The Brazilian Government has intensified efforts to curb deforestation in certain Amazon regions where illegal logging has shown signs of growth in April, Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira announced yesterday (May 18), in Brasília. Measures listed by government officials include substantial strengthening of enforcement and monitoring initiatives, including an increase in field operations and investments to improve satellite monitoring of the region.
Minister Izabella also announced the set up of an emergency task force composed by federal and state-level environmental agencies, the Federal Police and the National Public Security Force, aimed at keeping deforestation rates in the Amazon under control. "The order is to reduce deforestation until July. It's a formal commitment by the Government and we must fulfill the National Plan on Climate Change", said Izabella during a press conference. "We will suffocate environmental crimes in Brazil", she added.
From January to May 2011, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) has carried out 58 enforcement operations to deter illegal loggers in the Amazon region, more than doubling the number of operations held in the same period last year. According to the agency, another 200 operations are planned for the rest of 2011. Ibama has also mobilized agents from every Brazilian state to join the enforcement operations, deploying 546 agents in the region.
As a result, Ibama agents have seized 5,400 head of cattle in the region and embargoed 47,000 hectares of land where logging activities were taking place. From January to May 2011, fines issued by the agency amounted to R$ 275 million.
Satellite monitoring of the region will also be substantially improved by 2012, according to the Minister of Science and Technology, Aloizio Mercadante. Around R$ 1 billion will be invested in new satellites capable of providing higher resolution images of the region, helping improve the accuracy of enforcement operations in the Amazon.
According to data released yesterday by INPE, deforestation in the Amazon region reached an estimate of 593 square km during March and April 2011, against 103,5 square km verified in the same period last year.
Redes Sociais