Cattle ranchers contest ICMBio fines for buying and selling cattle

Cattle ranchers are questioning a high number of fines – more than 2,500 – that have been applied by the environmental agency Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio) on farmers throughout Brazil, but especially in Pará. The most significant concentration of fines ( 324) involves cattle breeders in the Floresta do Jamanxim region, an area that has been the scene of controversy since it was transformed into a conservation zone by a decree from the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) in 2006 and has not even finished being demarcated yet.

According to a survey made available by ICMBio, from January to October 24, 2023, 2,523 infraction notices have already been issued for alleged environmental crimes in various conservation units throughout Brazil.

Among the infraction notices issued by ICMBio in 2023, 528 also involved the embargo of areas, which prevents owners from using the land for their activities. In Pará alone, there are records of at least 878 infraction notices that generated fines exceeding the R$232 million mark.

In a spreadsheet available on the ICMBio website, it is possible to verify that among the 878 infraction notices issued in Pará, 324 were generated within the Jamanxim National Forest. The environmental agency’s inspection, intensified in recent months, has focused on the purchase and sale of cattle originating from areas that are part of this forest, and fines have been applied ranging from R$500.00 to R$1000.00 per head .

The Jamanxim National Forest, however, is part of an obstacle that has been ongoing for more than 10 years. Created through a decree in 2006, its perimeter is contested by owners who lived in the area before its creation. In 2016, there was an attempt to reduce the forest territory through a Provisional Measure. The proposal was changed and was approved in Congress. However, it ended up being vetoed by then president Michel Temer (MDB) after international pressure and environmentalist Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

ICMBio uses animal transit guides to apply fines

The fines issued in Pará have been based on information from the Agricultural Integration System (Siapec) of the State of Pará. According to the lawyer specializing in agri-environmental law, Rebeca Youssef, environmental agencies would be using animal transit guides to issue fines . “The agency pulls the Animal Transit Guides issued by Adepará [Agência de Defesa Agropecuária do Estado do Pará] and cross-references the data with the location of the properties: if it is a property covered by the Jamanxim National Forest, both the seller and the buyer are fined”, explains the lawyer.

The infraction notices – which appear on the spreadsheet to which the People’s Gazette had access – describe fines that indicate the acquisition of heads of cattle, in the period between 2018 and 2022, produced in an embargoed area located inside the Jamanxim National Forest.

Lawyer Rebeca Youssef highlights, however, that livestock farmers in the Novo Progresso region, the municipality in which the forest is located, have suffered for years from abuses by environmental agencies. “In the content of the document there is not even the correct filling out of the data of the notified livestock farmers nor any mention of any pre-existing process or infraction committed. This is also not a case of any judicial decision granted for the benefit of the environmental agency”, says the lawyer. Rebeca advises that all those who receive notifications in this regard seek specialized support.

Creation of conservation area did not follow necessary procedures

Despite being created in 2006, through a decree signed by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the Minister of the Environment, Marina Silva, the Jamanxim Forest process has not yet been completed. After the publication of the decree, the public authorities need to demarcate the area, as well as expropriate the occupants, open processes for land regularization and compensate the owners, when applicable.

According to lawyer Rebeca Youssef, who makes up the Jamanxim National Forest council, the process of creating the conservation unit was not completed and “expired”. “This conservation unit was never created, in fact. There is no land regularization process, compensation, nothing. They decreed the creation of the Conservation Unit and started treating all local landowners as invaders”, said the lawyer.

Without completing the necessary processes to regularize the area, notifications from environmental agencies create legal uncertainty for livestock farmers in the region. “The notifications determine the removal of cattle, as if the rancher were an invader of the conservation unit when, in fact, rural producers who had already lived in these areas for a long time, had their properties swallowed up by the creation of the Jamanxim National Forest”, reinforces Rebeca.

A People’s Gazette contacted ICMBio to seek information about the process of creating the Jamanxim National Forest, but did not receive a response by the time this article was written. The space remains open for demonstrations.

ICMBio points to savings and efficiency to justify fines generated by remote inspection

Remote inspection means have been used to apply most of the notices issued by ICMBio. The agency claims that this measure combines efficiency with saving resources. Article published on the agency’s website points out that the expenses for these inspection actions represented just 0.7% of the budget. “This demonstrates the economic efficiency of the methodology used based on the use of geoprocessing data and reports”, says the ICMBio publication.

Lawyer Rebeca Youssef, however, disputes the agency’s position. “It’s a cheap measure, which doesn’t even require the deployment of an inspection team to the field. All it takes is an image and a CPF to impute an infringement, and the embargo is launched. We live in times of rigging of environmental agencies to fulfill an ideological agenda”, says the lawyer.

In addition to fines, fines have other effects on livestock farmers’ activities. In the event of an embargo, rural producers are prevented from accessing rural credit and agricultural sales for export and slaughterhouses. “It’s an industry of fines: a large part of the infraction notices and embargoes are drawn up without any respect for environmental legislation”, adds Rebeca.