{"id":138922,"date":"2019-07-29T12:00:45","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=138922"},"modified":"2019-08-12T10:08:58","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T09:08:58","slug":"under-brazils-far-right-leader-amazon-protections-slashed-and-forests-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/07\/under-brazils-far-right-leader-amazon-protections-slashed-and-forests-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Brazil\u2019s Far Right Leader, Amazon Protections Slashed and Forests Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Amazon rain forest in Para State, Brazil. Deforestation is increasing in the country, but the current government has reduced enforcement of protective laws. Mauro Pimentel\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

28 Jul 2019 <\/em>\u2014 The destruction of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil has increased rapidly since the nation\u2019s new far-right president took over and his government scaled back efforts to fight illegal logging, ranching and mining.<\/p>\n

Protecting the Amazon was at the heart of Brazil\u2019s environmental policy for much of the past two decades. At one point, Brazil\u2019s success in slowing the deforestation rate made it an international example of conservation and the effort to fight climate change.<\/p>\n

But with the election of President Jair Bolsonaro, a populist who has been fined personally for violating environmental regulations, Brazil has changed course substantially, retreating from the efforts it once made to slow global warming by preserving the world\u2019s largest rain forest.<\/p>\n

While campaigning for president last year, Mr. Bolsonaro declared that Brazil\u2019s vast protected lands were an obstacle<\/a> to economic growth and promised to open them up<\/a> to commercial exploitation.<\/p>\n

Seven months into his term, that is already happening.<\/p>\n

Brazil\u2019s part of the Amazon has lost more than 1,330 square miles of forest cover since Mr. Bolsonaro took office in January, a 39 percent increase over the same period last year, according to the government agency that tracks deforestation.<\/p>\n

In June alone, when the cooler, drier season began and cutting trees became easier, the deforestation rate rose <\/a>drastically, with roughly 80 percent more forest cover lost than in June of last year.<\/p>\n

The deforestation of the Amazon is spiking as Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s government pulls back on enforcement measures like fines, warnings and the seizure or destruction of illegal equipment in protected areas.<\/p>\n

A New York Times analysis of public records found that such enforcement actions by Brazil\u2019s main environmental agency fell by 20 percent during the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2018. The drop means that vast stretches of the rain forest can be torn down with less resistance from the nation\u2019s authorities.<\/p>\n

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President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, right, standing with Ricardo Salles, the environment minister.
Joedson Alves\/EPA, via Shutterstock<\/p><\/div>\n

The two trends \u2014 the increase in deforestation and the government\u2019s increasing reluctance to confront illegal activity \u2014 is alarming researchers, environmentalists and former officials who contend that Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s tenure could lead to staggering losses of one of the world\u2019s most important resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re facing the risk of runaway deforestation in the Amazon,\u201d eight former environment ministers in Brazil wrote in a joint letter in May, arguing that Brazil needed to strengthen its environmental protection measures, not weaken them.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bolsonaro has dismissed the new data on deforestation, calling his own government\u2019s figures \u201clies\u201d \u2014 an assertion experts called baseless. During a gathering with international journalists<\/a> last week, the president called the preoccupation with the Amazon a form of \u201cenvironmental psychosis\u201d and argued that its use should not concern outsiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Amazon is ours, not yours,\u201d he told a European journalist.<\/p>\n

The Bolsonaro government\u2019s stance has drawn sharp criticism from European leaders, injecting an irritant to a trade deal struck last month between the European Union and a bloc of four South American countries, including Brazil.<\/p>\n

During a recent visit, Germany\u2019s minister of economic cooperation and development, Gerd M\u00fcller, called protecting the Amazon a global imperative, especially given the rain forest\u2019s vital role in absorbing and storing carbon dioxide, essential to the effort to slow global warming. And when trees are cut, burned or bulldozed, carbon dioxide goes directly back into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Germany and Norway help finance a $1.3 billion Amazon conservation fund, but the Bolsonaro administration has questioned its effectiveness, raising the possibility that the effort could be shut down.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout tropical rain forests, there\u2019s no solving the climate\u201d issue, Mr. M\u00fcller said during an event in S\u00e3o Paulo.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the campaign, Mr. Bolsonaro promised to do away with the ministry of the environment altogether. He ultimately scrapped the plan under pressure from the nation\u2019s agriculture sector, which feared the move would incite a boycott of Brazilian products.<\/p>\n

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Deforestation in the Western Amazon region of Brazil.
Carl De Souza\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n

A few weeks before his inauguration, Brazil abruptly pulled out of its<\/a> commitment to host a global summit <\/a>on climate change. Then, once he took office, Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s administration cut the main environmental agency\u2019s budget by 24 percent, part of a broader cost savings across the government.<\/p>\n

He has denounced environmental fines as an \u201cindustry\u201d that needs to be shut down. And his administration has said it plans to weaken the authority of environmental protection agents to burn vehicles and other equipment belonging to loggers and miners in protected areas.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bolsonaro has brushed off international criticism of his positions, arguing that calls to preserve large parts of Brazil are part of a global plot to hamper his country\u2019s development. This month, he accused European leaders of pushing for stronger conservation of the Amazon because they hope to develop it themselves in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrazil is like a virgin that every pervert from the outside lusts for,\u201d he said.<\/a><\/p>\n

Brazil had previously tried to portray itself as a leader in protecting the Amazon and fighting global warming. Between 2004 and 2012, the country created new conservation areas, increased monitoring and took away government credits from rural producers who were caught razing protected areas. This brought deforestation to the lowest level since record-keeping began.<\/p>\n

But it has suffered setbacks before. As the economy plunged into a recession in 2014, the country became more reliant on the agricultural commodities it produces \u2014 beef and soy, which are drivers of deforestation \u2014 and on the powerful rural lobby. Land clearing began to tick upward again.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bolsonaro has promised to do away with the remaining barriers to developing protected lands. He has also spoken derisively about the environmental agency\u2019s enforcement work, which he has experienced firsthand.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 25, 2012, environmental agents intercepted a small fishing boat in an ecological reserve in Rio de Janeiro state that Mr. Bolsonaro, then a federal lawmaker, was aboard. He argued with the agents for about an hour and ignored their demands that he leave, said Jos\u00e9 Augusto Morelli, the agent in charge of the team.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bolsonaro refused to identify himself, Mr. Morelli said. But the agent took a photo of Mr. Bolsonaro, who was wearing white Speedo-like bathing suit.<\/p>\n

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Deforested land in the state of Amazonas. The Amazon lost 837 square miles of forest cover between August 2018 and April. Bruno Kelly\/Reuters<\/p><\/div>\n

Mr. Bolsonaro never paid the fine, which was rescinded shortly after he was sworn in as president in January. In late March, Mr. Morelli was demoted, a decision he sees as a form of retaliation for the 2012 fine.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s refusal to pay the fine is common. All but about 5 percent of environmental fines in Brazil are contested in court, a process that often drags on for several years.<\/p>\n

Now Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s environment minister, Ricardo Salles, wants to create a mechanism <\/a>that would give a government panel the discretion to lower or suspend environmental penalties, worrying former officials who say it would weaken enforcement even further.<\/p>\n

Mr. Salles, who did not respond to several requests for an interview, has acknowledged the shortcomings of the environmental enforcement agencies tasked with policing commercial activity in protected areas. But he has argued that the system had been hollowed out by previous governments.<\/p>\n

As for the environment, Mr. Salles has said that the government is prioritizing urban problems, like upgrading waste management and sewage treatment systems, which he said were in a \u201cshameful\u201d state.<\/a><\/p>\n

Other senior officials in Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s government have responded to the sharp rise in deforestation with a mix of denial and defensiveness.<\/p>\n

Taking a different approach, Mr. Bolsonaro\u2019s chief of staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, took aim at what he called attempts from abroad to shape Brazil\u2019s environmental policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not na\u00efve,\u201d Mr. Lorenzoni said. \u201cThere\u2019s a view out in the world, sponsored by nongovernmental organizations, that relativizes Brazil\u2019s sovereignty over the Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, he warned in a recent meeting with reporters: \u201cHere\u2019s a little message: \u2018Don\u2019t play around with us.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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