Ibama inspectors responsible for protecting the Amazon suffer death threats and are victims of constant attacks; meanwhile, a fire in the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, continues to destroy this conservation unit

A report from the Fantástico program, from Rede Globo television network, the largest in Brazil, showed that agents from Ibama and ICMBio who have already escaped numerous attacks. They are victims of loggers who illegally clear the forest to sell timber illegally.

In recent days, a police operation in the Amazon region has arrested two leaders of a group accused of invading public lands and threatening those who are there to defend the forest.

Today, a fire continues to spread through the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, destroying part of the conservation unit located in the northeast of Goiás. 3,000 hectares within the park and another 3,500 hectares around the conservation unit. The State Environmental Department has launched an inquiry to investigate the causes of the fire and appoint any responsible.

The Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, localized in the central Brazilian state of Goiás, is known for its dramatic canyons and quartz crystal rock formations, rock pools, waterfalls, some over 100 meters high, and a very important and fragile biodiverse of the Cerrado, another Brazilian region that is being destroyed by arson. The park is home to many orchid species and wildlife including armadillos, jaguars, and toucans.

To date, the fire has reached approximately 3,000 hectares within the park and more than 3,500 hectares in the surrounding area.

Fight against deforestation in Brazil decreases under the government of Jair Bolsonaro

Ibama inspectors, the body responsible for environmental protection in Brazil, applied fewer warnings and fines for flora infringement until the end of August 2019 in the Legal Amazon. In Brazil, fires caused by human action or deforestation are crimes against flora, as well as the sale of illegal timber.

According to a report made by the gazetaweb site and the G1 site, servers that fight environmental crimes in Brazil say that the embargoes are not respected and that Ibama is weakened in the current administration.

The problem of environmental destruction in Brazil is not restricted to the Amazon region. Last week, the Cerrado and the Pantanal were also the targets of the same problem.

Last Thursday, the government of Mato Grosso do Sul decreed a state of emergency after more than 1 million hectares were consumed by fire.

According to Exame magazine, data from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) burnings show that the Pantanal closed August with 4,660 fire outbreaks, 235% more than in the same period last year and 50% more. than the historical average between 1998 and 2018.

The #panelaço is back in Brazil; on Twitter, hashtags like #ForaBolsonaro (Bolsonaro out), #ActForTheAmazon and #MacronLies gain traction

Several Brazilian cities had protests during President Jair Bolsonaro's national television and radio address, made last night. Bolsonaro spoke about the government's plans to fight fires in the Amazon region.

People went to their windows and hit their pans (that is known in Brazil as "panelaço"), exactly as happened during the impeachment of former president Dilma Rousseff. This demonstration points out that part of the middle class, which voted for Jair Bolsonaro, is very unhappy with the current government.

Brazil was also the scene of several street protests. Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Brasilia had thousands of people on the streets speaking out against the government's current environmental policy.

According to the agency Lupa, the largest fact-checking agency in Brazil, in its pronouncement on national television yesterday, Jair Bolsonaro, contradicted itself several times.

Bolsonaro said, at 21 of August, that "Spreading unfounded data and messages, inside or outside Brazil, does not help solve the problem and lends itself only to political use and misinformation." However, the Brazilian president himself accused, without any proof whatsoever, that Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are behind the fires currently occurring in the Amazon. All environmental protection experts in the country believe that this statement by the president was, at the very least, irresponsible, as it criminalized all organizations that have been fighting for environmental preservation for decades.

According to Lupa, the next day after making such a statement, Bolsonaro admitted that he had no proof, but still insisted that the NGOs were responsible.

Bolsonaro also said his government has "zero tolerance for crime and in the environmental area will be no different," but in April 2019, Bolsonaro himself criticized Ibama inspectors, the body responsible for environmental protection in Brazil.

Bolsonaro even exonerated an Ibama server who fined him for irregular fishing in 2012. The fine imposed on Bolsonaro was canceled in December 2018.

According to Veja magazine, loggers are using Bolsonaro government speeches to intimidate Ibama inspectors in the Amazon region. According to Veja, an example of this change in behavior occurred in the city of Espigão d'Oeste, in Rondônia. Where hooded men stopped an Ibama tanker truck, beat the driver and then set fire to the vehicle, which carried 8,000 liters of fuel. The cargo would serve to fuel a helicopter that would fly over indigenous reserves in the region, where timber theft was suspected.

The issue is also producing a genre of narratives in Brazilian social media. While the worldwide movement against the environmental policy of the current Brazilian government grows, there are a number of Internet users who continue to defend Bolsonaro. These defenders accuse French President Emmanuel Macron of lying about the burning of the Amazon.

Paradoxically, these Bolsonaro supporters, who accused Brazil of becoming a socialist country during the PT rule, are now in open confrontation on social media with the western world that they praised so much. Only this week, the Finnish government decided to study the possibility of a boycott of Brazilian meat. France and Ireland oppose the Mercosur and European Union agreement. The problems of burning in the Amazon region will be discussed during the G7 meeting. Norway and Germany have cut funding to the Amazon Fund. British Prime Minister Conservative Boris Johnson said he was "deeply concerned" about the current situation in the Amazon. Contradictorily, the Brazilian extreme right that supports Bolsonaro and called itself pro-Western is now calling Western European leaders liars.

After saying that he didn't need the more than 250 million reais sent by Germany and Norway to protect the Amazon, the Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro says Brazil doesn't have resources to fight Amazon fires

After saying that he did not need the R$ 155 million from Germany and R$ 133 million from Norway to go to the Amazon Fund, President Jair Bolsonaro went public today, according to Reuters, to say that the Brazilian government doesn't have enough resources to fight a record number of wildfires burning in the Amazon rainforest.

Leaving the presidential residence today, Bolsonaro tells reporters that “the Amazon is bigger than Europe, how will you fight criminal fires in such an area?" According to Bolsonaro, Brazil "do not have the resources for that.”

A few days ago, Bolsonaro sent Chancellor Angela Merkel to use the millions the German government would send to the Amazon Fund to reforest Germany. He then criticized the Norwegian government, which also used to contribute to the Amazon Fund, and decided not to send funds anymore because of the current Brazilian government policy.

Today, several Brazilian newspapers have published information that Brazil is using money already sent by Germany and Norway to the Amazon Fund to fight fires. Contracts of R$ 14.717 million with the Amazon Fund, donated by the two European countries, was signed in June 2014 by Ibama.