[…] In 2025, a decades-old plan to connect Salvador and Itaparica via a 12.4-kilometre bridge […] has been revived by Chinese state-owned companies. Details of the road system that will accompany the bridge have only just begun to be shared with Itaparica residents – and are already drawing criticism. Among those residents are traditional fishing and Black communities, as well as quilombola residents, who are members of communities formed by the descendants of enslaved African people. Even the Bahia State Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPBA), an independent legal institution that defends the interests of society by monitoring compliance, has reportedly had trouble accessing up-to-date documents on the socio-environmental impacts of the project. […] In 2019, the Salvador-Itaparica Bridge Concessionaire (CPSI) tender was awarded to a consortium of two Chinese state-owned enterprises: the China Railway 20th Bureau Group Corporation (CRCC20) and the China Construction Communications Company (CCCC). […] One of the original companies in the consortium, CRCC20, will now be replaced by China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), which belongs to the same group. […] In a statement to Dialogue Earth, the CPSI assured that this replacement would not affect the management of the consortium. As well as the bridge, the project includes roadworks in Salvador and Itaparica. Among them is the Variante, a new 18-kilometre motorway that would receive traffic from the Salvador-Itaparica bridge, cutting directly across the middle of the island to then join an existing road before the Funil bridge. […] There are fears regarding the route of the road, which will cut through areas that host the Atlantic Forest, mangroves, wetlands and wildlife refuges. […] The preliminary licence for the bridge’s construction, granted in 2016 and renewed in 2022, was based on an environmental impact study and the resulting report (EIA/Rima), a mandatory step for licensing such projects. The environmental data for this study was collected between 2013 and 2014. The study flagged impacts for Itaparica that included damage to its protected areas […] In response, the CPSI says complementary EIA/Rima analyses have been made, including a forest inventory, consultations with communities and an assessment of conservation areas. The group says its studies were validated by the authorities and form the basis of the project’s basic environmental plan. The plan is another mandatory step in the licensing process, designed to outline the mitigatory and compensatory measures in place for environmental impacts. Dialogue Earth requested access to the project’s basic environmental plan, but received no response. […] The concessionaire claims the relevant communities were consulted. However, public meetings with the local population only began on 16 June. According to local leaders, the project is not yet compliant with the International Labour Organization’s Convention 169. This agreement, to which Brazil is a signatory, guarantees traditional populations the right to free, prior and informed consultation and consent on any initiative that affects their territories and ways of life.