Lula’s ministers left governments in states with records for deforestation in the cerrado

Ministers in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) left their states with records of deforestation in the cerrado over a period of eight to ten years.

THE Sheet analyzed data from Prodes (Program for Monitoring Deforestation by Satellite), from Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), referring to the devastation of Brazilian biomes in seven states whose former governors became ministers in the Lula government.

In three of these states, there was an increase and record of deforestation in the cerrado in the last year of the local administrations.

In Maranhão, governed by Flávio Dino (PSB) between 2015 and 2022, deforestation of the cerrado reached 2,834 km² last year (almost five times the area of ​​the capital São Luís), according to Prodes data, formulated from satellite images of the Inpe. The calculation takes into account the interval between August of the previous year (2021) and July of the current year (2022).

Dino has been Minister of Justice and Public Security since January 1, 2023.

Maranhão led the deforestation of the cerrado, concentrating more than a quarter of devastation in the last year. The increase was 24% over the 12-month period ended in July 2021, a record in ten years.

Bahia also had a record of devastation in ten years, according to INPE data. 1,428 km² were deforested between August 2021 and July 2022 (almost double the area of ​​Salvador), an increase of 54% compared to the same previous period.

Lula’s Chief of Staff, Rui Costa (PT), has governed Bahia for the past eight years.

At the top of cerrado deforestation is Piauí, with 1,189 km² deforested from August 2021 to July 2022 (almost the area of ​​Teresina), more than double the amount registered in the previous period. There had not been such a high index since the end of 2014, according to Inpe data.

Current Minister of Development and Social Assistance, Wellington Dias (PT) governed Piauí for four terms, between 2003 and 2010 and between 2015 and 2022.

The report sent questions to the three ministries, but there were no responses.

The advance of deforestation in Maranhão, Bahia and Piauí confirms the maintenance of the front of intensified devastation from 2005 onwards, in the region known as Matopiba, which also includes Tocantins.

In the state of the North region, there was also an increase in vegetation loss in 2022. The loss of the biome in Tocantins was 2,128 km2 last year, the highest value since 2015, according to Inpe data.

This arc of deforestation in the cerrado continues to operate and even at an increasing pace, as shown by INPE satellites. Deforestation across the biome in 2022 reached 10,689 km², a 25.3% increase over the 12-month period ending in July 2021.

During the term of Jair Bolsonaro (PL), there were three successive increases in deforestation in the biome.

Combating environmental illegalities in the cerrado is a responsibility of the federal and state governments. As the amount of vacant land is smaller than in the Amazon, as well as conservation units and indigenous lands, the responsibility rests mainly with the states.

Now in the Federal Executive, the former governors of Maranhão, Bahia and Piauí are part of a management that says it will apply the concept of transversality to the treatment of environmental matters, with replication of the agenda in different ministries. This approach is reiterated by Marina Silva (Rede), Minister of the Environment.

Dino, as Minister of Justice, promised to reinforce actions to combat deforestation in the Amazon. The PF (Federal Police), reporting to the minister, now has a specific directorate for the Amazon and the environment, linked to the general director.

Costa, in turn, as Minister of the Civil House, coordinates and monitors government actions. He is a defender of the idea of ​​transversality applied by Marina.

“Besides the Amazon, the cerrado is the biome where deforestation has increased. And most of it is conversion to soy and livestock”, says Julia Shimbo, scientific coordinator of MapBiomas, a network formed by NGOs and universities for mapping the use of the Brazilian soil. “More than 30% of deforestation in the country occurs in the cerrado.”

The biome has already lost half of its original coverage, and the concentration of deforestation occurs in Matopiba’s agricultural frontier, a phenomenon that is no longer recent and that lasts and intensifies.

Shimbo states that the high rates of deforestation in the cerrado have multiple effects, such as conflicts in traditional communities, impacts on the water crisis, climate change –with a hotter and drier biome– and direct impacts on agriculture itself.

“In the cerrado, there is little vacant land, as in the Amazon. Most deforestation is in private areas, and large areas are frequently deforested”, says the researcher. The weakening of bodies to combat and control deforestation and the official encouragement of large-scale agriculture explain the increase in devastation, according to Shimbo.

The report also analyzed data on deforestation in the Amazon in Maranhão and in the caatinga in Bahia and Piauí. There were reductions in deforestation and stability in numbers during the governments of the three ministers.

In São Paulo, in the first mandates of Geraldo Alckmin (PSB), there was an increase in the deforestation of the Atlantic Forest, but the rates fell in the following mandates. Alckmin is currently vice-president and minister of Development, Industry and Commerce in Lula’s government.

Inpe data also show a reduction and stability in caatinga deforestation in Alagoas and Ceará during the periods in which Renan Filho (MDB), Minister of Transport, and Camilo Santana (PT), Minister of Education, were governors of their respective states –de 2015 to 2022.

Prodes still shows a reduction in deforestation in the Amazon in Amapá, where Waldez Góes (PDT), Minister of Integration and Regional Development, was governor for four terms.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}