Cuts in budget affect Amazon forest oversight
RIO DE JANEIRO — As fires burn across the Brazilian Amazon, the vast state of Amazonas has been among the hardest hit, with more than 6,600 blazes recorded in August, 2½ times more than the same month a year ago.
Yet official documents show that Brazil’s government has begun legal procedures to transfer all employees out of three of the state’s four federal environmental protection offices, which are in charge of defending the rain forest from deforestation, land grabbing and illegal fires.
It’s part of a broader erosion of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, known by its Portuguese initials as Ibama, whose field operations appear to have declined sharply since the early part of this year. The agency’s funding for discretionary spending and enforcement operations this year faces a 24% cut, a significant blow to what two experts described as an already small budget.
The budget decrease came as part of a wider austerity push by President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office Jan. 1 and is seeking to rein in spending by Brazil’s financially strapped government. But critics note that he has also complained that environmental regulations hinder development in the Amazon.
Ibama staffers say the regional offices are critical to their jobs, giving them closer knowledge of problem areas and faster response times in the country’s most extensive state. larger than Texas, California and Montana combined.
Ibama agents often plunge deep into the jungle aboard helicopters or boats, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying arms to confront illegal loggers or ranchers who cut away the forest and then set fires to clear the land.
The sharp increase in fires this year has roused global concern because the Amazon rain forest acts as a bulwark against climate change. Its lush vegetation absorbs heattrapping carbon dioxide and the moisture given off by its trees affects rainfall patterns and climate across South America and beyond.
Bolsonaro told reporters he would attend the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in September to deliver a speech expected to focus on the Amazon, which he says was “ignored” by previous administrations.
His administration argues that the lack of economic opportunities and cumbersome red tape in the Amazon region contributes to rampant illegal deforestation. It says the region can be protected while allowing far more development than conservationists believe is safe.
Bolsonaro has sent troops to aid in fighting the blazes and banned fires to clear land in the Amazon for 60 days.
But the president has fiercely resisted efforts to treat the Amazon as a global issue.