URUARA, Brazil, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Brazilian environmental agents slashed the rainforest with machetes on Thursday in search of criminals in the first crackdown on deforestation under President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to end the growing destruction inherited by his predecessor , Jair Bolsonaro.
Reuters exclusively accompanies actions led by the environmental agency Ibama in the rainforest of Pará state to stop loggers and ranchers illegally cutting down the forest.
The agency also launched raids this week in the states of Roraima and Acre, Ibama environmental enforcement coordinator Tatian Leyte said.
About 10 Ibama agents set off in pickup trucks on Thursday from their base in the municipality of Uruara, Pará, along with a dozen federal police officers, heading for a group of points where satellite images show loggers and ranchers working recently to illegally clear the forest.
In a 12-hour drive on dirt roads illegally crossing a native reserve, the convoy reached five areas that were deforested and burned around the time of last October’s election that pitted Lula against Bolsonaro.
All areas are located in the Cachoeira Seca local reserve, where deforestation is strictly prohibited.
Four of the lots appeared subsequently abandoned, with no signs of people living nearby or in the process of being converted into a ranch. Agents said this could be a sign that illegal farmers have refused to invest time and money in turning illegal land into productive pastures, knowing that Lula campaigned on a promise to fight deforestation.
“People know that with this government enforcement will tighten and not allow them to use an area they have illegally deforested,” said Givanildo dos Santos Lima, the agent in charge of the Ibama mission in Uruaira.
“If the other government had won, you would have found people here, well-kept pastures and cattle.”
Bolsonaro’s government gutted Ibama’s environmental enforcement staff and funding during its four years in office, while the former president criticized Ibama for fining farmers and miners.
Bolsonaro gave the military, and later the Justice Department, powers for anti-deforestation operations, sidelining Ibama despite the agency’s extensive experience and success in fighting the destruction of the Amazon.
An area larger than Denmark was deforested under Bolsonaro, a 60% increase over the previous four years.
In another part of the reservation, agents found a newly built house with several chainsaws and weeks of food stocked, indicating that the occupants had probably fled just before Ibama’s arrival.
Surrounded by police with semi-automatic weapons, Ibama agents made their way through the neighboring jungle to reach an area the size of 57 football fields, littered with fallen trees and loaded trunks.
Some haphazardly planted corn sprouted knee-high in what appeared to be an attempt to stake a claim to the area to eventually become a cattle pasture, agents said.
“We will come back by helicopter and surprise them,” Lima said.
He was optimistic that Ibama would be able to carry out more raids under Lula, aimed at fining loggers and intimidating criminals from trying to clear more areas.
Lula, during his election campaign last year, promised to put Ibama back in charge of fighting deforestation with increased funding and staff. He took office on Jan. 1, so additional money and staff have yet to reach frontline workers.
Bolsonaro’s government rejected several requests by Reuters to accompany Ibama’s missions during his 2019-2022 administration. His government imposed an order barring Ibama agents from speaking to the press, which the agents say has now been lifted.
Lula first took office in 2003 when deforestation in the Amazon was near an all-time high, and through strict enforcement of environmental laws he reduced it by 72% to a near-record low when he left office in 2010
Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Brad Haynes, Mark Porter and Leslie Adler
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Jake Spring
Thomson Reuters
Global climate and environment correspondent based in Brazil. Interests include science, forestry, geoengineering, cryosphere, climate policy/diplomacy, accountability and investigative reporting. His work on the destruction of the environment under Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has received awards from Covering Climate Now and the Society of Environmental Journalists. Previously working in China, he is fluent in Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese.
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