A study by the MapBiomas project reveals that 75% of the deforestation that occurred in Brazil since 2019, during the government of Jair Bolsonaro, had evidence of illegality. According to the study, most cases (58%) occurred in areas that should be protected by law, such as reserves and permanent preservation areas.

The data indicate an increase in environmental degradation, since the rate of illegal deforestation was about 60% in the previous administration, of Michel Temer. Furthermore, the analysis indicates that the Amazon region concentrated 73% of illegal deforestation in the analyzed period, with illegal logging being the main activity associated with deforestation. The study reinforces the importance of strengthening public policies for environmental protection to prevent the continued degradation of the environment in the country.

The House of Representatives approved, on Thursday afternoon (30), two provisional measures (MPs), from the Bolsonaro government, with considerable socio-environmental setbacks. Both now go to the Senate for approval.  The [Provisional Measure] MP 1.150/2022 opens the way for more deforestation in the little that remains (12%) of the most threatened biome in the country: the Atlantic Rainforest. In this case, the proposal was made through an amendment unrelated to the main theme of the MP – the Forest Code (Law 12.651/2012). The idea of changing the Atlantic Forest Law (11.428/2006) came from União Brasil and party leader Elmar Nascimento (BA), who insisted on including it in the approved text. The final text also extends for another year the deadline for rural producers to join the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA), foreseen in the Forest Code.

The other MP (1.151/2022) approved in the House plenary changes the rules of forest concessions, opening the possibility of exploitation of other environmental goods and services, besides timber, including in protected areas occupied by indigenous and traditional communities. Only PDT and the PSOL/Rede federation voted against. According to the final text, the concessions will be able to generate carbon credits and use the genetic heritage of plants and animals, for example. 

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) unanimously declared unconstitutional a law of the state of Roraima that prevented the destruction of private property seized in environmental operations in the state. The decision was made in a virtual session and confirmed the injunction granted by Justice Luis Roberto Barroso in Direct Actions of Unconstitutionality (ADIs) 7.200 and 7.204, proposed by the Rede Sustentabilidade party and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).

The thesis established by the Justices is that the state law violates the exclusive competence of the Union to legislate on Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, to issue general rules for environmental protection and as an affront to the right to an ecologically balanced environment.

The nhandesy, Guarani-Kaiowá spiritual leader and healer, Estela Vera, was murdered in the Ivy Katu Land, a traditional territory retaken between 2003 and 2015 by the indigenous, in the municipality of Japorã, in Mato Grosso do Sul, on November 15. According to the kuñangue Aty Guasu, Assembly of Kaiowá and Guarani Women, the assassins shot Vera and children with large caliber firearms. The entity denounces that ranchers and tenants have been putting pressure against the territory and threatening another leader, Leila de Ivy Katu.

Indigenous organizations are demanding the federalization of the investigation and protection for the territory and the leaders who have received death threats. The execution of the religious leader is also part of a context of religious violence, with burning of prayer houses in indigenous territories in the state.

The new Congress is not only further to the right – it has also become more anti-environmental. The Institute for Democracy and Sustainability (IDS) did a survey through its Green Panel that identified the growth of the anti-environmental caucus and the reduction of the environmental caucus. The percentage of mostly anti-environmental federal deputies rose from 37% to 42.6%, while the percentage of green federal deputies fell from 30% to 27%. The Senate loses two votes aligned with environmental issues and decreases its power to avoid setbacks on the agenda.

André Lima, coordinator of the IDS Green Panel evaluates, however, that “there is room to increase adherence to the environmental vote, working on the dialogue with the caucuses”.

In the specific case of the Legal Amazon region, the IDS report assesses that “the voices that will speak on behalf of Amazonian voters have low adhesion to the climate and environmental agendas”.

A survey by Amazônia Real indicates that the nine states in the region will see the advance of anti-environmental and anti-indigenous agendas and that Bolsonarism has been consolidated by the popular vote. In the state houses of the Legal Amazon, the five parties with the most representation, starting in 2023, will be: MDB (29 seats), União Brasil (26), Republicans (24), PL (22).

The year 2022 has not ended, but the Amazon is already experiencing its most devastating calendar year in records. According to the DETER/INPE system, the accumulated deforestation alerts between January 1st and October 21st is 9,277 km2. With two months until the end of this year, the total area affected by deforestation in 2022 already exceeds the total of the worst year of records so far, 2019, when the alerts totaled 9,178 km2.

Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, says that deforestation in the Amazon is out of control and the scenario for the environmental crime “has never been so favorable.” “There is no action by the federal government to stop deforestation in the Amazon. Decreasing it is not a concern of the Bolsonaro government,” he explained.

In addition, the Amazon also set a new record for deforestation in September, with a high of almost 50% compared to the previous year.

A survey by Folha de S. Paulo showed that a total of 34 people elected on the October 2nd elections owe R$ 23.8 million in environmental fines, according to Ibama’s, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, database.

Bolsonaro’s party, PL, together with PSD and União Brasil are the parties with the highest number of fined politicians, with five each. Most of the violators found by the survey are in state assemblies and at the House of Representatives, but senators and governors are also included.

“You can rest assured,” said Marcelo Xavier, president of FUNAI, the Brazilian indigenous people agency, to Jussielson da Silva, who replied, “You are my support. Knowing you’re with me makes happy”. At the time, Silva was the head of FUNAI in Ribeirão da Cascalheira (MT). Today, the former Marine, sworn in during Bolsonaro’s government, is in jail for collecting bribes to illegally rent pastures in the Marãiwatséd indigenous reserve.

Silva, and two former police officers, are being investigated for embezzlement and criminal association. The Federal Police investigations found 70,000 head of cattle in 42 locations in the reserve. A Federal Police report forwarded to a Federal Court states that “it is possible to conclude that the president of the agency, Marcelo, is aware of what is going on and that it is possible that he is supporting the illegal activity under investigation (leasing on indigenous land)”.

A new ruling by the Federal Court ordered the National Indigenous Agency (FUNAI) to protect the Ituna-Itatá Indigenous Land (TI), maintaining the previous decision, but this time ordering the Union to remove the invaders and allocate a permanent team to the TI.

The area was under restriction of use since 2011, when Indigenous peoples in volunteer isolation were seen in the region, in the state of Pará. In 2021, however, FUNAI let the restriction expire. The decision keeps the Indigenous protected territory status for another three years. The territory is considered one of the most deforested in the last 10 years.

Illegal fires in the south of Amazonas and southwest of Pará states have compromised the air quality of several cities in the region, where a toxic cloud of smoke has taken over the skies. Among the municipalities hit were Altamira and Novo Progresso in Pará, and the capital of Amazonas, Manaus. According to the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), in August, 16,088 fires were registered in the Amazon.

The Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon), which monitors the biome via the Deforestation Alert System (SAD), pointed to the record devastation recorded in the last 12 months. From August 2021 to July 2022, 10,781 km² of forest were cut down, an area equivalent to seven times the city of São Paulo. This is the largest deforested area in the last 15 years for the period.

For the Institute, the data is especially alarming, given the global climate scenario. “The increase in deforestation directly threatens the lives of traditional peoples and communities and the maintenance of biodiversity in the Amazon. In addition to contributing to greater carbon emissions in a period of climate crisis,” said Bianca Santos, a researcher at Imazon.

The investigative journalism agency Repórter Brasil launched the second edition of the tool that monitors how Congress representatives are positioned in relation to the environment agenda and rural workers. The “Ruralômetro 2022” shows that 68% of the representatives voted against the environment. 

That means that these are representatives who “presented bills and voted on legislative changes that harm environmental inspection, favor predatory economic activities, to make labor legislation precarious, to make access to social benefits difficult and to stop agrarian reform, among other setbacks pointed by socio-environmental organizations”, says the story that presents the project.

To measure the “rural fever” of parliamentarians, the tool gave each representative a score, ranging from 36⁰C to 42⁰C. The more aligned with the work of the ruralist caucus, the higher its temperature.

The evaluation was based on the analysis of 28 roll call votes and 485 bills presented in the current legislature.

According to a survey by the Igarapé Institute, the violence in the 9 states that make up the Legal Amazon region is aggravated by the increase in the circulation of firearms in the territory. Between December 2018 and November 2021, the registrations increased 219%. For the organization, it is especially worrying the growth of records in the 12th Military Region, which covers the states of Amazonas, Acre, Roraima and Rondônia. The growth reached 450% in the period.

The third edition of the bulletin “Descontrole no Alvo” indicates that the facilities created by the federal government in the policy of access to weapons contributed significantly to the increase in violence, especially in a territory marked by socio-environmental conflicts. “In the place where you have low state presence, where you have a very large conflictive environment, the firearm is a recipe for disaster”. stated Melina Risso, research director of the Institute.

Between 2019 and 2021, Brazil lost 42 thousand km² of native vegetation, according to deforestation alerts detected in the country’s 6 biomes, MapBiomas initiative revealed.

In their new report, the group reports that the country lost 16.557 km2 (1.655.782 ha) of its native cover in 2021. There were 69.796 deforestation alerts detected, 98% with evidence of illegality. 

From the total alerts, 66,8% were in the Amazon (977 thousand ha deforested, 59% of the total deforested area for the period; 15,2% in the Caatinga biome (190 thousand ha, 7% of the total deforested area), 9,9% in the Cerrado biome (500 thousand ha, 30,2% the total deforested area). Combined, the three biomes had 96,2% of native vegetation loss in the country for the period.

In June, the Amazon had the highest rate of deforestation alerts for the month since the beginning of the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) monitoring in 2015. According to data from Deter, the institution’s monitoring program, 1,120 km² of forest were ravaged, an increase of 5.5% compared to deforestation in 2021 and 7.4% higher than in 2020.

The total deforestation for the semester was also a record. In the first six months of the year, four registered historic records of devastation: January (430.44 km2), February (198.67 km2), April (1,1026.35 km2) and June.

For experts, the numbers should continue to rise throughout the year.

“The deforestation alerts for 2022 show that impunity continues to be the greatest vector of pressure against the forest and its peoples. In an election year this becomes even more worrisome, since enforcement efforts usually decrease and the sense of impunity increases, leaving criminals more at ease to advance on the forest,” stated Ane Alencar, Science Director of the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) and expert on fire in the Amazon.

Data from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) released on June 1st showed that environmental devastation continues to grow in the country. The Amazon, with 2,287 outbreaks of forest fires, had the highest number of fires since 2004 and was 96% higher than last year.

In the Cerrado, the increase was 35% compared to May 2021, with 3,578 fires, the highest number since 1998, when measurements started. The tendency, according to specialists, is to get worse, since the most intense fire season has not yet arrived. Most of the burning, according to scholars, is done by the agricultural sector.

The Supreme Court (STF) has again postponed the continuation of the trial on the “Marco Temporal” [time frame thesis], which will define the future of the demarcation of indigenous lands in Brazil. The trial was scheduled to return to the plenary session on June 23. Voting began in August 2021 and has since been suspended on two occasions.

The trial is about the Extraordinary Appeal 1017365, which asks for a resolution of the Ibirama-Laklãnõ Indigenous Land case, filed by the government of Santa Catarina against the Xokleng people, which has the “thesis” of the “time frame” as a premise. The thesis postulates that which indigenous people can only claim lands that were under effective occupation at the time of the enactment of the Constitution of 1988. The STF’s decision on the case will have general repercussion, that is, it should be followed by the justice system in  similar cases.

So far, the score is tied at 1-1. Justice Edson Fachin, the rapporteur, voted against the Marco Temporal and defended the original right of indigenous peoples over the lands they traditionally occupy. The minister Nunes Marques, nominated by Jair Bolsonaro, declared his vote in favor, stating that it is the proposal “that best reconciles the interests at stake”. The president has said in statements that he will not respect the decision of the STF if it is unfavorable to the agribusiness thesis.

On May 21, 18-year-old Guarani Kaiowá youth Alex Recarte Vasques Lopes was found dead with five gunshot marks in a region where indigenous people are under constant threat and pressure from agribusiness.

In response, his community occupied a farm in Coronel Sapucaia (MS). The Federal Attorney’s Office has not yet made any statement.

In the same region and on the same weekend, Guarani Ñandeva leaders of the Ivy Katu Indigenous Land denounced that their territory was invaded by armed men with tractors, pressuring them to give up the area for soybean monoculture.

By March 2022, over 97% of the deforestation alerts issued since the beginning of Bolsonaro administration weren’t answered to, according to a survey by the MapBiomas initiative. The area with enforcement operations, however, represents 13.1% of deforestation detected since January 2019.

The data comes from the “Deforestation Surveillance Monitor” online platform, which presents “in a direct, updated, and transparent way the data on deforestation authorizations and enforcement actions by the federal government” and the state governments of Goiás, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, São Paulo, and Pará, explains the project’s website. “There are important advances, especially in the states, but the Monitor data show that impunity still looms large when we talk about illegal deforestation in Brazil,” says Tasso Azevedo, general coordinator of MapBiomas.

According to a report released by the Climate Observatory at the beginning of the year, the environmental agency Ibama failed to execute about 60% of the budget for environmental crime control in 2021, a year in which the country broke successive deforestation records.

On April 22nd, dozens of indigenous people, mostly from the Pataxó population, occupied the historic city center of Porto Seguro (BA) in a protest against president Jair Bolsonaro, who was in town attending an official event to honor the 522nd anniversary of the arrival of Portuguese colonizers to Brazil. Footage from the protest showing indigenous people marching and chanting against the president went viral. 

A  few days later, also in the south of Bahia, Pataxó people manifested in front of the mayor’s office of small town Pau Brasil due to police violence. On April 19th, military police officers beat up Priscila Muniz and her husband as they were leaving a public event. 

An exclusive report by Observatório da Mineração revealed that businessmen linked to mining donated more than R$ 400,000 reais to candidates for city council and mayor in the Tapajós region, in southwest Pará, in the 2020 elections.

Five mining company owners are among the main donors: Valdinei Mauro de Souza, of Salinas Gold do Pará (R$ 200,000), Dirceu Santos Frederico Sobrinho, of F.D’gold (R$ 90,000), Marcio Macedo sobrinho, of Gana Gold (R$ 67,000), Ubiraci Soares Silva, of U S S Metais Preciosos (R$ 27,000), and Valmir Climaco de Aguiar, owner of mines without CNPJ (R$ 25,000).

According to the investigation, the donations were made to candidates running for office in Itaituba, Jacareacanga and Novo Progresso, cities where illegal gold digging is flourishing under Bolsonaro. In addition to being on the list of donors, Valmir Climaco de Aguiar, the reelected mayor of Itaituba, received the highest amount on the list, donated by Valdinei Mauro de Souza, known as “Nei Garimpeiro” [Gold Digging Nei].

In February, the cities were the target of “Operation Amazonian Caribbean”, launched by the Federal Police to fight illegal mining in the Tapajó River, under protests from Climaco, who even asked for intervention by the federal government.