After holding back the release of a report on the increase in deforestation in the Amazon before COP26 (United Nations Conference on Climate Change), the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government celebrated a drop in devastation alerts in the month of November.
The ministers of the Environment, Joaquim Leite, and Justice, Anderson Torres, announced this Tuesday (14), at the Palácio do Planalto, a 19% reduction in deforestation in the region compared to the same month in 2020.
The data are from Deter-B (Deforestation Detection in Real Time) and show that the area deforested in the last month was 249 km². In October, the index had been the highest for the month in five years.
The high level of devastation in the Amazon from August 2020 to July 2021 was 22% over the previous cycle, the highest rate since 2006. This data was consolidated by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) on October 27 and only released on November 18th.
On October 31, COP26 began in Glasgow, UK. At the conference, the Bolsonaro government hid the Amazon deforestation record in 15 years.
The Bolsonaro government has downplayed the data in the report omitted at the COP. Says the next cycle must be positive. The ministers attribute monthly improvements to a joint operation between Justice and Environment bodies.
The Ministry of Defense and the Vice President of the Republic, Hamilton Mourão (PRTB), who led actions to combat illegal deforestation in previous years, were removed from the most recent actions of the government in the region.
The militarization of the fight against environmental offenses lasted 16 of the 34 months of the Bolsonaro government, cost BRL 550 million to public coffers and did not bring down deforestation rates in the Amazon, such as the leaf showed in an article published on October 24th.
In all, there were three operations, whose presidential decrees gave legal support to three military interventions: Verde Brasil, Verde Brasil 2 and Samaúma.
The ministers claim that the drop in deforestation since August is 12% over the previous year.
At COP26, the Bolsonaro government announced a plan to zero deforestation in the Amazon by 2028, two years ahead of the previous target.
Joaquim Leite said that the figures for the last few months show that Brazil is “in the right direction” to achieve this goal.
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