Strike of environmental employees reduced fines by 93%, says association – 01/16/2024 – Environment

A survey carried out by Ascema (national association of environmental servants) states that the suspension of the category, which has been happening gradually since the beginning of January, has already reduced by 92.6% the number of infraction notices applied by Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and of Renewable Natural Resources).

According to civil servants’ accounts, there were 118 notices issued in the first half of 2023, compared to just 11 in the same period of 2024.

“This scenario highlights the urgency in meeting the demands of civil servants and highlights the importance of the work of these professionals in environmental protection. It is worth highlighting that, despite the suspension of field activities, civil servants continue to act actively in internal processes, dealing with a substantial demand instruction of processes and analyzes in organ systems”, states the association.

Ibama was contacted, but at the time of publication of this text, it did not respond.

The extent of support for the strike, nor its impact on the federal government’s environmental policy, is still unclear.

The number of infraction notices and environmental fines has historically been directly and inversely related to the deforestation curve in Brazil — that is, the more fines, the lower the rate of forest felling.

At the beginning of the month, there were also a large number of employees who had expressed interest in working in inspection operations in the Amazon and the Yanomami Indigenous Land. According to an Ibama document, of the 87 people who initially volunteered to work, only four confirmed, after the strike was declared, their willingness to go into the field.

The demand for a new career plan, salary increase and better working conditions for the sector escalated during 2023, until starting in 2024 with localized stoppages.

The employees complain that, despite the preservation of the environment being at the center of President Lula’s (PT) speech, their career was not valued, even after years of scrapping and attacks during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

During COP28, the UN conference on climate change, workers from Ibama and ICMBio (Instituto Chico Mendes de Biodiversidade) published a letter accusing the PT administration of disloyalty, due to the failure to send a career plan proposal.

“We guide each server to understand the context, be ready to fight, refuse calls for ‘voluntarism’ from the municipality and focus on bureaucratic formalities”, says the text.

The servers complain that the negotiations did not progress after a first table and therefore demanded a second meeting in 2023 — which did not happen.

The text classified the government’s conduct as “neglect” and said that the “failure to respond to this demand will be seen as disrespect not only to the civil servants we represent, but also to Brazil’s commitment to global environmental issues.”

With no response, on December 30th, Ibama employees sent a letter informing the organization’s management and also ministries that, as of January 1st, they would begin to suspend field activities. Days later, ICMBio servers did the same.

On the 8th, after a meeting between the ministers of Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, and Management and Innovation in Public Services, Esther Dweck, it was decided that the second meeting of the negotiation table will only be held on the 1st of February.