IBGE, ICMBio Bring Roncador Reserve Under Federal Protection

Brazil has officially sort of integrated the IBGE Ecological Reserve into its National System of Conservation Units (SNUC), reclassifying the area as the Roncador Ecological Station (Esec) and, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) announced on Monday, kinda late but still.

This change regularizes the legal situation of the 1,391 hectare area, which was established back in 1975 but had no formal category under the 2000 SNUC Law. Now the new federal conservation unit will be co-managed by ICMBio and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) .

SCIENTIFIC HUB

Somewhere around 25 kilometers out from central Brasília, the Roncador station turns out to be a key spot for Cerrado biome research. In that zone there are well over 4,000 species of fauna and flora, and among them, 63 species are listed as threatened with extinction. On top of that, the station hosts the IBGE Herbarium, started back in 1977. Inside, there’s one of the most important botanical collections in Brazil, with more than 87,000 specimens, all of it kept for careful study. “The recognition of this reserve as an Ecological Station strengthens our national statistical and geographic system, in the face of the global climate emergency,” said IBGE President Marcio Pochmann, during the signing ceremony.

CO-MANAGEMENT AND URBAN CHALLENGES

The reclassification allows for more integrated management between different public institutions, a approach officials say is essential in order to confront climate change and urban encroachment. The reserve is now getting surrounded by cities, little by little, and that puts on the table new problems for fire management and biodiversity protection, overall it becomes harder. Mauro Oliveira Pires, President of ICMBio, mentioned that being included in the national system means it is necessary to build a formal management plan, and also create a consultative council so the community can actually take part in the unit’s administration. In other words, it s not just paperwork The Roncador station will likewise host a base for IBAMA’s Prevfogo, a specialized brigade focused on fighting forest fires, which stay as a major threat to the Cerrado ecosystem.

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.

In less than a month, Brazilian Army actions arrest 63 people for Amazon fires; the region recorded over 30,000 fires outbreaks in August 2019

Defense Minister Fernando Azevedo e Silva announced that 63 people had been arrested and $ 8.7 million were issued in fines during just one month of a military operation to fight fires in the Amazon. In August alone, the Amazon region recorded twice as many outbreaks in the same period of 2018.

According to ICMbio's environmental emergency coordinator, Christian Berlinck, the agency found that most of the Amazonian fire outbreaks originate from human action.

Brazil recorded more than 30,000 fire outbreaks in August 2019 in the Amazon region. Almost triple the total recorded in the previous year.

During a press conference, Minister Azevedo said the following paradoxical phrase: "the Amazon is burning, but not as serious as it was said."

One criticism of the current government was to act only after the fires reached very high levels. Activist Paloma Costa, a student at the University of Brasilia, asked during a UN debate, alongside Greta Thunberg at the Climate Summit: "Do we need to see the Amazon on fire to act?"

Costa said that since 2018, "half a billion trees have been destroyed in the Amazon, and people ask me if I'm afraid to defend the forest. Environmental advocates are at risk, but I'm not afraid. I'm afraid to die. "

In recent years, since 2017, Brazil has led the Global Witness ranking of killings of environmental activists. According to the report, in 2018 alone, Brazil had at least 20 murders of environmental and human rights activists.

Meanwhile, in his UN General Assembly address, President Jair Bolsonaro said the Amazon "remains virtually untouched." However, according to the MapBiomas platform, a project that monitors satellite land cover and land use in Brazilian biomes, the Brazilian Amazon has 411 million hectares of land area. Of this total, 14.4% or 59.1 million hectares is currently not covered by its original vegetation cover.

Jair Bolsonaro's two government ministers, Onyx Lorenzoni (Civil House) and Ricardo Salles (Environment), receive miners who act illegally in protected areas of the Amazon

According to a report in the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, men who do gold-digging operating illegally in Pará stated, in audios distributed in application groups, that demanded from ministers Onyx Lorenzoni (Casa Civil) and Ricardo Salles (Environment) the opening of an investigation against servers from Ibama and ICMBio who destroyed equipment caught by environmental crime enforcement in late August and early September 2019.

According to site G1, men linked to illegal mining responded violently to enforcement actions by the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) in August 2019.

Several agents of the institute were shot at near an indigenous area in Pará on August 30. According to the Federal Police, criminal action was intended to intimidate actions to combat illegal mining in the region.