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Brazil began to deploy military forces on Monday to protect the Amazon rainforest, Vice President Hamilton Mourao said. With the deployment of the military, they are responding to the fact that this year the deforestation rate is higher than ever, despite the fact that the usual wildfire season has not yet started, writes MTI.
The Brazilian army, along with environmental authorities, the police and other government agencies, was the first to launch an operation in Rondonia along the Bolivian border against illegal environmental destruction in protected forests there, Mourao said at a press conference. with several ministers of the Brazilian government.
Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva told reporters that authorities are establishing operational bases in three Amazon cities and launching raids with 3,800 soldiers mobilized for that purpose to stop illegal logging and other crimes. 60 million reais (more than 3.3 billion forints) will be used to finance the operations.
Recent data released by the government on Friday said that the first four months of this year saw 55 percent more deforestation in areas of the Amazon in Brazil than in the same period last year, destroying more than 1,200 square miles of rainforest. this year. The deforestation rate increased to a maximum of 11 years last year, sparking fierce protests from the international community, saying that Brazil and, above all, the country’s president are doing very little to protect the world’s largest rain forests .
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last week gave another authorization to deploy the army against forest fires and deforestation in the Amazon. The presidential decree applies to nine Amazon states, as well as nature reserves and the residence of Native American tribes.
Compared to a similar mandate last year, Brazil began deploying soldiers three months earlier this year.
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