Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill to build a motorway through the heart of the Amazon rainforest. There is concern that the project will encourage a wave of deforestation in the rainforest. The lower house of the Brazilian Congress approved the bill late on Tuesday, which loosens environmental licences, but the Senate's approval is required for it to become law. Scientists say the motorway would threaten the future of the world's largest tropical rainforest, Euronews reported. The bill allows conservation funds donated to Brazil, such as the $1.3 billion Amazon Fund backed by the US and its European allies, to be used to finance the motorway project. The motorway was first built in the 1970s by the military government seeking to populate the Amazon, but was soon abandoned.