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BRASILIA – O Ministry of Environment (MMA) reported that, after the financial blockade for the Ibama is he Chico Mendes Institute (ICMBio), all operations to combat deforestation illegal in Amazon Legal, as well as all actions to fight fires in the Pantanal and other regions of the country. The closure, according to the ministry commanded by Ricardo Salles, starts from zero hour on Monday 31.
According to the Status He found out, the Ministry of the Environment only found out when the money was already blocked, which the Federal Budget Secretariat did. The move was greeted with outrage by the ministry. Jair Bolsonaro’s portfolio and government have come under fire for environmental policy, in Brazil and abroad, and they have been trying to reverse the worn image.
With the unemployment of Ibama and ICMbio, in practice, all combat actions in the Amazon are paralyzed. Military action in the region today, through Operation Green Brazil 2, led by Vice President Hamilton Mourão, has a complementary mission and support for these bodies. Only Ibama and ICMBio can fine and seize, for example. By law, no military personnel are assigned or authorized to impose environmental fines, nor can they file fines, seizures, or destruction of equipment.
According to a note from the MMA, R $ 20,972 million in funds from Ibama and R $ 39,787 million from ICMBio were cut. The portfolio was informed, by the secretary Esteves Colnago, of the Ministry of Economy, a current block of around R $ 60 million for Ibama and ICMBio, decided by the Government Secretariat and the Civil House of the Presidency of the Republic. This cut is in addition to the reduction of another R $ 120 million already planned, such as a budget cut in the area of the environment, for the year 2021. The Ministry of Economy was contacted to comment on the matter, but it was not manifested until the closing of this text.
“The operations that will be affected as early as Monday (08/31) include, in the field of firefighting at Ibama, the demobilization of 1,346 brigades, 86 trucks, 10 trucks and 4 helicopters,” the MMA reported. In Ibama’s activities related to combating illegal deforestation, 77 inspectors, 48 vehicles and 2 helicopters will be demobilized. Within the scope of the ICMbio, 324 inspectors will be demobilized, in addition to 459 brigades and 10 Air Tractor aircraft working to fight fires.
HE Status found that the blocking of funds in the Environment aims to provide more resources for the Pro-Brazil Plan. After pressure from the ministers and the National Congress, the Bolsonaro government should allocate R $ 6.5 billion from the budget to public works, as shown in Stadium / Broadcast. Guedes wanted to keep the value at R $ 4 billion. Of the 6.5 billion, R $ 3.3 billion will be indicated directly by the parliamentarians and may be used to contemplate actions in their electoral parcels. The Regional Development and Infrastructure ministries are expected to receive R $ 1.6 billion each.
The environmental agency no longer had money to hire helicopters
At the beginning of the month, a report from Status It showed that Ibama does not have the resources to hire helicopters and that it has requested resources from the Ministry of Economy, without being attended to. “Ibama informs that the budget forecast of the Ministry of the Environment, determined by the Ministry of Economy for the year 2021, was reduced by R $ 120 million. Therefore, all areas must comply with the imposed limit. The Ministry of the Environment asked the Economy, without success, to replace this amount, ”said the MMA in the report.
In response to this statement by Minister Ricardo Salles, the Federal Budget Secretariat (SOF) of the Ministry of Economy stated that “the deadline for the Executive Branch to send the Draft Law on the Annual Budget 2021 – PLOA-2021 for consideration by the National Congress it is until August 31, 2020 ”.
Until that date, affirmed the ministry headed by Paulo Guedes, “the budget proposals and requests for extension of limits required by the agencies will be analyzed and submitted to the decision of the Executive Board of the Budget” and that, by this condition, “this Secretariat does not have, to this date, conclusive elements to inform the values of the final limits of the expenses of the bodies that will appear in the PLOA-2021 ”.
In a letter sent on June 29 to the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, obtained by the StatusSalles says that without the money, the government will be exposed in the period when it needs more force to carry out preventive actions in the forests. “This situation, the lack of payment limits, will expose this Ministry during the period with the highest incidence of fires, especially in the Legal Amazon region, which runs from August to October, that is, in the phase that demands the greatest need of financial support to implement actions to prevent and fight forest fires, ”Salles told Paulo Guedes at the time.
HE Status It also showed that the government has dedicated to the Ministry of Defense most of the resources of the Lava Jato operation destined to combat crimes in the Amazon. The report obtained detailed information on the R $ 630 million from Operation Lava Jato, which, by decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) of September 2019, must be used exclusively to finance control actions and fight against forest fires in the Amazon.
Data from the Siga Brasil system compiled by the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies (Inesc) show that, of the R $ 630 million transferred by Petrobras, from its anti-corruption agreement signed with the Justice, R $ 530 million were allocated, equivalent to 84%. to the Ministry of Defense, with transfers distributed among the Army, Navy and Air Force. It was up to the Bolsonaro government to define where it would place the money, since the division of these values was not specified by the Supreme Court.
Of the remaining R $ 100 million from the Lava Jato agreement, the government transferred R $ 50 million to Ibama, an environmental protection agency that, with the support of the Federal Police, has the institutional mission of protecting and inspecting the Amazon. Incra received R $ 35 million and the Ministry of Agriculture, R $ 15 million. ICMBio and Funai, for their part, had no transfer due to the agreement paid by Petrobras.
Ibama emptied
Far from budgetary priorities to combat deforestation in the Amazon, Ibama is currently experiencing the most critical situation in its history in relation to the number of inspectors it has to carry out operations in the field. The main organ of the federal government in the protection of the largest tropical forest in the world, Ibama currently has 591 environmental agents to confront the advance of environmental crimes, and this not only in the Amazon, but throughout the country.
Official agency data obtained by the Status show that the current workforce is 55% smaller than that of the institute ten years ago. In 2010, there were 1,311 inspectors in operation. This is the worst inspection scenario since Ibama was founded in 1989. In 2019 alone, the reduction in the number of environmental inspection agents was 24% compared to the previous year. Basically, there are two causes of this exhaustion: the retirement of civil servants and the lack of public tenders to renew the workforce.
In the past ten years, the decline in inspectors only came to a slight halt between 2015 and 2016, when the agency increased its staff from 930 to 989 inspectors. Since then, however, the emptying process has continued.
Two months ago, the president of Ibama, Eduardo Fortunato Bim, sent a letter to the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, in which he described the critical situation and requested authorization from the president to hold a contest. This provided for the hiring of servers not only for the inspection area, but also for analysts and administrative technicians. They are different areas. A field inspector does not deal with environmental licenses, for example.
Ibama requested, in total, the recomposition of 2,311 officials, of which 970 could act in field actions. The impact of these contracts on the 2021 budget would be R $ 66.6 million. The allegation was not only rejected by the government, but now the situation is one of general strangulation.
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