The production of recently discovered offshore oil in Brazil has reached 300,000 barrels a day, and is expected to rise to 2.1 million barrels a day by 2020. Since the oil was found under a 2-kilometre layer of salt beneath the sea bed in 2006 (see Nature 455, 438–439; 2008), coastal ports have proliferated to keep pace with the boom. We suggest that some of this wealth should go into evaluating the environmental costs of such rapid development, which would help to safeguard the region's rich biodiversity.

Some ports are being constructed in conservation sites, including mangrove swamps and coastal shrub forests called restingas. Offshore oil spills are frequent (see, for example, go.nature.com/jshpzd), and pipelines are being deployed in protected areas, such as Brazil's Atlantic Forest.

President Dilma Rousseff has proposed earmarking oil royalties for investment in basic education. However, scientific research will not benefit (see Nature http://doi.org/d8zgdk; 2011) — even though it too could help to educate people in mitigating the environmental damage caused by oil production and distribution.