Reactions to Ibama range from fake news to political pressure – 04/28/2023 – Environment

In recent weeks, inspection activities by Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) in the Amazon have caused a chain reaction between ranchers and loggers that has reached the top levels of the federal government. Based on false information disseminated on social networks and on local websites, some of the producers mobilized parliamentarians to put pressure on the agency.

The operations that caused the commotion were named Retomada and Metaverso. Started in early April, the first focuses on apprehending cattle raised in areas that had already been embargoed due to illegal deforestation, while the second, launched in January, combats illegal logging.

Cattle ranching and logging are among the main drivers of destruction of the Amazon rainforest and are also two of the main economic activities in the region.

Parliamentarians and the president of ApexBrasil (Brazilian Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments), Jorge Viana (PT), approached the head of Ibama and the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change to discuss the actions.

Operation Retomada was carried out in Lábrea and Manicoré, in Amazonas, and in Pacajá, in Pará, cities with some of the highest deforestation rates in the Legal Amazon. Around 3,000 head of cattle considered to be products of an environmental crime were seized, because they were in illegally deforested areas and because the owners had not respected the prior embargo.

Despite this, the information that spread on social networks and local websites was that the agency would seize more than 500,000 head of cattle in the region, especially in the Amazon.

“Abuí, Sucunduri, Jacareacanga, 180 [distrito do município de Manicoré (AM)], Labrea, Reality, everything will be expropriated. It doesn’t have a farm, it doesn’t have a situation [sic] that will not be expropriated”, says one of the videos. The recording also mentions that the expropriated land would go to European countries, such as Greece, Norway and Sweden – which, like the rest of the content, is not true.

Another video threatens IBAMA inspectors with possible “bloodshed”.

Metaverso handled wood transactions in the Federal District and eight states: Acre, Amapá, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Roraima and Tocantins. Ibama agents issued 23 infraction notices and inspected 21 companies.

Most timber companies are located in Acre, where a large part of exports are linked to this economic sector.

Among the rumors that circulated about the operation was that more than 90% of the state’s production had been paralyzed. There were also rumors that hundreds of companies had been suspended and that seizures of cattle were under way in Acre.

However, 16 wood storage yards were embargoed in the state, 4% of the more than 300 facilities of the type in Acre. Of this total, 14 companies received notification that requires the presentation of documents for the situation to be regularized – which, so far, has been answered by three.

political influence

The false information about the almost total stoppage of logging activities in the state reached the president of ApexBrasil, Jorge Viana, who was governor (1999-2007) and senator (2011-2019) for Acre.

In a meeting with businessmen from the sector in the state on the 8th, he stated that he considered Ibama’s actions “worrying” and that he would contact the agency to “propose solutions that prevent the interruption of the timber sector in Acre”. The information was disclosed by the newspaper AC 24 Horas and shared by the politician himself on social media.

Four days later, Viana sought out the president of IBAMA, Rodrigo Agostinho. After the meeting, he published a video saying that he sought out those responsible to find out about the operations and that he asked that the situation of sawmills under suspicion of illegality “be resolved” to avoid damage to the economy.

Viana also stated that he asked Agostinho to issue a note clarifying information about the operation. The note was published on the Ibama website the following day.

“I went after the information to clarify what was happening,” he told Sheet Viana, who also coordinated the Environment working group during the transition to the Lula (PT) government.

Viana assesses that the situation was clarified after meetings with the regional superintendence and the presidency of Ibama and says he regrets the attacks that the federal government suffered from the opposition due to the operations. “Unfortunately, the disinformation war has won a lot in the country.”

In the case of Operation Retomada, the false statement that Ibama would seize hundreds of thousands of head of cattle even reached a letter drawn up by mayors in the south of Amazonas. The document is dated March 30 and signed by the mayors of the Amazonian municipalities of Humaitá, Apuí and Lábrea.

The text states that, in a meeting between government officials and ranchers in the region, after a meeting with IBAMA was cancelled, it was decided that “a bridge of dialogue between federal, municipal and state authorities would be established to stop this threat”.

Less than two weeks after the mobilization, around 30 senators and federal deputies from Acre, Amazonas and Rondônia had a meeting with Agostinho and the executive secretary of the Ministry of the Environment, João Paulo Capobianco, who was in charge temporarily.

“They came worried about Ibama’s actions, which returned with great force and are being very assertive”, reports Capobianco, who classifies the meeting as very positive.

“I had never seen such a significant group of parliamentarians saying that they will support actions to reduce deforestation, that they are against crime, illegal deforestation. They want regularity and they want legal deforestation to be respected, which the law provides for” , ponder. “You can question this in terms of other arguments, but the fact is that this is the first time this has happened.”

One of the leaders of the entourage, however, Senator Alan Rick (União Brasil-AC) published a video after the meeting stating that he asked for the embargo on logging companies to be lifted on suspicion of illegality. “We know that when there is inspection, sales, commercialization is paralyzed, but you cannot paralyze the entire operation of the logging companies”.

Crime and economy in the Amazon

For Virgílio Viana, general superintendent of FAS (Sustainable Amazon Foundation) and professor at Fundação Dom Cabral, the mobilization of political forces by producers is an expected reaction to inspection actions.

“We had four years of dismantling the environmental inspection agendas in the Amazon and a climate was created in which everything was released. And, now, a new government that is resuming law and order”, he says. “This shows how difficult it will be to stop criminal activity in the Amazon. It won’t be easy.”

The specialist also says he believes that, as in many areas of the Amazon, activities linked to environmental crimes are responsible for an important part of the economy, it is necessary to encourage alternatives. “It’s closing the door to deforestation and opening the door to a green economy.”

Ibama estimates that the value of the 3,000 head of cattle seized could exceed R$ 10 million. In all, 27 people received notifications determining the removal of the herd from these areas, which total 25,000 hectares.

In the case of Metaverso, 1.2 million cubic meters of wood and charcoal were blocked at Sinaflor in virtual credits, that is, purchase and sale authorizations. The suspicion is that these credits were fraudulently generated to “heat” illegal wood.

According to Ibama, this would make it possible to cover up the illegal exploitation of 114,300 hectares of forest, which, converted into sawn wood, could yield up to R$ 2 billion. To transport all this cargo, around 60,000 trucks would be needed.

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