Report analyses actions on deforestation alerts in Brazil
BVRio welcomes the publication of a report that provides evidence on the current situation of Brazil’s Federal Government’s actions regarding deforestation alerts.
The Brazilian Democracy and Sustainability Institute (IDS) joined forces with a collaborative network formed by NGOs, universities and technology startups called ‘MapBiomas Project’ to analyse the actions of the federal government in relation to deforestation alerts in Brazil, in a report validated and refined by MapBiomas. Between 2019 to 2021, they found there were more than 170 thousand alerts and 3.6 million hectares deforested.
Available only in Portuguese, the results were presented in the report ‘Analysis of the Federal Government actions in relation to deforestation alerts’. The report analyses the actions of different Federal Government Agencies in Brazil with a view to holding deforestation agents accountable (such as Ibama, ICMBio, Incra, the Brazilian Forestry Service and the Public Ministry). It provides a flowchart of the necessary actions to improve these efforts, including information about fines and embargoes. Adding this information to the Rural Environmental Registry, for example, would make it possible to identify and enforce responsible stakeholders, increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of deforestation efforts.
According to the report from December 2021, the enforcement actions executed in the Legal Amazon by the Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), which is the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment’s administrative arm, have only covered 2% of the deforestation polygons (1970 alerts) and 5% (3,784km2) of the total deforested area, between January 2019 and July 2021. In 2020, deforestation mostly occurred in areas registered in the National Rural Environmental Registry System (CAR), accounting for 52,766 rural properties affected, which represents less than 1% of the properties registered in the country.
BVRio’s Director of Forests and Public Policies, Beto Mesquita, points out:
“The report demonstrates that there is still a huge gap between the IT systems available for enforcement actions related to the control of native vegetation and their effective protection. The enforcement authorities have access to up-to-date and accurate data, but they are not using this information to increase the efficiency of their actions”.
Search for transparency and recommendations
The report was prepared with the objective of providing evidence on the current situation of the federal government’s actions regarding deforestation alerts. It also aims to provide transparency to the surveys and requirements forwarded to federal agencies on the subject and to propose practical recommendations for greater efficiency and effectiveness in actions to combat deforestation.
More information is also available on the Regional Webinars Report with a summary of the debate on the use of MapBiomas system in the Federal States of Brazil, with transparency in data availability, actions to combat illegal deforestation by regional authorities, as well as recommendations to environmental enforcement agencies.
Access the full Report here (in Portuguese)
