For years now, Brazilian activists have been trying to protect the Amazon, which has been deforested ever more heavily. Whether they are ecologists, trade unionists or simple farmers wanting to protect their exploitation, these environmental defenders expose themselves to the violence of criminal networks that want to plunder exotic wood. In a report released Tuesday (September 17th), the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) speaks of "mafias of the rainforest" who participate "largely" in the destruction of this ecosystem.
"Most of the time, there are lumberjacks who steal precious wood like mahogany from Indian reserves, and there are also small farmers who settle on public land to develop their farms", explains Hervé Théry, specialist geographer from Brazil, interviewed by France 24.
In concrete terms, these networks, whose scale is difficult to measure, use bulldozers, shaving everything in their path. "Thus for a tree exploited, six or seven will be destroyed," said the academic. The wood is then reduced to planks or logs and then sold illegally. Farmers allied with the looters can then set up their livestock or plant their crops on this withered land.
Brazil, 4th country marked by these murders
Armed men are "used to intimidate, and in some cases execute," those who try to get in their way and protect the forest, says the NGO report. The phenomenon is nothing new. Already in 1988, Chico Mendes, an agricultural trade unionist and one of the best-known voices abroad for the defense of the environment, was dying at home in the state of Acre, in northwestern Brazil, under the bullets of the son of a major livestock breeder in the region.
Since then, acts of violence have never stopped. One of the latest: the assassination last March of activist Dilma Ferreira Silva, engaged in particular in the movement for people affected by dams in Brazil.
Sadly, Brazil remains the fourth country most marked by the killings of environmental defenders, according to statistics published in July by the NGO Global Witness. For its part, HRW lists 28 murders, "most perpetrated since 2015", but also four assassination attempts and more than 40 cases of death threats against these environmental defenders. Most of the victims are members of indigenous communities, some religious and small farmers who have already warned the authorities of these threats, to no avail.
"Easily corruptible policemen"
Because, as the NGO emphasizes, this violence is rarely brought to justice. Thus, on "more than 300 murders recorded since 2009" by the Pastoral Commission of the land, which defends the rural populations in Brazil, "only 14 have finally been judged". Finally, "in more than 40 cases of threats, none has been the subject of a trial".
How to explain such impunity? Asked by HRW, the local police themselves recognize "gaps in investigations". According to her, crimes tend to "take place in isolated communities or places far removed from the nearest police station".
A justification for the slightest, says the NGO that observed "serious flaws" after questioning several police investigating six murders in the state of Maranhão, in the northeast of the country. In at least four of the six cases, "the deaths occurred in urban centers with local police stations and not in isolated areas," says the report. Another possible explanation is that the pressure on police officers hinders their investigative work. "The police are poorly paid, easily corruptible and often threatened or intimidated.It is the far west," sums up bitterly Hervé Théry.
"For their part, the looters do not see themselves as gangsters, but by destroying the forest and planting soybeans, they feel like pioneers, bringing civilization, progress ", continues the academic. A line also supported by Brazilian government policy.
"Transform the Amazon into a huge soybean crop"
President Jair Bolsonaro believes that not exploiting indigenous lands would be a hindrance to the country's economy. "The will of the president is to transform the Amazon into a huge soybean crop," says Marie-Pierre Ledru, a specialist in the area and representative of the Research Institute for Development (IRD) in Brazil, France 24.
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Notorious climatosceptics, Jair Bolsonaro had even accused, on July 19, the Brazilian institute of space research (Inpe), in charge of measuring the deforestation of the Amazon, to publish "false data, at the service of NGOs". On the sidelines of this report, HRW calls on the Brazilian head of state to stop "his verbal attacks and unfounded accusations" against NGOs. And in passing, to "restore cooperation" between the government and civil society to protect natives, conservationists and the forest.
Because "as long as Brazil does not take urgent action against the violence that facilitates illegal logging, the destruction of the world's largest rainforest will be unrestrained," said Human Rights Watch.