The atrophy has deprived Brazil of what should be its most potent weapon against deforestation: credible regulations and the threat of consequences for those who violate them. “A revolution” is how former environment minister Marina Silva described it in an interview.īut in the decades since, law enforcement officials say, nearly every tool has been dulled to the point of ineffectiveness, snagged by bureaucracy, case overloads and a grinding appellate system that has long stymied the country’s criminal justice system. Criminal charges that could put deforesters in prison. Land-use embargoes that prohibited the commercial use of illegally deforested or degraded land. The tools: Fines that could soar into the millions.
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Soon came official plans to crack down on deforesters, and the law enforcement agencies to do it. The 1988 constitution described it as “essential” and called upon the government and civil society to safeguard the country’s natural resources. Rising from the yoke of a military dictatorship that had promoted rapacious development of the Amazon, the country vowed a radical new approach to the environment. And no one to enforce the environmental law.īrazil had once promised something different. So when tomorrow came, and Valle’s crew departed for another part of the state, they’d be leaving the forest here defenseless. And the last agent to perform inspections from the south Acre field office, disillusioned by the mission and tired of the risks it entailed, had just announced he was quitting. The year was shaping up to be perfect for deforestation: hot and dry. His was the only inspection team that traveled throughout the state. Valle didn’t reply he knew environmental authorities were about to fall even further behind. But they still had 15 cases to investigate. Nonato was the first on their list in southern Acre. “Those guys over there” - his chin jutting into the distance - “they knocked it all down. “You come out here for this bit of deforestation but do nothing about the guys who deforest 120 or 150 acres?” he said. He looked at the crew’s heavily armed police escort. RIGHT: Inspectors Ivan de Jesus Pereira de Araújo e Silva, left, and Daniel Valle at Nonato's home in southern Acre. LEFT: Environmental police officer Bruno Rodrigues, 33, prepares to fly an inspection drone on July 13 to verify recent illegal logging in Acre. TOP: A police officer stands by as inspectors visit rancher Francisco Nonato de Souza on July 13 to impose a fine for deforestation. Inspectors Ivan de Jesus Pereira de Araújo e Silva, left, and Daniel Valle at Nonato's home in southern Acre. “We don’t have enough people,” Valle said.
The map showed 16 points of illegal devastation - pinpricks of red piercing an expanse of green and brown.
That meant his state agency, the Acre Environmental Institute, now bore the burden of enforcing environmental law in this area of more than 3,600 square miles along the border with Bolivia. His crew was in southern Acre, where the federal government under President Jair Bolsonaro - a longtime critic of environmental regulation - no longer staffed a single inspector. A roving state environmental inspector, he traveled throughout this remote land that was increasingly under threat from a wave of destruction that had leveled the forests to the east.
“This is it,” said Valle, 39, pulling off the highway. Now he’s called mayor How deforestation is pushing the Amazon toward a tipping point How Americans’ love of beef is helping destroy the Amazon rainforest He’s been called a deforester and killer.
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More in this series We traveled deep into the Amazon to investigate deforestation.
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