Army to Spend IBAMA’s Annual Budget on Amazon Inspection in One Month

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – After undermining environmental inspection bodies such as IBAMA and ICMBio with budget cuts over the past few years, the government is investing in militarization as an environmental protection policy.

At a time when alerts for burning and deforestation in the Legal Amazon region increased 63.7 percent in April, President Jair Bolsonaro’s government’s emergency response was to issue a Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) decree that provides for the deployment of the armed forces to protect the forest for a month.

Named ‘Operação Verde Brasil 2’ (Operation Green Brazil 2), the initiative runs from May 11th to June 10th and will comprise 3,815 military officers, 110 land vehicles, 20 boats, and 12 aircraft. All of this comes at a cost of R$60 million (US$10.5 million), to be spent mainly on logistics and troop deployment in isolated areas and advanced base stations. This amount is virtually equal to IBAMA’s annual budget for environmental control and inspection activities throughout the country, which in 2020 is R$76 million, 25 percent less than in 2019.

The reduction of inspection bodies has been a feature of Bolsonaro’s government, whose environmental policies have had a direction – and an outcome – opposite to that of preservation. Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said in a notorious April 22nd cabinet meeting that the coronavirus pandemic was an “opportunity” to relax legislation and pass measures, in addition to criticizing the judiciary for hindering some of his initiatives.

But ‘Verde Brasil 2’ takes the ‘undermining’ of IBAMA to a whole new level. Unlike what happened in Operation ‘Verde Brasil 1’, launched late last year at a time when the forest situation reached a critical point, with the smoke from the flames darkening São Paulo’s sky and scorching the country’s image abroad, this year the inspection bodies will be hierarchically placed under the military.

Despite the large sums invested in a short period, to leave the coordination of repression operations against burning and deforestation in the hands of the Armed Forces to the detriment of specialized inspection bodies leads to complications, and may compromise efficiency. One such example was the Army’s first action in the Amazon as part of Verde Brasil 2.

According to a report, over 90 agents in two helicopters and several vehicles were deployed in an operation in Mato Grosso against logging companies and sawmills, which ended with no fines, arrests, or seizures. IBAMA had suggested another target in the region which, according to inspectors, contained substantial evidence of illegality. It was ignored.

However, the government assesses that the operation has been successful. In a statement released on Monday, Vice President Hamilton Mourão, in charge of coordinating the initiative, took stock of Verde Brasil 2: “By May 21st, the Operation (…) had seized almost 4,000 cubic meters of wood, started an investigation into another 3,000 cubic meters, as well as seized 17 chainsaws, 16 boats, 32 trucks, and four tractors.”

He also reported that 26 people had been arrested for environmental offenses and other crimes during the Army operations, and fines were imposed in the amount of R$8.7 million.

Injecting funds into the GLO troops rather than enhancing IBAMA is a cause for criticism within the agency. “Comparing the effectiveness and cost of our actions [IBAMA] with GLO actions, there is an enormous difference,” says an IBAMA inspector “Francisco” (fictitious name), who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

He has more than a decade of experience in fighting deforestation. As an example of IBAMA’s success, he mentions a mega-operation on indigenous lands in southern Pará, which took place in early April this year. “That action cleared deforestation on those portions of indigenous lands. That was the main focus of deforestation in the Legal Amazon at the time, and it was an action by IBAMA together with the National Force”, he explains.

According to him, the cost was also significantly lower. “It involved no more than 50 agents in the operation’s three fronts, and it was highly effective. It took a month and cost a maximum of R$2 million, considering the use of an aircraft, which increases the cost. Much less than the GLO’s R$60 million”.

However, the criticism is not against the involvement of the Armed Forces in environmental protection, but rather the management model chosen, which “undermines IBAMA and ICMBio”.

“As IBAMA’s inspector, I say that we want and need to work with the other forces. But each one has to bring its own expertise. The Army’s expertise is logistics, operational risk. They’re good at it, while we have experience in setting up operations and taking action against environmental offenders. This is our expertise,” says Francisco.

A positive aspect pointed out by environmentalists regarding Operation Verde Brasil 2 is timing, since June, July, and August are the most critical for the forest from the perspective of burning and deforestation. But experts criticize this forest protection model adopted by President Jair Bolsonaro.

“The government spends the whole year encouraging deforestation, undermining IBAMA and ICMBio with budget cuts and dismissals, to then deploy the Army,” says Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of civil society organizations established to discuss climate change in Brazil.

To illustrate the dismantling of inspection bodies, IBAMA’s situation is striking: it lost about 25 percent of its funding allocated for inspection between 2019 and 2020, according to data from the government’s transparency website.

The Planalto’s lack of commitment to a forest preservation policy also involves the removal of professionals. Astrini mentions the recent dismissal of IBAMA’s career personnel Renê Luiz de Oliveira and Hugo Ferreira Netto Loss. She claims it was retaliation by the Ministry of the Environment, after both featured in a TV Globo report that showed the fight against illegal miners, including the destruction of their equipment, as provided by law – but criticized by Bolsonaro.

Finally, the NGO Human Rights Watch released a report, in which it stated that the collection of fines for crimes against the environment has been stalled since October 2019 due to changes introduced by Bolsonaro, who has mentioned the environmental “fine industry” more than once.

Bolsonaro’s government denies the suspension of fines, but the President himself was fined for illegal fishing in 2012 – the IBAMA inspector responsible for the fine was dismissed as soon as Bolsonaro took office in 2019.

The Government accepts that the inspection bodies are weakened. Vice-President Mourão, for instance, said that this type of operation is an alternative to IBAMA and ICMBio’s “reduced staff”.

“We cannot continue to employ the Armed Forces indefinitely in this type of operation, we must rebuild the Brazilian state’s capacity to have inspection and protection forces. And who are they? IBAMA and ICMBio, obviously, but they have reduced staff. We need to be able to increase them,” he said on May 11th, during an interview at the launching of Verde Brasil 2.

The disagreements between government and inspection bodies extend beyond Operation Verde Brazil. The recently founded National Council of the Amazon, headed by Mourão, includes 19 members: all are military officers. No IBAMA or ICMBio representative has a seat in the body, which is in charge of coordinating public policies in the Legal Amazon and actions to prevent, inspect, and suppress illegal activities. This assignment, according to the law, was for IBAMA.

The reporter contacted IBAMA, the Ministry of Defense, the Army, and the Vice Presidency of the Republic. IBAMA did not want to comment on the budget cuts in the institution, the dismissal of officials, or the reduction of their role in operations to fight deforestation in Verde Brazil 2. The Army and Defense did not reply.

Source: El País