As the world recoils at the sight of fires ravagingBrazil's Amazon jungle, the nation's far-right government is undermining theagency charged with protecting the rainforest, Reuters has learned frominterviews with ten current and former employees, public records and a reviewof internal government reports.
Conservative President Jair Bolsonaro has made nosecret of his disdain for the public body, known as Ibama, which he haspublicly rebuked as an impediment to the nation's development.
Since he took office on January 1, Ibama's budget hasshrunk by 25% as part of government-wide belt tightening, according to internalgovernment data collected by the opposition PSOL party and shared with Reuters.Among the cuts: funding for prevention and control of forest fires was reduced23%.
New leadership at Ibama also has made it tougher forthe agency to crack down on illegal logging, farming and mining that havedespoiled nearly 12,000 square kilometers (4,633 square miles) in the Amazonthis year, all of the former and current employees told Reuters.
For example, field agents have seen new restrictionson their ability to destroy heavy equipment found at the scene of environmentalcrimes, a long-standing tactic to slow land-grabbers, five of the people said.
In addition, an elite corps of Ibama forest cops hasnot seen action in the Amazon this year, a first since the heavily-armed,highly-trained unit was launched five years ago, according to four of thepeople familiar with the matter. Instead, these special agents have beenconfined largely to desk duty, the people say, or assigned field tasks far fromhot spots in the rainforest.
Punishment of environmental criminals has declinedsubstantially on Bolsonaro's watch. Through August 23, the number of finesissued by Ibama fell 29% compared to the same period last year, while the collectivevalue of those penalties tumbled 43%, government statistics show.
