Brazil’s Senate approved an environmental licensing bill that could expedite major infrastructure projects, including paving a highway that cuts through one of the most intact parts of the Amazon Rainforest in northwestern Brazil.

The BR-319 highway runs through 885 kilometers (550 miles) of rainforest, connecting Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, with Rondônia state farther south. It was built in the 1970s but is currently in disrepair.

Local politicians say it will help integrate Brazil’s northern Amazonas state with the rest of Brazil, bringing economic benefits to the region. But environmentalists fear paving it will bring more deforestation, pushing the rainforest past its tipping point.

The new special environmental license bill, first introduced as a temporary decree in August by Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, gives the executive branch power to speed up and simplify environmental regulations for projects they define as strategic.

On Dec. 2 and 3, the bill sped through both houses of Congress before the decree’s 180-day deadline, officially converting it into law. It is now pending the president’s final approval.