Amazon: 3,800 notices of violation issued this year over deforestation

In the first four months this year, Brazil’s Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) issued 3,800 notices of violation, collecting over BRL 280 million in fines over deforestation in the Amazon. The figures were reported by IBAMA’s Environmental Protection Director Samuel Vieira de Souza on radio broadcast A Voz do Brasil Monday (May 23).

The body carried out more than 11,500 actions of inspection last year, Souza declared. Of these, 3,800 concerned deforestation in the Amazon biome. A total of 9,162 notices of violation were issued, with fines adding up to BRL 163 billion.

As it stands today, IBAMA works primarily in the states of Pará, southern Amazonas, Rondônia, and northern Mato Grosso. “This is the area making up the arc of deforestation, where we are focusing our efforts to combat deforestation more effectively.”

IBAMA is also active on other fronts against flora and fauna trafficking, biopiracy, and illegal fishing.

To increase surveillance, the institute is expected later this year to receive 500 more agents approved through a civil service examination. In addition, the agency has also acquired new monitoring systems. “Being there where deforestation took place is not enough. We must get to the area where deforestation is starting, and stop its progress. Being in a deforested region just in order to issue a fine or impose an embargo is not the objective of environmental inspection,” he stated.

This year, IBAMA should receive an investment of BRL 198 million, allocated for plans designed to combat deforestation and prevent forest fires.

Souza also talked about PrevFogo, an initiative directed at fighting forest fires in federal areas. This year, nearly 1,800 firefighters will be hired, most of them indigenous or settled. “They are hired in the same location and trained in loco to go on their first fight against fires in that area, the front line,” Souza pointed out.