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What was supposed to be a stone-paved trail turned into a road up to 30 meters wide opened to the top, with vegetation removal. The Public Prosecutor’s Office flagged gullies, soil loss, and buried trees, and the Justice stopped the work before the Court allowed the resumption.
The government of Mato Grosso decreed the expropriation of 13 properties to pave the access to Morro de Santo Antônio, a protected natural monument near Cuiabá that is at the center of an intense environmental dispute. The decree, signed by Governor Otaviano Pivetta, was published in the Official Gazette on May 27, 2026, and provides for urgent expropriations to enable the paving of the access road to the tourist spot in Santo Antônio de Leverger.
The measure reignites the controversy surrounding a project that, according to the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Mato Grosso, has already caused severe erosion in the conservation unit. What should have been just a paved trail ended up becoming a road that climbed to the top of the hill, generating lawsuits, contradictory decisions, and the demand for explanations in the Legislative Assembly. Visits to the site have been suspended since last year and are expected to remain closed until November 2026.
What the expropriation decree says
The management will be handled by the State Department of Infrastructure and Logistics, Sinfra, and the State Attorney General’s Office, PGE, with funds from Sinfra’s own budget. The government’s stated goal is to enable the implementation and paving of the access road to the hill.
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To the Primeira Página portal, which reported the case, Sinfra informed that the process has already started but still depends on the evaluation of the properties and the notification of the owners, with no defined deadline for the effective start of the expropriations. The mayor of Santo Antônio de Leverger, Francieli Magalhães, was contacted by the report but had not commented by the time of publication.
The hill that is a natural and historical heritage
The Morro de Santo Antônio is located in the municipality of Santo Antônio de Leverger, about 27 to 30 kilometers from Cuiabá, and has been considered a State Natural Monument since 2006. It is a conservation unit of approximately 258 hectares, known for its panoramic view of the Baixada Cuiabana, attracting hikers, tourists, and devotees, being one of the main postcards of the region.
Besides its scenic value, the hill holds historical importance. With about 500 meters of altitude, it played a strategic role during the Paraguayan War, when observation points were installed at the top to prevent a possible Paraguayan incursion through the Cuiabá River. This combination of environmental, historical, and touristic attributes is precisely what makes the discussion about the works so sensitive.
When the trail became a road
The core of the controversy lies in the difference between what was planned and what was executed. The government designed a stone-paved trail, close to the vegetation, authorized by the State Department of Environment, Sema. However, what was seen on site was the opening of a road up to 30 meters wide in some sections, climbing to the peak, with removal of native vegetation.
The project, budgeted at around R$ 10.5 million and including paving, earthworks, and visitation infrastructure, became the target of questioning. State Deputy Lúdio Cabral, from PT, managed to approve a request in the Legislative Assembly demanding explanations from Sema and Sinfra, questioning the technical basis for opening such a wide road and using concrete paving, instead of lower impact solutions, such as suspended trails, permeable floors, or elevated walkways.
The severe erosion pointed out by the Public Ministry
The most delicate point is the environmental damage. After a technical inspection, the Public Ministry of Mato Grosso identified severe erosion on the opened road, with the formation of gullies, deep grooves, soil loss, rock exposure, and sediment runoff over the native vegetation, with tree mortality due to burial, as stated in the public civil action.
Based on these findings and a report from the Operational Support Center conducted in November 2025, the Specialized Environmental Court of Cuiabá ordered, on February 19, 2026, the immediate halt of the works, formalized by a stoppage term. The decision also expressly prohibited the removal of stones from the hill and ordered emergency measures to contain the erosion, given the risk of slope collapse during the rainy season.
The tug of war in the Justice system
The case, however, is far from a definitive conclusion. In March 2026, Judge Deosdete Cruz Junior, from the Court of Justice of Mato Grosso, overturned the injunction and authorized the resumption of the works, considering that the first instance decision was contradictory: it required the State to execute complex technical measures, but at the same time, suspended the bidding process that would precisely serve to hire the company to perform these services.
Sema, in turn, maintains the regularity of the project. The agency stated that it was neither notified nor heard before the initial injunction was granted and that, in its technical evaluation, there were no reasons for the suspension of the work. It is important to emphasize that the legal dispute remains open, without a final decision on the merits, and that both the government and the Public Ministry present their versions within the process, with the outcome resting with the Justice.
The episode of the stones removed from the hill
Another chapter that composes the history, and that deserves due care regarding the dates, is that of the stones. In February 2025, still last year, stones similar to those from Morro de Santo Antônio were found in Parque Novo Mato Grosso, on MT-251, which raised suspicions about the removal of material from the conservation unit.
The State, in a statement, confirmed that the stones were from the conservation unit and stated that they were being used in the construction of a small scenic monument. At the time, prosecutor Ana Luiza Avila Peterlini de Souza considered the practice irregular, noting that only erosion control works would be allowed on site. This is an episode that is part of the investigation into the work, without, so far, a definitive judicial decision holding those involved accountable.
Touristic development versus preservation
At its core, the case of Morro de Santo Antônio illustrates a classic dilemma in Brazil. On one hand, the legitimate desire to make a natural heritage accessible to tourism, with infrastructure and safety for visitors; on the other, the obligation to preserve a conservation unit that exists precisely to protect that ecosystem. The balance between the two is the crux of the matter.
Cases like this reignite the debate on environmental licensing, the oversight of public works in protected areas, and the importance of choosing engineering solutions compatible with the fragility of the terrain. When an improvement work ends up causing the damage it was supposed to prevent, the lesson is that, in sensitive areas, how something is built can be as decisive as what is built.
The expropriation of the 13 properties marks a new chapter in the saga of Morro de Santo Antônio, which mixes tourism, environment, politics, and Justice. The government of Mato Grosso advocates the project as progress for visitor access and safety, while the Public Prosecutor’s Office and some parliamentarians point to serious environmental damage to the conservation unit. With the legal dispute still unresolved and the visits suspended until November, it remains to be seen if the state will manage to reconcile improved access with the preservation of one of the most cherished natural heritages of the Baixada Cuiabana.
And you, what do you think about this project at Morro de Santo Antônio? Do you believe it is possible to bring tourism and infrastructure to a protected area without destroying it, or should the environment take precedence? Leave your comment, share your opinion on the balance between development and preservation, and share the article with those who care about the environment and Brazil’s natural heritage.
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