“It’s all the same. The actions of the new minister are an extension of Salles’ tenure”. This is how an environment official, who preferred not to be identified, defined the first months of Joaquim Pereira Leite, the new Minister of the Environment, as reported by Congresso em Foco.  

The article highlights the strategy of silence and discretion adopted by Leite, in contrast to the media strategy of former minister Ricardo Salles. According to the newspaper, the new minister has avoided contact with the press and has not yet established a direct dialogue with congressmen, but continues with the same anti-environmental agenda as his predecessor.  

An old acquaintance of the Rural Caucus, Joaquim Leite was an advisor to the Brazilian Rural Society (SRB) for more than two decades, an entity allied to the Congressional Agriculture and Livestock Parliamentary Front (FPA).

A survey made by the Center for Remote Sensing and the Environmental Services Management Laboratory of the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) confirms the “blackout” in environmental fines during Bolsonaro’s administration. According to the research, between 2019 and 2020, the average number of fines effectively paid for crimes in the Amazon had a drop of 93% compared to the previous four years.

With former minister Ricardo Salles at the head of the Ministry of Environment (MMA), the annual average of lawsuits with fines paid in the first two years of the current government was 44 – an insignificant rate compared to the average of 688 lawsuits recorded between 2014 and 2018.

The authors of the study attribute the drop to changes in Brazilian environmental legislation and in the MMA’s internal rules that occurred between 2019 and 2020, responsible for weakening agencies environmental law-enforcement capabilities and the internal progress of processes linked to the investigation of offenses.

Data from the real-time satellite monitoring system of the Space Research Institute (Inpe) show that in June the Amazon registered the worst deforestation rate for the month since 2016. According to Deter, deforestation alerts affected an area of 1,061.9 km², an increase of 1.8% compared to June 2020.

This is the fourth consecutive month with record devastation in the biome. Also in June, the Amazon reached a historical rate of fire hotspots for the period.

Minister Ricardo Salles has resigned. At the head of the Ministry of Environment since the beginning of Bolsonaro’s administration, Salles is the target of investigations in the Supreme Court (STF) within operations Akuanduba, launched to investigate crimes against public administration committed by public agents and loggers, and Handroanthus, which investigates an illegal timber export scheme. The São Paulo Justice Department is also investigating the former minister for embezzlement during the period in which he was secretary of the Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB) state administration, in a lawsuit involving his law firm.

Ricardo Salles stepped down after gaining knowledge that Justice Alexandre de Morais would order his arrest, according to an article in O Estado de S. Paulo. The newspaper also said that Bolsonaro asked the former minister to remain in office and face the STF, but Salles replied that he feared for the safety of his mother, also investigated as a partner in his office in São Paulo.

The investigations now will leave STF’s reach and return to the Federal Courts of Brasilia and Amazonas. The Federal Police has already brought suspicions to the STF that the Amazon justice system was benefiting the former minister and the others investigated in the scope of Operation Handroanthus.

Critics and environmentalists consider Salles the worst Environment Minister Brazil has ever had. His tenure had as characteristics: the dismantling of Brazilian environmental policy, successive records of deforestation and fires in the Amazon, attacks on traditional communities and sectors of organized civil society, and the spread of fake news.

In a farewell to the former minister, President Jair Bolsonaro praised his time in the ministry. “Dear Ricardo Salles, you are part of history. The marriage of Agriculture with the Environment was an almost perfect marriage. Congratulations, Ricardo Salles. It is not easy to be in your ministry. Sometimes the legacy is just a bunch of lawsuits,” he declared.

At the request of the Federal Police (PF), Justice Cármen Lúcia, of the Supreme Court (STF), determined the suspension of proceedings in the Federal Justice of Amazonas and Pará within the scope of Operation Handroanthus, which investigates the largest seizure of illegal timber made in Brazil, in December 2020. The PF is suspicious that state courts may have decided in favor of the accused, such as the former president of Ibama, Eduardo Bim, Senator Telmário Mota (Pros-RR), and the Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, who are being accused of obstruction of justice.

“It is fundamental to recognize the connection (…) between court decisions and these politicians who act to ensure the impunity of the accused, making use of their power,” argued the PF to the Supreme Court, according to G1.

According to a report by the Xingu+ Network published by Mongabay, deforestation in the Xingu River basin region has skyrocketed under the Bolsonaro administration.

Between 2018 and 2020, environmental criminals ravaged 5,135 km2 of forest, an area three times larger than the city of São Paulo. The data comes from Sirad, a radar monitoring system. In 2019, the first year of the Bolsonaro government, there was a 38% increase in deforestation in indigenous reserves in the region and 50% in the conservation units in the basin.

According to specialists heard by the story, land grabbers, loggers and gold diggers in the region are an old problem, but now the criminals feel emboldened and strengthened by Bolsonaro’s administration.

Data from the Brazilian Space Research Institute (Inpe) shows that deforestation alerts in the Amazon in the month of May encompassed an area of 1,180 km2, the largest mark for the period since the launching of the Deter-B monitoring system series, in 2016.

As pointed out by the Climate Observatory, this is the first time that the area covered by alerts in May exceeds 1,000 km2. According to the organization, the data causes concern because of the upcoming dry season, a period in which deforestation intensifies in the biome, while federal environmental agencies are weakened.

This is the third consecutive record of deforestation in the Amazon registered in 2020.

Justice Cármen Lúcia, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), authorized, at the request of the Attorney General’s Office (PGR), the opening of an investigation against the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles.

The investigation will focus on the alleged attempts by the minister to hinder the work of the Federal Police during Operation Handroanthus, which carried out the largest seizure of illegal timber in Brazil, in December 2020. The investigation will listen to the minister, landowners, environmental agents and documents related to the incident.

Salles’ press office stated that “the investigation will show that there is no crime.”

Testimonies made by Ibama employees to the Federal Police as part of Operation Akuanduba, which investigates smuggling of illegal timber from the Amazon, have substantiated the accusations against Minister Ricardo Salles.

In an article about the operation, Veja magazine highlighted the militarization of key positions in a testimony by the environmental analyst nicknamed C.E.R.J., who reported the presence of military personnel specially in charge of Ibama’s inspections – “they are in almost all the superintendencies in the states and in positions of trust in the Inspection Directorate and the Planning Directorate,” said the employee, according to the magazine.

When heard by O Globo, environmental analyst Hugo Leonardo Mota Ferreira said that the minister Ricardo Salles is a “supporter of devastation and destruction” and that his tenure will be remembered for the persecution of members of the ministry’s agencies who act contrary to his interests.

The environmentalist portal ClimaInfo collected the repercussions of the statements in the press in its daily bulletin and also highlighted the information revealed by Folha de S. Paulo about the interference of Salles’ special advisor at Ibama to favor an agricultural enterprise in the state of Mato Grosso.

The Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) analyzed 524 administrative measures published by the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) that reveal the method of socio-environmental dismantling in the first years of the Bolsonaro government. The study states that at least 124 of these measures have significant risk of favoring “reducing the level of environmental protection”, says the text.

The analysis points out that the attempts to deregulate and loosen the control of environmental agencies can be classified in three different types: rules that seek to weaken the administrative accountability for punishing environmental offenders; those that seek to reduce the structure of government agencies and those that aim to undermine the role of the MMA in the environmental agenda.

“The analysis of the measures published in the Official Federal Gazette (DOU) reveals that in fact the institutional capacity of the agencies to execute policies and comply with environmental legislation is being dismantled,” explains Alessandra Cardoso, political advisor at Inesc.

Justice Alexandre de Moraes, of the Supreme Court (STF), referred to the Attorney General Office (PGR) a request for impeachment against Ricardo Salles, Minister of the Environment.

Congressman had presented the request to the PGR in July 2020, but it didn’t forward the document to the STF. After the Federal Police launched an operation against illegal lumber exports that has Salles as its target, the representatives decided to send the request directly to the STF.

According to the representative Fernanda Melchionna (Psol-RS), the PGR has shielded the environment minister. “We have been denouncing the crimes of Salles for a long time and the PGR was shielding the anti-minister and blocking investigations. Meanwhile, how many hectares of forest have been ravaged?”, said Melchionna.

The Federal Police launched Operation Akuanduba on the morning of May 19. The operation investigates crimes committed by public officials and businessmen in the timber industry. Justice Alexandre de Moraes, minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), authorized the operation which began in January, motivated by complaints from foreign authorities for alleged “misconduct of Brazilian officials in the process of lumber exports,” according to a BBC report.

The police served thirty-five search and seizure warrants in the states of São Paulo, Pará and the Federal District, some of them linked to Ricardo Salles, the minister of the environment. Salles, who also had his bank and tax secrecy broken, described the Federal Police action as “exaggerated” and “unnecessary.

Adecision of Alexandre de Moraes also removed 10 Ibama employees from their positions, including Eduardo Bim, president of the agency. Moraes also suspended an Ibama order, from February 2020, which authorized the export of forest products without due diligence by state officials.

President Jair Bolsonaro defended Salles – an “exceptional minister” – and said that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is infested by “environmental radicals.”

The federal judge of the state of Amazonas, Mara Elisa Andrade, ordered the release of part of the cargo seized by the Federal Police during Operation Handroanthus, the largest seizure of illegal timber in the country. With the decision, tons of logs, rafts, boats and machinery were returned to the Community Association of Gleba Cumurucuri, the target of the investigation.

According to the website G1, the magistrate said that the investigation is at an “incipient” stage, which would not justify the indefinite confiscation of the cargo, and pointed out that the Federal Police commited “ostensive persecutory and restrictive acts of rights and freedoms”. The operation already generated a crime notification against Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, filed by the then head of the Federal Police in the Amazon, Alexandre Saraiva, dismissed after accusing Salles of obstructing the work of the police and acting in favor of environmental criminals.

Justice Cármen Lúcia, of the Supreme Court, sent an order to the Attorney General’s Office asking it to comment on the crime notification against Ricardo Salles filed by the former head of the Amazonas Federal Police, Alexandre Saraiva, regarding the Operation Handroanthus, which investigates the largest seizure of illegal timber made in Brazil.

Saraiva accuses Salles of hindering the conduct of the investigation. The justice’s decision calls the acts described in the accusation are of “incontestable gravity”.

In the same week, an article by ISTOÉ revealed documents, presented by Alexandre Saraiva in the crime notification, which substantiate the involvement of Minister Ricardo Salles with loggers linked to the illegal timber seized.

Jair Bolsonaro’s participation in Joe Biden’s Climate Summit, where leaders of over 40 countries united to plan strategies to curb the advance of climate change, reinforced the international discredit of Brazil in the environmental agenda, experts say. Bolsonaro lied about the preservation of the Amazon and about the efforts of his government to implement a green economy, omitted deforestation data, and announced that he awaits for international resources as a condition for his government to achieve its objectives for the environment.

“Brazil leaves the leaders’ summit as it entered: discredited. Bolsonaro spent half of his speech asking the world for money showcasing previous environmental achievements, which his government has been trying to destroy since the day he took office”, analyzed Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory.

Less than a day after the meeting, in which Bolsonaro said he double the budget for environmental control, the presidency approved a 24% cut in the Ministry of the Environment for 2021, with a drastic reduction in resources for federal environmental protection agencies. Facing the negative repercussion, Minister Ricardo Salles sent a request to the Ministry of Economy asking for the nullification of the reduction and also for additional R$ 142 million reais, according to an article in O Estado de São Paulo.

The National Committee in Defense of Territories against Mining released the technical note “The siege of gold: illegal mining, destruction and struggle in Munduruku lands”, which provides alarming information about the hazards of mining activity on the indigenous population of the Tapajós valley.

Among the points highlighted by the study, developed over six months by four researchers with previous experience in the region, are the spread of cases of malaria and Covid-19 in the Munduruku Indigenous Land, brought by invaders, and the concerning levels of mercury reported among its residents.

One year after indigenous leader Ari Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau was found dead in Tarilândia, in the state of Rondônia, the case remains unsolved. The leader was an usual denouncer of illegal extraction of wood within the territory of his people and was under constant threats. When questioned by G1, the civil police, which handles the case, said that at least four lines of investigation are being examined.

According to the report, Ari’s family members are still facing threats. In protest, indigenous and environmentalists who demand answers from the police spread billboards in various cities in Rondônia with the question “Who killed Ari Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau?”.

The Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau indigenous land is considered by environmentalists from the Ethnoenvironmental Defense Association to be one of the most important in Rondônia because it houses the origins of the state’s 17 major rivers, rich fauna, and contains several endangered animals. The territory is in the ranking of the most deforested areas in Rondônia and, in the pandemic, suffers from with the growth of land grabbing and the increase of cases of Covid-19.

After the Environment minister Ricardo Salles and Alexandre Saraiva, superintendent of the Federal Police in Amazonas, exchanged accusations because of disagreements over the destination of the 43,000 logs of illegal timber seized in Pará in December, the Federal Police sent a crime notification against the Minister of the Environment to the president of the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Public Prosecutor, and the general direction of the Federal Police.

While the Federal Police, responsible for the operation, points out that the timber retained in the largest seizure in the country’s history is the result of deforestation, the Minister of the Environment, opposed to his duties, stood for the legality of the cargo, in a gesture of support directed to the loggers who are under investigation.

According to Veja, which anticipated the information, in addition to Salles, the complaint also encompasses senator Telmário Mota (Pros) and the president of Ibama, Eduardo Bim. One day after the crime notification, the Federal Police announced the exoneration of Alexandre Saraiva, the author of the complaint, from his position as superintendent of the Federal Police in the state of Amazonas.

In a clear change of tone regarding the Brazilian socio-environmental crisis that was aggravated during his administration, President Jair Bolsonaro sent a letter to Joe Biden in which he states his “unequivocal support” for the USA President’s environmental agenda. In the document, Bolsonaro states his commitment to eliminate illegal deforestation in the country by 2030, in addition to being willing to act to curb climate change and work in cooperation with civil society and indigenous organizations.

The promise, however, as pointed out by environmentalist Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, is not rooted in solid ground. In a social network post, Astrini commented on the government’s goals for Amazon deforestation, published in the Union’s Official Gazette on April 14th. According to the specialist, “the idea [in the government’s objective] is to reach 2022 with 17% more deforestation than existed before Bolsonaro’s administration.”

According to data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), the Amazon and Cerrado biomes recorded critical rates of deforestation in March, the highest in recent years.

This is the worst rate recorded in the Legal Amazon region for the month since 2015: 368 square kilometers of forest were deforested, a number that has been growing steadily since 2019, when it reached 251 km, jumping to 327 km in 2020. In the Cerrado, the situation is even more worrysome. In March, 529 square kilometers were lost due to deforestation, more than double the number recorded in the month in 2019, when it hit 215 km.

As the article in the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo highlights, given the chronic weakening of environmental protection agencies under the current government, the prognosis should worsen and raises a red flag, according to environmentalists.