Do you know that millions of people live in that jungle, the Amazon rainforest? People that need to go to work, need to transport food, goods? Lula want to end the poverty there and this won't happen without bringing a bit of "development". Thousands (not even that actually) of kilometers is nothing compared to the 7 million kilometers of PRESERVED rainforest (the biggest preserved rainforest in the world, with the costs paid mostly by Brazilians).