter French Guiana, but the French enter Brazil freely, he said. But for now, any thorny diplomatic issues still take a back seat to the construction holdup. Brazil’s federal government just didn’t realize how hard it is to get to the border and build there, Capiberibe said. “Amapa is very far away from [the capital] Brasilia. And then, to think about a project in Oiapoque, it’s not easy,” he said. “I think the government couldn’t imagine what it would be like.” As Brazil’s boom ended, and development promises went unkept, many Brazilians have resigned themselves to life as it is, unsure what will come next. Val Barata is one of the Brazilians who live and work in Cayenne, where she serves breakfast at the Best Western Hotel Amazonia. On this day, she and her children have gone into Oiapoque to visit their dentist, and are now returning to French Guiana on a canoe taxi. As their canoe pulls into Saint-Georges across the river from Oiapoque, a sunburned Frenchman sips red wine in front of his small restaurant despite 95-degree heat. Saint-Georges is even sleepier than Oiapoque, and the only sound downtown comes from three schoolboys in the dusty central square, giggling and talking in French and Portuguese as they watch the “Wiggle” video, by Jason Derulo and Snoop Dogg, on one boy’s cellphone. “I don’t actually really like it here so much,” Barata says, though she acknowledges the money is good and life is calm. “If the bridge were to open, I think a lot more Brazilians would want to move into France, but I bet they’d face prejudice and maybe a reaction from the government.” As she heads into Cayenne, her canoe driver, Mauro Capucho, heads back across the river to Brazil. He’s glad the government seems to have forgotten about Oiapoque. It’s good for business. But taxi driver Nascimento doesn’t like feeling abandoned. “For us, this is the beginning of Brazil,” he says. “But for the rest of the country, we are the end of the world.” World & Nation Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map You don't have permission to access the page you requested What is this page?The website you are visiting is protected.For security reasons this page cannot be displayed Deep beneath the waters of the Atlantic off Brazil's most northern coast French major Total SA is hunting for what it hopes will be Latin America's next big oil discovery pipes and containers filled with equipment sit in the tropical port of Belém ready to sink the first exploratory wells 120 km (75 miles) offshore may contain as many as 14 billion barrels of petroleum more than the entire proven reserves of Mexico But another underwater discovery threatens to derail Total's plans: a massive system of coral reefs just 28 kilometres from where the French firm and its partners Britain's BP PLC and Brazilian state oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA Brazilian scientists had suspected since the 1970s that the area might be home to a sizeable reef But the unusual depth of this formation - reaching more than 100 meters (400 ft) - coupled with the Amazon silt clouding the waters delayed that confirmation until just five years ago just as the government was putting drilling leases out for tender are now pressuring regulators to block oil exploration in the area which is more than 1,000 kilometres long and dotted with brightly coloured coral and giant sponges Scientists fear an oil spill could damage this treasure before it has even been studied Leaked crude from Foz do Amazonas wells could also potentially wreak havoc on Brazil's far north Amapá state home to the world's largest belt of mangroves and thousands of square miles of virgin rainforest says environmental scientist Valdenira Ferreira "In terms of environmentally sensitive environments this is the biggest in Brazil," said Ferreira a researcher at the Institute for Scientific Research of Amapá who is helping prepare a study for the nation's Environment Ministry Total says it is scrupulously complying with all requirements by Brazilian authorities and is taking every precaution to ensure that drilling would be safe The dispute highlights pressures facing Brazil to protect its unique environmental patrimony as its tries to foment jobs and economic growth for its citizens which ranks among the Western hemisphere's least open economies remains a difficult place to do business despite a new conservative government's efforts to cut red tape and woo foreign investment as it seeks to drag the economy out of the worst downturn since the Great Depression Four years after Total and its partners paid 622 million reais ($196 million) for five exploration blocks they are still waiting for the go-ahead from Brazil's environmental regulator The agency has given no indication as to when it will make a ruling We're concerned about everything there," said Alexandre Souza The delay has Total's Chief Executive in Brazil suggesting the company might sit out three offshore oil license rounds that Brazil has scheduled for this year He said Total had already invested some 200 million reais ($64 million) in developing its fields in Foz do Amazonas with no guarantee yet that it will be able to proceed "It's complicated to ask for more money to enter into more exploration blocks without clarity about when the earlier blocks can be evaluated to see if they have any oil," he said in his office in Rio de Janeiro in March Such uncertainty could prove damaging for Brazil in a year when oil companies have 25 auctions to choose from around the world executive secretary of exploration and production at the Brazilian Petroleum Institute (IBP) He has urged President Michel Temer's government to speed passage of legislation currently pending in Congress that would make it easier for companies to win environmental licenses an effort that has alarmed environmentalists Deep-water discoveries during the 2000s off the coast of Rio de Janeiro in an area known as the pre-salt made Brazil one of the oil sector's hottest destinations prompting then-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to declare "God is Brazilian" The announcement of the massive Libra offshore prospect in 2010 – the world’s biggest in decades - heightened the excitement around the area the pre-salt region accounts for almost half of Brazil's oil production Success there has piqued interest in other offshore regions of Brazil The basin was the most hotly disputed area of Brazil's 2013 oil auction Brazil's OGX and Queiroz Galvão Exploration and Production (QGEP) secured blocks in the area Helping fuel optimism was a May 2015 offshore discovery by ExxonMobil in nearby Guyana in an area with similar geology "I would say in terms of the opening of a new frontier in Brazil the Amazon Basin is a strong candidate," said geologist Pedro Zalan who did exploration work for Petrobras in the area which said it hopes to receive a decision from Ibama this year plans to drill nine exploratory wells at water depths of more than 1,900 meters Environmentalists say such extreme depths bring greater risks making it harder to plug and contain any spill was from a deep-water well of similar depth Total said the environmental risks were fully understood "We are very aware of the sensitivity of the ecosystems," Rabilloud said He said the company was using a well design that has been used in similar conditions in French Guiana without any incidents Rabilloud said an emergency response could be activated within two hours Total has concluded that ocean currents would carry any pollution away from the coast of Brazil Rabilloud expressed confidence in receiving a green light from Ibama but said the uncertainty over the delay made operations difficult the Brazilian state with the highest rate of unemployment last year many residents are eager for potential benefits from the oil industry in the remote town of Oiapoque near the border of French Guiana Fishermen in the poor town fear the oil industry may instead hurt their livelihoods the fish will die and what will the fisherman do," said Rodolfo Antonio Ferreira da Silva President Temer's government has proposed plans to simplify environmental licensing and hand companies a greater say in a bid to avoid lengthy delays The Ibama environmental agency has also seen its budget slashed as the government scrambles to curb a massive deficit Packed with members of the farming and business lobby the government has been accused of downplaying environmental damage The government denies neglecting environmental rules or planning to dilute them its top priority is creating jobs and bringing an end to Brazil's harshest recession in decades plays in a hammock on the deck of his house on the banks of the Oiapoque River Boys celebrate a goal as they play soccer in Calcoene A family is seen outside their house in Calcoene Valeria Leal stands on the deck of the house where she lives on an island in the Oiapoque River Oiapoque city (right) and the French Guiana are seen in the background an indigenous woman from the Karipuna tribe prepares manioc flour on the banks of Oiapoque River Fishermen unload fish from their boat on the banks of Amapa Grande River Fishermen unload fish off their boat at the banks of Amapa Grande River A farm worker washes his pig in a boat as they wait to sail up the river during low tide at the mouth of the Calcoene River A boat stands during low tide at the mouth of the Calcoene River Fishermen navigate in the Atlantic Ocean on the coast of Amapa state People gather at a small port from where boats cross the Oiapoque River between the Oiapoque city northern Brazil and the French Guiana in Oiapoque Scarlet ibis stand on the banks of a mangrove swamp located at the mouth of the Calcoene River "It will be the same as when the Portuguese came here and took everything without any benefit," Jeanjaque said in his village on the outskirts of Oiapoque