Report blames criminals for being responsible for ecological destruction in Brazil

By Bala Chambers

LONDON (AA) - A report published Wednesday highlighted how criminals in Brazil are responsible for large-scale environmental destruction and it accuses federal police of doing little to combat ecological damage.

The report by the Brazilian think tank, Igarape Institute, describes "a pattern of destruction fueled largely by economic activities carried out under various licensing, authorization and concession mechanisms."

It said ecological damage occurred in state and federal forests which are "unallocated" and cannot be categorized the same way in which national parks and indigenous reserves are classified. It said environmentalists have pushed authorities to convert unallocated public forests into protected areas.

Researchers analyzed 302 of 371 operations "carried out by the Brazilian Federal Police to fight environmental and converging crimes in the Legal Amazon between 2016 and 2021,” and found only 2% of the operations targeted those who were illegally seizing unallocated public lands.

It found that "protected areas of the Amazon, including Indigenous Lands, Conservation Units and Permanent Protection Areas, have been increasingly impacted by the ecosystem of environmental crime, principally illegal logging and gold mining.”

More than 22% of territories and 45% of police operations mapped in the study fell within "protected areas."

It said investigators have "probed illegal activities in 37 Indigenous Lands in the Amazon" belonging to different indigenous communities from The Yanomami, the Munduruku and 7 de Setembro, and those areas have "been especially hard hit by environmental and converging crimes."

The study investigated the "flow of resources and products from the forest to other locations in the Amazon and beyond," finding that "trajectories were found to be rife with violence,” notably "the conflicted gold mining areas of Indigenous Lands in Para and Roraima" and "wherever land grabbing and illegal deforestation flourish, notably in the south of Amazonas"

It pointed to how environmental crises converge due to "fraud, corruption and money laundering” while underscoring "the alarming levels of deforestation and the socio-environmental damage that organized crime groups inflict upon historically preserved areas and native forests of the Amazon."

"While the Federal Police investigations are an important piece in the complex institutional puzzle of confronting environmental crime,” the report said "proper designation of public lands is critical to protecting the forest.”

It urged "monitoring and control of supply chains” due to "the connections between illicit and crime-tainted economic activities in the Brazilian Amazon and in neighboring countries."

The report comes amid Amazon deforestation concerns and the environmental effect it could have on the region.

Brazil's Environmental Ministry said earlier this month it had been robust in combating environmental crises but it did not mention that the Amazon Rainforest has suffered the highest deforestation rate in six years.

Since 1985, when Brazil emerged from military rule, most governments have attempted to extend legal protections to Amazon communities and around 47% of the Amazon is in protected areas.

Environment defenders continue to criticize the policies of current far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who they said has rolled back protections causing ecological destruction.