Deforestation in the Amazon, in April 2020, is the highest in the last 10 years; number of COVID-19 cases grows among Indigenous peoples

The deforestation area in the Amazon rainforest increased by 171% in April 2020 compared to the same month in 2019. Of this area, one-third of the entire area is concentrated in the state of Pará.

According to Anfavea (National Association of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers), crawler tractors, the main instrument of deforestation in the Amazon, between January and April 2020 set a sales record for the last 5 years. Therefore, deforestation continues to enrich various sectors of the Brazilian economy, who work illegally or take advantage of the current government's lack of supervision to destroy the forest and earn money from it. Some of the tractors used in deforestation can cost up to one million reais.

Jair Bolsonaro's government, since its beginning in 2019, has been trying to hinder the destruction of machines learned during Ibama operations (Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources).

In total, in April 2020, 529 km² were deforested. The data are from Imazon's Deforestation Alert System (SAD). Ten municipalities were responsible for more than half of deforestation in the Amazon in April. Altamira and São Félix do Xingu, in Pará, and Apuí, in Amazonas, are at the top of that list.

Indigenous people

At least 23 Indigenous people died as a result of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. Several associations and representatives of the original peoples have, since the arrival of the virus in the country, been warning about the degree of vulnerability of Indigenous communities across the country.

The destruction of the forest also affects the Yanomami and Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Lands, in the Amazon. They are among the most deforested and also appear among the most vulnerable to Covid-19, according to a survey by ISA (Instituto Socioambiental).

Even with a 29.5% increase in the number of fires in the Amazon, the number of fines imposed by IBAMA in 2019 in Brazil is the lowest in the last 15 years

As published by the G1 website, a survey by the Observatório do Clima based on data from the Brazilian government indicates that amid the 29.5% increase in deforestation and increasing Amazonian burning in 2019, the fines filed by the Brazilian Institute Environment (Ibama) went against environmental crimes. The infraction notices registered from January to November 2019 are the lowest in the last 15 years.

These areas, for the most part, are “forests are public, that is, it is the heritage of all Brazilians, which is illegally dilapidated to be in the hands of a few,” according to Ipam executive director André Guimarães.

Also according to an analysis by the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (Ipam), 35% of the deforestation that occurred in the Amazon between August 2018 and July 2019 was recorded in unassigned areas and without information. According to Ipam, 35% of the deforestation that occurs in the Amazon is the result of land grabbing. In 2019, the devastation was the biggest in ten years and had the biggest high of the century.

According to biologists and oceanographers, oil damage and chemical contamination on the northeast coast of Brazil will last for decades

In an interview with BBC Brazil, oceanographer Mariana Thevenin, one of the coordinators of the Brazilian volunteer group Guardião do Litoral, which was formed in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, to clean beaches, estuaries and mangroves since the contamination reached the Brazilian coast, said that substances that contaminate Brazilian beaches as a result of this disaster could "easily fall into the food chain." According to her, "a small fish, for example, can eat something that is contaminated. This goes into jail until it reaches the fish we eat."

Yesterday, according to the website G1, biologists from the Solidarity Fisheries project found spots of crude oil on the area where is the aquatic plants that are the main food of a species on the Brazilian coast that is in serious danger of extinction: the Manatees (Peixe-boi). The discovery occurred in Praia da Lama, municipality of Cajueiro da Praia, 384 km from Teresina, on the Piauí Coast. According to biologists, after contamination of the area, the manatees disappeared from the site.

According to the marine biologist and professor at the University of Pernambuco (UPE), Clemente Coelho Junior, cleaning the oil slicks that had hit the reefs of Carneiros Beach, in Tamandaréa, in Pernambuco is "practically impossible" because the reefs are porous and absorb the substance. Reefs from various other locations in the northeastern Brazilian coast were also affected by the oil.

Until now 900 tons of oil were collected from the beaches. According to Ibama (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), the oil has reached 200 locations in 76 municipalities in 9 states of the Brazilian Northeast.

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.

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.