The vast rainforest is experiencing a repeat of last year’s devastating fires and critics say Bolsonaro has a responsibility
by Lucas Landau at Novo Progresso and Tom Phillips
Jair Bolsonaro smiles from a propaganda signal on the front of this scruffy Amazon outpost, welcoming travelers on his “development route. “
But 20 months after the start of Bolsonaro’s presidency, and a year after a devastating outbreak of fires in the Amazon provoked global outrage, the fires have returned and many fear that the Brazilian leader will lead his country to environmental ruin.
During a two-hour surveillance flight through the skies around Novo Progresso, the Guardian saw giant columns of white and grey smoke emerging from the so-called forests below.
Elsewhere, illegal gold mines can be spotted in the indigenous Bao territory, a chaotic tapestry of muddy ponds and makeshift camps where virgin forest once stood. The recently deforested areas of fallen and charred trees were visible in the Iriri Forest Reserve.
“The Amazon is doomed to destruction,” said a former senior official of Brazil’s weakened environmental agency, Ibama, accusing the far-right populist of overseeing a “demolition” of coverage efforts.
“Under this government, there will be no combat [against the destruction of the jungle],” the former official said. “The long run seems bleak. “
Under pressure from foreign investors, Brazilian governments and business leaders to avoid a repeat of last year’s scandal, when celebrities and world leaders such as Leonardo DiCaprio and Emmanuel Macron condemned Bolsonaro’s remedy against the Amazon, the Brazilian government went on the offensive.
“This story that the Amazon is inflamed is a lie,” Bolsonaro insisted this month, despite growing evidence to the contrary.
In May, thousands of troops were deployed to the Amazon as part of an army project that intended to reduce environmental crimes, although some say it is making things worse.
In July, as tensions in foreign investors intensified, Brazil announced a four-month ban on burning to assure the world that anything was being done.
But satellite photographs collected through Brazil’s area agency, Inpe, suggest that these efforts are failing: in August, it detected more than 7,600 fires in the Amazon, one of nine states that make up the Brazilian Amazon, the figure since 1998 and just Tuesday, the Inpe announced that throughout the Amazon region it had detected more than 29,307 fires in August , the number of the moment in a decade and just below last year’s figure of 30,900.
Greenpeace estimated that, despite the mobilization of the army and the ban on chimneys, there had only been 8% relief in the chimneys between mid-July and mid-August compared to last year.
“We are seeing last year’s tragedy repeat itself,” said Rumulo Batista, an activist from Greenpeace in Manaus, the capital of Amazonas.
During a recent surveillance flight over 4 Amazonian states – Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Rondania and Paro – Batista also showed scenes of devastation.
“We saw spaces of burned grass, deforested spaces burned, spaces of burned forest. And it is clear that there, in the forest below us, no one is staying at home [because of the coronavirus],” he said.
“All – illegal loggers, land hoarders, illegal miners – are all operational, and even more than usual, knowing that government inspections have been reduced due to the pandemic. “
A supervisor of the indigenous NGO Kabu Institute, which organized the Guardian’s single-engine flight over the state of Paro, said: “There has been a strong accumulation of illegal mining and forestry activities for more than two years. Lack of inspection Operatives through Ibama and the Federal Police in this region promoted environmental crimes in indigenous territories.
Bep Protti Mekr-gnoti Re, leader of the Kayap Indigenous People, said their communities were paying a high price for the government’s anti-environmental stance.
“What Bolsonaro’s progression means is destruction within our reserve,” said Bep Protti, who recently led a week-long blockade of the Amazon Highway crossing Novo Progresso for protection.
He called for urgent action to monitor the region’s forests and wildlife there: “It’s with the forest and rivers that I feed. “
The representative said that two models of progression in the Amazon were faced lately: “the progression of destruction” and the “sustainable progression of knowledge. “
Environmentalists obviously know what the bagaro style pursues, which in January 2019 promised to open the Amazon and its indigenous reserves to progression.
“This is arguably the worst time in more than 30 years we faced in Brazil. And unfortunately, this was expected because the president was elected thanks to his anti-environmental rhetoric, and now he’s keeping his promises,” Carlos said. Rittl, a Brazilian environmentalist working at the German Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies.
“The feeling is desolation,” Rittl said, adding, “2020 is going to be a year. “
Batista Bolsonaro’s technique of wildfires to his coronavirus denial, which has already killed more than 120,000 Brazilians. The far-right populist hoped to deny satellite images and science and assign “an air of normalcy” to the global “as he did with Covid-19. “”Unfortunately, that’s not true. “
The former head of the Ibama also pessimistic, saying that his operations were “completely paralyzed” and that Brazil’s environmental policies were in ruins. The organization, shaken by years of cuts, had only six helicopters to monitor the 2. 1 million square kilometers of the Amazon, and planned to dismantle two of those helicopters. “If you ask me, to combat deforestation, we would want at least 12. “
Last week, Brazil’s environment minister announced that all operations against deforestation deserve arrest, this was cancelled after a protest.
Rittl called the most recent fires, which are expected to last until October, an “announced tragedy” and the result of “a government without commitment to the environment. “
“Under Bolsonaro, Brazil is the world’s largest environmental enemy. It’s very sad to see you,” he says. A small number of other people get very rich with that, and we all lose. “