‘I would never do that’, says the coordinator of the Inpe area that monitors fires and deforestation, after Mourão’s speech | Valley and Region of Paraíba

According to the scientist, on Friday (11) the Inpe sent a clarification to the vice president’s office after he denied the fires in the Amazon.

• Deforestation and fires: understand how INPE data can indicate an increase and decrease in the percentages

“I am a career servant at Inpe and would never do data manipulation. Inpe sent a clarification to the vice president’s office on Friday. As he said today, I think it has not yet reached him,” said the investigator, who the position, said that it would not accept to manipulate data.

Gilvan took over the position left by researcher Lubia Vinhas in July. Inpe was contacted, but informed the G1 who will not comment on the vice president’s speech.

Accusation of emptying

The vice president of the National Union of Directors in Science and Technology (SindCT), Fernando Morais, points out that the accusation of vice president Mourão makes it clear that there is an attempt to empty the Inpe.

“The understanding of the union, which is also that of the majority of the employees, is that there is a project to dismantle Inpe. By extinction in satellite functions, deforestation, in short. They want to dismantle Inpe so that there are no disputes about the things I want to do, “said Fernando.

It considers the accusation of using scientific data for political purposes unfounded. “The Inpe researcher, in general, does not want to know about politics. They know that politics is not their thing. They want to do science. They are apolitical. They are not involved. They are not using it to do politics or politics. They are defending science. I am an internationally recognized institute of science, ”he said.

Last week, Mourão complained about the Inpe data when asked about a report by the newspaper “O Globo”, which showed that the institute detected that the number of hot spots registered in the Amazon between January 1 and January 9 September this year was the highest in the period since 2010: 56.4 thousand, 6% more than in the same period in 2019.

Mourão said that Inpe “contradicts itself”, as the data it received indicated a reduction in fires. However, the data cited by Mourão covered a shorter period than that reported in the report: between January 1 and August 31.

“I saw this news there that you are commenting on and I say, why, put it, then you disagree with what they send me,” said Mourão.

In August, INPE’s monitoring system indicated that the Amazon had 29,307 fire records. There was a decrease of around 5.2% compared to August of last year, when 30.9 thousand hot spots were registered.

The number, however, was 12.4% higher than the historical average registered for the month, which is 26,082 outbreaks, and the second highest registered since 2010.

The fires in the Amazon continue even after a decree of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) published on July 16 (and which began to take effect on the same date), which suspended the use of fire in both biomes for 120 days.

The text says that the prohibition is applied “in the national territory”, despite determining that “controlled burning is authorized in areas not located in the Legal Amazon and the Pantanal, when it is essential to carry out agricultural practices, as long as when previously authorized by the environmental agency “. state”.