Five Bolsonaro Ministries Link Policies to False Deforestation Reversal

Five government ministries Jair Bolsonaro (without a party) pointed to a reversal of deforestation in the Amazon, one month after the end of the cycle with the greatest devastation in 15 years, and associated policies developed by the departments to a false observation of a decrease in deforestation rates.

Among the policies linked to what would be a success in combating deforestation is the allocation of public lands for use by squatters, which critics point to as a door to land grabbing, formalization of mining in a region with gold looting and impact on indigenous communities , and the failed military intervention in the Amazon.

The National Council for the Legal Amazon, chaired by Vice President Hamilton Mourão (PRTB), took a 5% reduction in the indicator measured by the Inpe (National Institute of Satellite) Prodes (Deforestation Monitoring Project in the Legal Amazon by Satellite) Space Searches).

Both Mourão and representatives of the ministries present at the meeting held on August 24, the penultimate one of the year, pointed out the reduction in deforestation in 2021 as a fact — which does not correspond to reality.

Official data from Prodes released by Inpe on the 18th of the month showed an explosion in deforestation in the Amazon: 13,235 km2 devastated in the period from August 2020 to July 2021, an increase of 22% compared to the previous cycle. Since 2006 there has not been so much loss of Amazonian vegetation in Brazilian territory.

The Bolsonaro government held Inpe’s data, completed and entered into the government’s electronic system on October 27th. Four days later, COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, began. The MMA (Ministry of the Environment) and Itamaraty participated in the event without any mention of the deforestation record.

At the last meeting of the year of the Amazon Council, held on the 23rd, Mourão took the blame for the failure of actions in the biome. “I’m not going to say that it was Minister A, Minister B or Minister C. I couldn’t do the coordination and integration in the way it worked.”

Council members demonstrated an alignment with the false finding of reversal of deforestation, according to the minutes of the August 24 meeting, which were not made public.

Executive Secretary of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Sergio Freitas de Almeida “talked about the drop in deforestation indicators that has been registered in the two systems, Prodes and Deter, through Inpe”. Deter gathers data from deforestation alerts. Inpe is linked to the Ministry of Science.

The folder was aware of the Prodes report, which officially consolidates the data, on the same day as the document was concluded, October 27th. And it doesn’t say why it failed to act in the days leading up to COP26; it only states that Prodes is scheduled for release in December.

The executive secretary immediately amended the ministry’s policies associated with the attempt to combat deforestation in the Amazon: “bioeconomy projects” aimed at productive chains of açaí, cupuaçu, Brazil nuts and pirarucu.

The ministry did not respond to the report’s questions.

The representative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Marcos Montes, “expressed his joy when he was informed that the trend of the serious problem of deforestation that we have is being reversed, thus improving the country’s image.”

According to the executive secretary, the ministry “has been trying to make strong advances in relation to issues of bioeconomy and territorial planning”, which would make it possible to punish those responsible for illegal deforestation.

In the MMA’s national plan to control illegal deforestation, for the period 2020 to 2023, the aforementioned ordinance concerns the destination, use and occupation of federal public lands. The bioeconomy includes timber production and extractivism.

For Ane Alencar, director of Ipam (Institute for Environmental Research in the Amazon), the Bolsonaro government’s policy for occupying spaces in the Amazon sends out signs that could result in land grabbing and deforestation.

“The sign is: ‘If we take this land today, we can take possession of it in the future.’ There is a clear sign of environmental disgovernance. The lack of public power putting order makes people feel free to earn money with new farms, logging and mining,” says Alencar.

Data from Ipam show that 54% of deforestation in the Amazon in 2020 was concentrated on public land.

The ministry stated that only “direct, gentle and peaceful” occupation and exploitation prior to July 22, 2008 is subject to regularization. “Land regularization does not encourage land grabbing and new irregular occupations”, he says, in a note. Occupations in conservation units, indigenous lands and areas of interest to the Union cannot be regularized, according to the note.

The Defense Ministry representative on the council chaired by Mourão said that the coordination carried out by the collegiate is important, presented data on the military intervention in the Amazon and stated that “any reduction in this effort will impact the presented graphs”.

The three military interventions of the Armed Forces, carried out based on GLO decrees (guarantee of law and order) signed by Bolsonaro, cost BRL 550 million and ended in a fiasco, with the explosion of deforestation. Mourão himself acknowledged the lack of success in military operations.

The Ministry of Defense did not respond to the report’s questions.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy, on the other hand, extolled the “decrease in deforestation rates” and detailed at the Amazon Council the actions aimed at regularizing mining operations on the Tapajós River, in Pará, through the formalization of mining permits. This formalization is in charge of the National Mining Agency.

Illegal mining in Tapajós directly impacts indigenous communities in the region. According to Carlos Souza Júnior, coordinator of the monitoring program at Imazon (Institute for Man and the Environment in the Amazon), many of the illegal mines are located in protected territories.

For Alencar, from Ipam, the recovery and regularization of mining areas that spread across the Amazon is unimaginable. “These mine owners don’t have CNPJ, they remove the gold and move around all the time. It’s almost impossible to organize this. And there are health issues and irreversible impact.”

According to the Ministry of Mines and Energy, a 1989 law allows for the formalization of mining activities. “By fulfilling its environmental obligations, which include the environmental recovery of impacted areas, the mining activity carried out under the mining permit regime contributes to the preservation and recovery of the forest,” he said in a note.

The Ministry of Economy also praised the reduction of deforestation, based on data from August, and said it had acted to guarantee “resources and people” aimed at sustainable development in the region.

The Ministry of Infrastructure, also represented on the Amazon Council, only announced advances in the search for an environmental license for the paving of the BR-319, which links Manaus to Porto Velho.

Institutes that monitor the devastation of the Amazon, such as Ipam and Imazon, point to the highway as a focus of deforestation and illegal occupation of public lands. “BR-319 has a social role, but the challenge is the lack of occupation of public lands. It is common for new roads [conectadas a rodovias] illegally opened by loggers and miners,” says Souza. According to him, 95% of deforestation is concentrated within five kilometers of these roads.

​The Bolsonaro government and the false reduction in deforestation in the Amazon

Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovations

• What was said about deforestation in August: “The executive secretary of the ministry, Sergio Freitas de Almeida, spoke about the drop in deforestation indicators that I see being registered in the two systems, Prodes and Deter, through Inpe.”
• Ministry policies associated with the false reduction of deforestation: Estímulo to bioeconomia.
• What these policies mean: The production chains of açaí, cupuaçu, chestnut and pirarucu are mentioned.

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply

• What was said about deforestation in August: “The executive secretary of the ministry, Marcos Montes, expressed his joy when he was informed that the trend of the serious problem of deforestation that we have is being reversed, thus improving the country’s image.”
• Ministry policies associated with the false reduction of deforestation: Territorial planning and encouragement to the bioeconomy.
• What these policies mean: The order cited is the allocation, use and occupation of areas on federal public land, seen by critics as a stimulus to land grabbing and deforestation. Bioeconomy is related to the expansion of timber production and extractivism.

defense Ministry

• What was said about deforestation in August: “The chief of staff of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of the Ministry of Defense, Major Brigadier Flávio Luiz de Oliveira Pinto, spoke of the most recent numbers of Operation Samaúma, which the Defense understands was only possible due to the synergy provided by the council. and that any decrease in this effort will impact the graphs presented.”
• Ministry policies associated with the false reduction of deforestation: Military intervention from GLOs decreed by the president.
• What these policies mean: Three operations –Verde Brasil, Verde Brasil 2 and Samaúma– lasted 16 months, consumed R$ 550 million and ended with a surge in deforestation in the Amazon.

Ministry of Mines and Energy

• What was said about deforestation in August: “The secretary of Geology, Mining and Mineral Transformation, Pedro Paulo Dias Mesquita, congratulated the Amazon Council’s action and the drop in deforestation rates, highlighting the importance of integrated action.”
• Ministry policies associated with the false reduction of deforestation: Formalization of permission for the garimpo in the Tapajós River region, in Pará.
• What these policies mean: Illegal mining impacts indigenous communities in the region, increases deforestation and contaminates watercourses with mercury.

Ministry of Economy

• What was said about deforestation in August: “The Special Secretary for Productivity, Carlos Alexandre da Costa, expressed joy in seeing the data for August. After leaving the last board meeting, he spoke with several federations and associations to try to support the reversal of the data.”
• Ministry policies associated with the false reduction of deforestation: Search for solutions to distance the main centers in relation to the Amazon and guarantee resources and people for sustainable development.
• What these policies mean: The folder acts in the regulation of the ZEE (Ecological-Economic Zoning) and also in the destination of federal public lands.

Ministry of Infrastructure

• What was said about deforestation in August: “The Ministry’s Undersecretary for Sustainability, Larissa Amorim, reaffirmed the council’s commitment to taking sustainable infrastructure to the entire North region. (…) This highway [BR-319] will not become a vector of deforestation.”
• Ministry policies associated with the false reduction of deforestation: Paving of the BR-319, which connects Manaus to Porto Velho.
• What these policies mean: The paving, without the state’s presence to curb the growing environmental crimes in the region, should boost illegal logging, land grabbing and deforestation in an area the size of Germany.

Sources: Minutes of the 6th meeting of the Legal Amazon National Council, held on Aug. 24, and the National Plan for the Control of Illegal Deforestation 2020-2023, of the Ministry of the Environment.