Bolsonaro government held back deforestation data release before COP26

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Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) concluded the deforestation data for the Amazon on October 27 and inserted the report into the federal government’s electronic information system on the same day, according to institute sources consulted by sheet.

The document was only released this Thursday (18th). The report with data from Prodes (Project for Monitoring Deforestation in the Legal Amazon by Satellite) shows a devastation of 13,235 km2 between August 2020 and July 2021, the highest rate since 2006. The number represents an increase of 22% compared to the previous period.

Inpe registered the date of completion of the report in the PDF file: October 27, 2021. On the same day, the document was entered into the electronic system, which would allow consultation of the consolidated data.

Four days later, COP26 began in Glasgow, UK. At the United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Jair Bolsonaro government hid the record of deforestation in the Amazon for 15 years.

During COP26, the Brazilian delegation was criticized by climate activists for not disclosing Prodes, considered more accurate than another Inpe system, Deter. Based on figures from August of one year to July of the following year, Prodes is usually available in early November.

At COP26, Brazil signed the Declaration of Forests, together with 123 other countries, in which there is a commitment to reduce deforestation. The country has committed to zeroing and reversing forest loss by 2030. And also to cutting global methane emissions by 30% by 2030, compared to 2020.

In addition, Brazil announced an adjustment in the promise to cut greenhouse gases by 2030: 50% compared to 2005 levels, against 43% previously forecast.

This Thursday, the current Prodes data were made available on Inpe’s website without any dissemination action. In the evening, ministers Joaquim Álvaro Pereira Leite (Environment) and Anderson Torres (Justice) participated in a press conference to comment on the data.

Leite stated that the numbers are unacceptable and promised a “hard-hitting” role in the fight against environmental crimes.

He was questioned on two occasions about the date of preparation of the data by Inpe — October 27th — but claimed that he only had access to the information on Thursday.

“Perhaps it was as a precaution that Inpe has delayed the release of these data, for some revision, but I do not have this information from Inpe. What I have information is that it was released today and we are here making it clear that this number is unacceptable and we are going to decisively combat environmental crime in the Amazon,” he said.

“I had contact with the data today, just as you must have had access.”

The explosion of deforestation in the Amazon measured by Prodes contradicts the statement made by Vice President Hamilton Mourão. At the last meeting of the Legal Amazon National Council, on August 24, Mourão even anticipated what would be the evolution of Prodes’ consolidated data: a 5% drop in deforestation compared to the previous cycle.

This is not the first time that Mourão has falsified reality in relation to the government’s actions in the Amazon.

Bolsonaro disallowed a military intervention in the Amazon that Mourão announced and treated as existing for 45 days, such as the sheet showed on the last day 4.

The deputy announced and treated as existing a second phase of Operation Samaúma, carried out by the Armed Forces based on a decree of GLO (guarantee of law and order). Bolsonaro did not issue a decree to extend it, as the sheet found out.

To extend Operation Verde Brasil 2, for example, which preceded Samaúma and lasted nearly a year, the president signed a new decree establishing the extension of the deadline.

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 sheet showed in an article published on October 24th.

In all, there were three GLOs, whose presidential decrees gave legal support to three military intervention operations: Verde Brasil, Verde Brasil 2 and Samaúma.

Asked about the militarization of the fight against environmental crimes, the Minister of Justice said he did not believe there had been a “strategic error” in sending military personnel to work in the biome.

“I don’t see the government’s strategic error. With our arrival we brought, we talked at the government level with the Civil House, this responsibility for Justice and for the Ministry of the Environment, so that together we act in the way we do understands that it is more effective,” he said.

“It is a police strategy to fight crime. There is no secret, we will act with a number of police officers doing repressive and preventive activities, with intelligence carrying out police operations to dismantle crime, really as it has to be dismantled”, said yet.

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