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Although he said that in the “live” of this Thursday (19) he would announce the countries that, according to him, buy illegal wood from Brazil, President Jair Bolsonaro did not show, during the live broadcast, the list with the names of those countries.
On Tuesday (17), while participating in the Brics summit in the morning, Bolsonaro said that countries criticize Brazil for deforestation, but buy illegal timber from the country. He then stated that he would publish the list of these countries “in the next few days.”
On Wednesday (18), at the entrance to the Palácio da Alvorada, Bolsonaro said that the list would be presented on Thursday, during the weekly live broadcast that he performs on a social network.
“Morning [quinta,19]Live, we will show the countries that accuse us of deforesting, but we import our wood clandestinely, ok? “Said the president on Wednesday.” We will do it, tomorrow we will show everything, “he added.
However, during the live broadcast, the list was not shown. Furthermore, Bolsonaro said that he would not accuse “any country.”
“We are not going to accuse any country here of committing any crime or of colluding in a crime, but companies that could be helping us to combat this crime,” the president said in the broadcast.
The president was accompanied by the Minister of Justice and Public Security, André Mendonça, and the superintendent of the Federal Police in Amazonas, Alexandre Saraiva.
The president again affirmed that countries criticize Brazil’s environmental policy for economic reasons.
“It is a great economic game that exists between some countries of the world, especially to reach us because we are really potential in the agribusiness, the commodities that come from the field, and they want to reduce exactly our competition,” said Bolsonaro.
During the live, the president said that France is one of the countries that buy wood from Brazil. In the broadcast, the president does not make it clear whether the country legally buys wood or not.
“I saw here that there are several countries with imported wood annually, if you take it here, France is,” he declared.
For Bolsonaro, France is a competitor country in the area of raw materials. “For us to advance in the agreement with the European Union with Mercosur, it is exactly in France, we are doing our best, but France in its own defense hinders us in that regard,” Bolsonaro added.
A survey by the Institute of Man and the Environment of the Amazon (Imazon) showed that, from August 2017 to July 2018, 70% of the logging in Pará was illegal. Agronomist Beto Veríssimo, co-founder of Imazon, interviewed in this Thursday’s edition of the podcast The issue, said that in the last decade around 60% to 70% of the wood in the domestic market of the country was illegally harvested.
Veríssimo also stated that the majority of all native wood extracted in the country, 80%, is destined for the domestic market. The rest, 20%, is exported mainly to Europe and the United States. The foreign market, according to Veríssimo, is very strict regarding the legality of the wood. According to a specialist, it is much more difficult for illegal wood to be sent abroad than for it to be sold within Brazil.
“The export goes through a greater ordering. Importing countries carry out a more rigorous verification, not only from the point of view of legality, but also from additional measures on who has a green seal, independent audits ”, he said.
“You [o vendedor de madeira ilegal] you have to overcome barriers to leave Brazil and get to the other side. As our market is the United States and the European Union, these barriers are
much bigger than a truck that leaves the Amazon and goes to the Northeast or to São Paulo, ”added Veríssimo.
Deforestation of large areas
The professor of the Amazonian Agriculture Institute of the Federal University of Pará (UFPA), Maurício Torres, also interviewed in the O Subject podcast, explained that the deforestation of large areas in the Amazon rainforest, registered by the control bodies, does not have as purpose to extract wood for sale.
Illegal logging is selective and targets specific tree species. In large areas, the deforestation operation is expensive and ends up removing trees that are not suitable for trade.
Selective logging, according to Torres, is as damaging as widespread deforestation, because it extinguishes tree species in a region and leaves the vegetation cover unprotected with shrubs and vines.
“Drain certain species from an area. It is invisible deforestation. Severely impacts the forest. As it maintains vine and shrub cover, it is not detected as deforestation. [pelos sistema de fiscalização aérea]”Torres said.
