Last week, Brazilian conservation agents hacked their way through the rainforest with large knives looking for criminals in the first raids against deforestation under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who vowed to end the growing devastation inherited from his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Reuters exclusively covered raids by conservation agency Ibama in Para state to stop loggers and ranchers from illegally clearing forests.
The agency also launched raids this week in the states of Roraima and Acre, authorities said.
About 10 Ibama agents set out in trucks from their base in Uruara along with federal police, heading towards a cluster of locations where satellite imagery showed loggers and ranchers illegally logging.
After driving 12 hours on dirt roads, crossing the indigenous reserve, the procession reached five districts that were cut down and burned around the time of the elections last October.
All areas are within the Cachoeira Seca Indigenous Reserve, where deforestation is strictly prohibited.
Four sites were subsequently abandoned, with no signs of human habitation around them. Agents said it could be a sign that illegal ranchers have turned down the investment of time and money to turn illegal lands into productive pastures, knowing Lula has pledged to fight deforestation.
“People know that with this, government enforcement will be tougher and will not allow them to use the areas that they have illegally cut down,” said Guvanildo dos Santos Lima, the agent leading the Ibama mission.
“If another government had won, you would have found people here, well-groomed pastures and livestock.”
Bolsonaro’s government cut off Ibama’s staff and funding in its four years in office, and the former president criticized the agency for fining farmers and miners.
Bolsonaro handed over deforestation powers to the military and then to the Justice Department, pushing Ibama into the background despite her extensive experience and success in fighting the devastation of the Amazon.
In another area of the hideout, agents found a newly built house with several chainsaws and a supply of food for several weeks, indicating that the occupants likely fled shortly before Ibama’s arrival.
Escorted by police with semi-automatic weapons, Ibama agents cut their way through the nearby jungle to reach an area the size of 57 football fields, littered with fallen trees and logs.
Bolsonaro’s government turned down several Reuters requests to accompany Ibama’s missions during his 2019-2022 administration. His government has imposed a press ban on Ibama’s operatives, which operatives say has already been lifted.
It is worth noting that during Bolsonaro’s “shift” an area larger than that of Denmark was cleared, which is 60% more than in the previous four years. By contrast, when Lula first took office in 2003, deforestation in the Amazon was near an all-time high, and thanks to strict enforcement of environmental laws, he reduced it by 72 percent.
Source: Reuters.
Source: Kathimerini
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