The expansion of irregular constructions in watershed areas that supply Greater São Paulo contributed to a record in fines for illegal deforestation in the capital of São Paulo and neighboring municipalities in 2021.
Data from the São Paulo State Secretariat of Infrastructure and Environment show that, in 2021, there were 824 infraction notices against flora in the city of São Paulo.
The number represents an increase of 49% in relation to 2020, a year that until then held the record of occurrences of this type.
Most of the infractions occurred in protected forest areas close to the Billings and Guarapiranga dams, which supply neighborhoods in the South Zone of São Paulo and municipalities in the ABC region, such as São Bernardo do Campo and Santo André.
State legislation restricts the construction of housing in the vicinity of springs, which are sources of water used in public supply.
Researchers heard by the BBC say that the occupation of these regions puts the occupants at risk and exacerbates the problems of a water system that is already under severe pressure.
They attribute the increase in infraction notices to growing poverty, the lack of housing programs and road works that facilitated access to watershed regions, such as the Rodoanel.
As for the city hall, the phenomenon is due to the “enormous harassment of organized crime, which today practically dominates real estate speculation” in the region (read more below).
Cantareira System
According to MapBiomas, a platform that monitors land use in Brazil, about 27% of the territory of the capital of São Paulo is made up of forests, which are concentrated in the extreme south and north of the municipality.
The size of this area has remained relatively stable since 1985, when the historical analysis of MapBiomas began and watershed areas already suffered from occupations.
Forest cover in the municipality, however, declined annually from 2017 to 2020, the last year for which data is available.
The original biome that predominates in the state and municipality of São Paulo is the Atlantic Forest.
Data from the State Department of Infrastructure and Environment show that the State of São Paulo also had a record in infraction notices against flora in 2021: there were 11,528 occurrences, an increase of 12% compared to 2020.
The most common type of occurrence was “destroying or damaging vegetation subject to special preservation”.
The data also reveal that, in addition to the south of São Paulo, the forests in the Serra da Cantareira region, in the north, are also among the main targets of deforesters in the municipality.
The phenomenon also affects the neighboring municipality of Mairiporã, which includes springs of the Cantareira System, the main source of water supply in Greater São Paulo.
Mairiporã had a record of 363 infraction notices against flora in 2021, an increase of 114% compared to 2020.
Other neighboring municipalities in watershed regions have also seen high fines for illegal deforestation.
In Guarulhos, for example, the occurrences in the first four months of 2022 (147) already exceed the rates recorded in any complete year.
Poverty and land valorization
For Euler Sandeville Junior, professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo (FAU-USP), the advance of irregular occupations in protected areas in São Paulo stems, in part, from the growing poverty in the country, the increase in the population living on the streets and the lack of housing policies.
Another factor behind the phenomenon, according to him, are public works that provoked the valorization of land in the periphery.
“As you modernize peripheral stretches, the most vulnerable population is expelled by public works or repossession actions, and this leads them to occupy other areas”, says Sandeville.
But not all deforestation in Greater São Paulo is associated with occupation by the poorest population, he says.
The professor cites irregular subdivisions of farms in Mairiporã as examples of clearings that benefit middle and high-income groups.
According to the professor, there are still cases of deforestation that, despite being harmful, do not generate fines, as they are licensed by the government.
This is the case, says Sandeville, of some real estate developments aimed at the middle and lower classes in the northwest of São Paulo.
Sandeville says that several buildings in this region are built in fragments of forest that are not protected, but that fulfill the function of interconnecting protected areas and forming a green crown on the limits of the municipality.
He defends as an alternative to the urbanization of these areas the “production of agroecological food, which could generate income and healthier food” for local residents.
‘Climate of impunity’
For Malu Ribeiro, manager of the Água Limpa cause of the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica, deforestation in São Paulo is driven by “the climate of impunity for environmental crimes” in the Jair Bolsonaro government.
Ribeiro says that Bolsonaro “stimulated the dismantling of Brazilian environmental legislation” and questioned in the Federal Supreme Court (STF) the application of the Atlantic Forest Law, which expanded the protection of the biome.
These actions, according to her, generated the expectation among deforesters that “crimes against the environment would no longer be crimes”.
Ribeiro states that data from the latest Atlas of the Atlantic Forest, produced by SOS Mata Atlântica and Inpe (National Institute for Space Research), already showed a 402% increase in deforestation in the Atlantic Forest in São Paulo from 2019 to 2020 compared to 2018 to 2019.
The BBC sent Ribeiro’s criticisms to the Ministry of the Environment, but there was no response until the publication of this report.
Responsible for federal housing policies, the Ministry of Regional Development said in a statement that “since 2019, more than 1.25 million homes have been delivered across the country”, of which 363,400 are in the state of São Paulo.
According to the agency, in the current administration, R$ 6.5 billion from the General Budget of the Union were used to subsidize housing for low-income families, and R$ 23 billion from the FGTS (Fundo de Garantia do Tempo de Serviço) were reserved for financing. housing.
Impacts of the Rodoanel
For the representative of SOS Mata Altântica, the opening of the southern section of the Rodoanel, in 2010, facilitated the occupation of watershed areas.
The road crosses areas of forest, connecting highways that connect São Paulo to the coast.
According to Ribeiro, at the time of the inauguration, the state government committed to creating parks on the banks of the Rodoanel to discourage occupations, but the plans did not move forward.
“While this is not done, a gap is opening for deforestation and irregular use to happen”, he says.
She says that the construction of housing in areas of water sources implies great risks for the residents.
“We have seen an increase in occupations in areas that are dry, because we have had successive droughts, but these areas are flooded”, he says.
In addition, he states that 22 million people in Greater São Paulo depend on these areas for their supply, and that water quality has already deteriorated in some stretches due to occupations.
According to Ribeiro, the city government has a duty to remove houses built in risky areas or that are not able to receive basic sanitation.
“These areas must be vacated, otherwise we will have announced tragedies”, he says.
In cases of more consolidated occupations that do not put residents at risk, she defends “regulating and compensating for the environment to avoid more serious social problems”.
Organized crime
In a statement, the government of the State of São Paulo stated that “the number of fines (for infractions against flora) reflects the State’s effort to curb criminal practices such as the irregular suppression of vegetation and intervention in specially protected areas”.
The agency also says that it “intensified actions to protect the environment” by resuming Operation Water Defense in partnership with the city of São Paulo.
In an interview with the BBC, the executive secretary for Climate Change at the São Paulo City Hall, Antonio Fernando Pinheiro Pedro, says that 14 operations of this type have been carried out since 2021, the year in which Mayor Ricardo Nunes (MDB) took office.
According to Pedro, these operations embargoed an area equivalent to 80 football fields.
Even so, the secretary recognizes that “we are chasing losses” and that “the lack of control in the watershed region is impressive”.
Pedro attributes the advance of deforestation in these regions to the action of “gangs of speculators” and the First Capital Command (PCC), the largest criminal faction in São Paulo.
“We are suffering enormous harassment from organized crime, which today practically dominates real estate speculation in the region”, says the secretary.
According to Pedro, the gangs realized that “the value of this market is greater than that generated by trafficking in this region”.
He says the groups use “sophisticated methods” to evade enforcement.
“They keep the forest on the side of the road and start the deforestation from the core. At night, they make the streets and eat the forest until they reach the edge”, he describes.
Pedro also claims that the deforesters use associations of facade residents and hire lawyers to try to stop the demolition of irregular buildings in court.
“You see that it is an extensive network and that it must have political protection,” says the secretary, who did not name specific politicians or parties.
He says that, to face the criminals, the city hall has carried out operations in conjunction with the Environmental Military Police and the Civil Police.
Now Pedro says that the city hall is internally debating the possibility of employing the Metropolitan Civil Guard to inspect environmental crimes.
Today, according to him, there are just over 70 environmental military police working in the municipality, in addition to eight inspectors from the Secretariat of Climate Change.
“It’s a war, but we have a small army,” he says.
As for the criticism that the lack of housing programs would be stimulating occupations, Pedro says that the current administration of the city hall has already delivered 22,000 homes and relocated 6,400 families who were in watershed areas.
Removing all illegal occupations in these areas, however, would be quite expensive and complex, according to the secretary.
“We are not dealing with 700 or 800 people, but with up to 200 thousand people. You need a court order and know where you are going to take these people”, he says.
