Wood project in Amapá involves company fined – 03/09/2024 – Environment

A logging project in a preserved area of ​​the Amazon, in Amapá, involves a company that has already been fined three times by Ibama (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) for irregular receipt of native wood.

A fine, worth R$120,200, was imposed four months before authorization for the project was granted. The other two, which total R$10,100, refer to infractions committed two months later, as stated in Ibama’s public consultation system.

Incra (National Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform) gave approval to the exploitation of wood even with the existence of two technical opinions and two internal orders contrary to this approval. One of the opinions points to the project’s business bias and suspicion of forgery of beneficiary signatures.

“Despite the warning, there was consent from the previous management of Incra’s superintendence in Amapá”, said the organization in a note to Sheet. A technical committee was created by the institute to carry out due diligence and inspect the project.

The sustainable forest management plan, authorized in the Maracá PAE (Agroextractive Settlement Project) area, in Mazagão (AP), is announced by the Amapá government as the largest in the country. It involves 172 thousand hectares of forest, almost a third of the settlement area, where 1,993 families live, according to Incra data.

The area for wood removal, within a project that involves selection of trees to be felled and sustainable management of the activity, is equivalent to more than a thousand Ibirapuera parks, in São Paulo. The companies responsible are TW Forest and Eco Forte Bioenergia, according to the Amapá government. They are part of the same group.

The project was coordinated by Senator Davi Alcolumbre (União Brasil-AP) with Incra and supported by Senator Randolfe Rodrigues (no party-AP), who publicized the initiative and the company’s activities.

Alcolumbre wants to return to preside over the Senate in 2025. Randolfe is leader of the Lula (PT) government in Congress, and left the Sustainability Network in 2023 – party of Marina Silva, Minister of Environment and Climate Change – for defending oil exploration on the Amazon coast, in the Foz do Amazonas basin, in a block near Oiapoque (AP).

The governor of Amapá, Clécio Luís (Solidariedade), who promotes the project as the largest in the country, attributes to Alcolumbre a “fundamental” role, with “mobilization” in Brasília and with Incra.

Technical opinions from Incra in Amapá highlighted problems in the management plan and recommended that consent not be given to the responsible association, Atexma (Association of Agroextractive Workers of Maracá), until there was legal certainty for the federal body, responsible for rural settlements.

In a statement, TW Forest and Eco Forte stated that they are serious companies and that the project inhibits illegal logging, in addition to involving the settlers through the payment of cash grants.

“The local community has sent many compliments and thanks for the work”, says the note. “In 2023, Eco Forte Bioenergia went to COP28 [conferência da ONU sobre mudanças climáticas]in Dubai, present the results of the project to the rest of the world.”

TW Forest has been in Amapá since 2003 and has a well-established industrial park, he said. In 20 years, there were only fines from 2023, referring to “documentary flaws that were remedied”. “The company has never been fined for illegal logging. The largest fine is due to an error on the part of the government itself, not the company, which is why it was contested.”

Sema (Environment Secretariat) of Amapá stated, in a note, that the fines applied by Ibama are still in the administrative process. A report, after inspection by Sema and Ibama, concluded that there were no irregularities, said the local government body, in relation to the fine imposed in April.

The reporter was unable to contact Atexma, the association responsible for the project, and sent a message via a channel available on the social network. The entity did not respond.

Wanted by Sheet, Randolfe stated that he was not aware of the fines and that he learned about the project in 2023. He said he was unaware of political pressure on Incra. “For a first project, the company won a bid. Sustainable management is the solution for the Amazon, any environmentalist knows that. Maracá has rational use and management of wood, without predatory exploitation.”

Alcolumbre stated that questions should be made to the company and environmental authorities. “The senator will remain attentive and firm so that Amapá advances more and more towards sustainable development, always respecting and preserving the environment”, he said, in a statement.

Among the problematic points listed by Incra technicians are the lack of participation of settlers in the production process, as well as a lack of training, the lack of a general assembly to approve cuts of species and a business bias in the activity, with maximum intensity of cut — 30 m³ per hectare.

An opinion also indicated suspicion of forgery of beneficiary signatures, with the complaint being forwarded for investigation by the PF (Federal Police) and MPF (Federal Public Ministry).

Incra technicians stated that contracts signed by Atexma, even before final approval by the federal agency, constitute a concession of use to companies for timber exploration. The contracts were signed in January 2021 and added to the files at Incra only in December 2022, according to a technical opinion.

Incra confirmed that the contracts should have been presented to the body for approval and that this did not happen. The Federal Attorney’s Office working at Incra in Amapá recommended administrative measures, with the need to initiate an inspection process. “No administrative investigation was carried out at the time,” Incra said in a statement.

One of the companies previously hired is Eco Forte. It is confused with TW Forest, according to disclosures made by the Amapá government — corporate compositions reported to the Federal Revenue indicate partners from the same family.

The then superintendent of Incra in Amapá, Fábio da Silva Muniz, disagreed with the technical opinions, highlighted the urgency of authorization and ordered the immediate issuance of consent, due to what he considered as the possibility of generating hundreds of jobs and income for 1,013 families.

The superintendent’s order was given in March 2023, the third month of the Lula government. In May, he was dismissed from the position, to which he was appointed in 2016, in the Michel Temer (MDB) government.

TW Forest is the executor of the wood management plan, according to the government of Amapá, which granted authorizations for the project. The announcement of the granting of authorizations was made in September 2023.

The project has a term of 14 years. Families in the settlement – ​​more than a thousand, according to the state government – ​​were paid a “forest grant”, worth R$1,058. In total, the project delivers R$1 million per month, or 98% of the resources from wood extraction, according to the government of Amapá.

On April 20, 2023, TW Forest committed an environmental infraction in Mazagão related to receiving wood without requiring a license or without the necessary route to transport the product, according to Ibama.

Then, in November of the same year, similar infractions were committed. Ibama’s consultation system provides more details about one of these fines. TW Forest kept 4.9 m in storage³ of piquiá and 7.5 m³ of red angelim, in logs, without the so-called DOF (forest origin document).