Specialist says that the evolution of deforestation is a consequence of the actions of the federal government

July 12, 2021

13:07

Victória Sales – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The deforestation alerts in the Amazon showed a 17% growth in the first quarter of the year, compared to the same period in 2020. More than 3,000 km2 were deforested in 2021. More than 1,602 km2, only in June, making it the highest number of deforestation in this period since 2016, according to data released by the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe).

According to the environmentalist, Carlos Durigan, this increase is mainly due to the actions of the federal government.

Carlos points out that the dismantling of management and protection structures were also generated by the decisions of the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro. Besides monitoring, the weakening of the institutions responsible for managing and coordinating enforcement actions. “There is still the discourse of a government that encourages crimes of all kinds such as deforestation, land grabbing, illegal mining, invasion of conservation units, indigenous and quilombola lands and that has often acted even in defense of criminals, as was the case involving the former minister Salles with illegal loggers in Pará,” he said.

Still in an exclusive conversation with CENARIUM, the environmentalist recalled that it is extremely sad this whole scenario that is completed with the legal and regulatory regressions underway in the National Congress. “This whole scenario is where specific interest groups seek to destructure our legal framework of environmental protection and rights, giving support to criminal policies that further promote socio-environmental degradation,” he explained in a tone of revolt.

Statistics

Bolsonaro became President in 2019, and since then he has been subject of several national and international criticisms when it comes to the environment. With the management of the current president of Brazil, environmental crimes such as fires and deforestation have had a large increase in the number of alerts. Bolsonaro’s team is betting even more on military operations, but it is still not possible to identify a significant reduction in the loss of vegetation.

The state of Pará has already lost about 438 km2 of forest, which accounts for 41% of all deforestation in the region only in the month of June. For the third consecutive year, the pace of deforestation in the Amazon has been increasing and may indicate a loss of more than 10 thousand km2. The target set by the Vice-President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão, for the Law and Order Guarantee (GLO), in the Amazon, does not change this scenario.

Dismantlement of inspection agencies

Among other reasons, the fragility and dismantling of the regulatory bodies have been affecting them even more. The budget cut to cover operations in 2021 was more than 35%. During his speech at the Leaders’ Climate Summit, held on April 22nd, the President of the Republic, Jair Bolsonaro, stated that he would strengthen the sector in order to decrease the number of deforestation and fires in the country.

In 2021, the activities suffer a cut of R$ 11 million of the R$ 94 million that were authorized by the Congress. Under the command of the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, the portfolio suffered a cut of around R$ 240 million, and to fulfill all the activities, the ministry has about R$ 2 billion.

Influence

The environmentalist highlighted that deforestation had been growing, but only in 2019 there was an acceleration and even more expressive increase that can be related to the condescending posture of the current management of the country with groups that promote environmental crimes in Amazon. “Moreover, there is a strong indication that unites sectors of the federal government, members of the national congress in a front of weakening the legal and normative framework in Brazil,” he emphasized

Durigan also stressed that even before the changes, we already can see a strong movement of initiatives that already promote this increase of illegal occupation of destined and non-destined public lands, besides the non-punishment of environmental crimes linked to deforestation and environmental degradation activities in the region. “And to make the scenario worse, some Law Projects (PL) that weaken the legislation are being processed in the National Congress.” he said.

Translation: Bruno Sena