Government to launch security program in the Amazon – 02/15/2023 – Environment

The Ministry of Justice and Public Security will present in the next few days a program that intends to expand security actions in the Amazon region, said this Wednesday (15) the executive secretary of the portfolio, Ricardo Capelli.

The promise is to combat actions such as illegal mining and deforestation in forest areas. The program will be called Amazônia Mais Segura.

According to Capelli, the initiative will be developed jointly with institutions such as the PF (Federal Police) and Ibama.

“This program will include the installation of new bases, land bases, river bases, expansion of personnel, training of personnel who work there and who will work there, as well as investment in technological solutions, which will help for the Brazilian state to resume the control of the entire region,” said the secretary.

The statement was given in an interview during the afternoon at the headquarters of the BNDES (National Bank for Economic and Social Development), in Rio de Janeiro.

This Wednesday, the bank hosted the Cofa (Amazon Fund Guiding Committee) reinstallation meeting. It was the committee’s first meeting since 2018, according to BNDES. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) reinstated the governance of the Amazon Fund in January.

One of Cofa’s attributions is to establish guidelines and criteria for the application of resources obtained by the fund, which aims at environmental preservation and the fight against deforestation.

It is a tripartite committee, formed by representatives of the federal government, state governments and civil society.

The Amazon Fund was frozen during the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro (PL). Norway and Germany blocked the transfer of resources to the initiative in 2019.

The decision came after the Bolsonaro government extinguished the two governance bodies of the fund: Cofa and CTFA (Technical Committee of the Amazon Fund). Deforestation records also startled new partners.

After the elections in Brazil, Norway and Germany announced the resumption of transfers to the initiative. Other countries, including the United States, have also expressed interest in joining the fund.

Present at the Cofa meeting, Minister Marina Silva (Environment and Climate Change) said that the value of the transfer from the United States has not yet been defined. That amount should be known in the coming weeks, according to the minister.

In a meeting between presidents Lula and Joe Biden, last Friday (10), the United States proposed a value of around US$ 50 million (R$ 260 million), which was seen as disappointing by Brazilian negotiators.

Marina said that one of the priorities for resuming the fund will be support for measures to protect indigenous peoples in a situation of social and health crisis in the country.

According to Marina, 14 projects had already been “duly qualified” in the Amazon Fund, but, with the interruption of the initiative in the Bolsonaro administration, they ended up in “limbo”. These projects may be resumed with the return of discussions, signaled the minister.

“The meeting’s decision is that, if the resource takers are interested in continuing to process these projects, which are highly relevant and, more or less, worth between R$ 480 million and R$ 600 million, with the update that possibly will have to be done, these projects will go through the process again”, he said.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}