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By Leila Shannon
The figures surrounding the recent destruction of the Amazon rainforest are astounding and can be directly attributed to the recent electoral victory of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. According to a report from the Observatório Do Clima, deforestation increased by 34% after Bolsonaro took office in 2019, followed by a further 9.5% increase in 2020. Such increases have not been seen since 2008. Deforestation is a political matter, fuelled and shaped by the policies of governments. The deforestation figures linked to Bolsonaro’s presidency reflect his agenda, which revolves around reducing the protection of the Amazon rainforest and the Indigenous communities residing within it, in the hope of extracting economic gains. A plethora of destructive policies and reforms have made these figures possible.
In the midst of the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in April, FUNAI, the Brazilian Government agency responsible for the protection of the interests of Indigenous people, passed a concerning measure which is colloquially known as the land grabbers decree. Land-grabbing is the process by which land is illegally occupied, and ultimately developed for economic gains: a process that poses a severe threat to the Amazon rainforest. Prior to this measure, no land containing any Indigenous territory could be claimed by land-grabbers. However, this reform allowed for land which is going through the lengthy process of being officially demarcated as an Indigenous territory to be legally claimed by land-grabbers. This poses a threat to nearly 10 million hectares of land, which can now be developed without the protection that it had under previous measures.
Perhaps more strikingly, huge swaths of existing Indigenous territory are already under threat as Bolsonaro has proven to be extremely reluctant to officially recognise Indigenous land, having not approved the demarcation of any territories by the time that this reform was made. This opening up of the Amazon also puts uncontacted tribes in an extremely volatile situation, with the possibility of illnesses, including Covid-19, being spread to these communities due to the relaxation of restrictions.
Unfortunately, such attempts at destructive reform have become characteristic of Bolsonaro’s presidency. A provisional measure put forward by the Government, which was rejected by Congress in May 2020, proposed to allow all land that had been illegally seized up until 2018 to be regulated, officially granting land-grabbers ownership of the land. The existing regulation only allows for land which has been illegally claimed and developed before 2011 to become legally owned by land-grabbers. An attempt to extend this cutoff point until 2018 demonstrates Bolsonaro’s aim to simplify further deforestation and development of the Amazon. Despite the rejection of this measure, Bolsonaro is intent on facilitating land-grabbing, and is currently in the process of establishing a policy that will allow each of Brazil’s municipalities to grant the ownership of land. Although the parameters of this new measure are not yet clear, the sentiment is; Bolsonaro sees the Amazon as a resource to be developed, rather than protected.
These reforms, along with a complete lack of repercussions for environmental crimes, make for a dangerous combination. A report from the Observatório Do Clima shows that fines imposed by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) were 20% lower in 2020 than in 2019. This is partly due to the fact that the control of this Institute was handed over to the military in May 2020, a stunt that proved to be ineffective in its aim of protecting the Amazon from development. A dramatic increase in the territory that was illegally deforested in 2020 compared to the average between 2014 and 2018 acts as a testament to this failure.
A more direct demonstration of the Government’s distaste for the enforcement of sanctions for environmental crimes was seen in April 2020, with the sacking of Brazil’s most senior environmental enforcement officer. This followed the broadcast on Globo, Brazil’s largest commercial television network, of an IBAMA-led raid on illegal mining inside Indigenous reservations. Such mining presents a threat both to the environment and to Indigenous communities, which at the time had not yet been exposed to Covid-19. Weeks after the event, two of the officials shown in the TV report, Renê Luiz de Oliveira and Hugo Ferreira Loss, were also sacked. What is evident is the Government’s desire not to dissuade those who may be illegally developing the Amazon rainforest from doing so, and their unwillingness to protect Indigenous communities in the Amazon.
Despite these policies, Bolsonaro still attempts to present himself as innocent when it comes to deforestation, touting lies or blaming others for environmental damage. Bolsonaro shifted the blame for the continuous forest fires in the Amazon that were seen in 2020 to activities in ‘pasture areas’, in a clear attempt to blame Indigenous communities. This runs counter to data from Brazil’s Institute for Space Research, which show a direct correlation between areas experiencing fires and areas ravaged by deforestation. Bolsonaro’s refusal to acknowledge the destruction that his policies have facilitated was perhaps best demonstrated at the UN General Assembly in 2019, where his speech abounded with self-exonerating lies. Among them, he claimed that he had a ‘zero-tolerance policy’ when it came to environmental crime and that the recent forest fires were due to decomposition alone.
Bolsonaro’s fallacies do little to hide what lies behind his policies: a complete disregard for the cultural and environmental value of the Amazon. Despite this, his position may be forced to change in the coming years. Bolsonaro will be subject to increasing international pressure, and may face charges in the International Criminal Court in the Hague for environmental crimes. This is a possibility arising from a request for an investigation into the President that was made on behalf of a collection of Brazil’s Indigenous leaders and human rights groups. Moreover, US President Joe Biden’s administration is likely to be much less sympathetic than his predecessor to the Brazilian President’s actions, as the rapid signing of executive orders on climate upon his arrival at the White House demonstrates. Bolsonaro is seeking re-election in 2022, but his handling of the Covid-19 crisis is leading to rapidly decreasing approval ratings. However, given that a large part of his electoral base supports the development of the Amazon, it can be expected that, until the aforementioned actors exercise their influence, his destructive policies will continue to ravage the Amazon.
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