Brazil: record deforestation in the Amazon in the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic

Ari Uru-eu-wau-wau, 33-year-old professor, was found dead on April 18 on the side of a road in the state of Rondônia, near his village, with deep marks on his neck . He was one of the "guardians of the forest" of the Uru-eu-wau-wau indigenous people, who patrol the area to identify illegal deforestation activities on their land. Ari had already told his relatives that he had received death threats.

"We are not letting go of the police so that they are really looking for the killer," said Ivaneide Bandeira, of the environmental defense association Kanindé, contacted by phone. "We fear that this will happen again, because other indigenous leaders are threatened," warns the environmental activist, convinced that the murder is linked to the increasing progress of deforestation.

The state of Rondônia, bordering Bolivia, holds the sad record of the largest deforestation since the 1970s. In April, more than 100 square kilometers were deforested, according to satellite data. The pressure on the Uru-eu-wau-wau indigenous territory has increased in recent years.

With social distancing measures and travel restrictions linked to the pandemic, state action is even more limited on these legally protected lands. A third of the workforce at Ibama, the Brazilian environmental agency responsible for investigating violations and identifying the perpetrators, cannot work because they are considered to belong to groups at risk, because of their age or their health . "The control bodies are weakened, they no longer move on the ground", despairs Ivaneide Bandeira. "We are waiting for the army."

Feeling of impunity

The less frequent checks leave the hands free to the invaders, who already felt encouraged by the desire to economically develop the Amazon displayed by the federal government and President Jair Bolsonaro, whose speech is also relayed by local political leaders. The feeling of impunity is such that illegal loggers sometimes assault Ibama experts, as in an intervention against an illegal camp on May 5 in Uruará, in the state of Pará, which alone brings together a third of the land cleared in April.

In this video filmed by the attackers, the operation coordinator, victim of an ambush, faces a hostile crowd, who ends up throwing him a bottle in the face.

Esse é o resultado de um discurso fora da lei de um presidente: A AGRESSÃO DE UM SERVIDOR!
Os bandidos feels like going to pra contrariar a lei, to FORÇA NACIONAL, finge que nada acontece.
O BRASIL afunda na ILEGALIDADE. pic.twitter.com/Vw4H6asK9A

>> Read also: "Under the canopy, the native drama"

Less and less dissuasive fines

The Brazilian environmental protection agency has the power to impose fines when it finds violations. Jair Bolsonaro had judged that the Ibama drew up these minutes with too much zeal and had promised as of his election to put an end to this "festival of tickets". Since a new regulation of October 2019, artisanal gold panners or loggers caught on the fact are first summoned to a conciliation hearing, which takes place only six months to a year later, according to Elizabeth Uema, president of the association of civil servants specializing in the environment. "Until the conciliation hearings take place, the criminals do not even know the amount of the fine, there is nothing to deter them from continuing to deforest," she said. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, barely five of these fines on the thousands of sanctioned offenses have been effectively paid since the reform last October.

Purge within environmental agencies

Elizabeth Uema, who worked for forty years for the Ibama, denounces a serious lack of staff: no recruitment competition has been organized to compensate for the massive retirements since 2016. But not only.

In early April, a large-scale Ibama operation to close illegal gold mining sites in the state of Pará ended with the destruction of more than 70 excavators and was the subject of a report broadcast on TV Globo, a success for Ibama. But two weeks later, two officials were dismissed for having authorized and coordinated the operation by the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, who has also cleaned up in recent weeks within the second environmental agency, the Institute Chico Mendes, in charge of biodiversity conservation. "All technical leadership positions are occupied by military police from the State of Sao Paulo, friends of Ricardo Salles, who obey him blindly," said Elizabeth Uema.

The army in command

The Brazilian government has chosen to use the military to combat growing deforestation in the Amazon. A decree published on May 6 allowed a few days later the launch of the "Green Brazil 2" operation, which will last until June 10. Some 3,800 men are mobilized, at an estimated cost of around 10 million euros, almost the equivalent of the annual budget of Ibama.

Unlike the environmental police, who can use this practice to avoid frequent recurrences, the army does not destroy the expensive equipment used by loggers or gold panners, such as backhoes. "It is not official, but participants in the operation told us that the superiors had ordered that no equipment be burned. We estimate that the cost is very high for an operation which will have little results "predicts Elizabeth Uema.

An "anti-environment minister"

At a government meeting, the video of which was recently released, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles coldly suggests to his colleagues that the attention is focused on the pandemic: "We have to make an effort for this moment of respite in terms of media coverage - we are only talking about the Covid-19 - to rush into the breach by changing all the regulations and simplifying the standards. "

Elizabeth Uema is not surprised by these uninhibited words. "Ricardo Salles never received environmentalists or officials from our sector in his cabinet, but he receives almost every day from big landowners and industrialists. He is an anti-environment minister", estimates she.

Boycott threat

The Brazilian parliament is currently examining a bill that would regularize illegally occupied land before 2018. Environmental groups campaigned against the measure, saying it would only encourage the illegal appropriation of land in the Amazon.

The mobilization was relayed by many celebrities. Even the funk star Anitta, little known for her political positions, is committed to the cause. Abroad, 40 brands from the British mass market, including Lidl, Tesco and Marks and Spencer wrote an open letter to MEPs, suggesting that they would stop buying Brazilian products if the measure were adopted.

After the already record fires of 2019, the dry season which is just beginning promises to be once again at high risk for the Brazilian Amazon, and for the planet.

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