São Paulo, Brazil — Today, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment announced that all operations to combat deforestation in the Amazon and fires in the Pantanal will be suspended from Monday, August 31, 2020, onwards.
In response to the announcement, Mariana Mota, Public Policy coordinator at Greenpeace Brazil, said:
“By ending fire fighting and environmental enforcement in the midst of the raging annual fires and a global pandemic, Bolsonaro is escalating his radical attacks on the climate. All year, as deforestation has increased, his government has actively undermined the rights of Indigenous Peoples — the best forest guardians — and has dismantled crucial environmental law enforcement. The government is once again extending an invitation to criminals to keep burning the forest.
“This administration emboldens culprits in their illicit activities by intentionally weakening those whose job it is to stop environmental wrongdoings. There seems to be ample funds for costly ineffective PR stunts, such as sending troops to the Amazon, yet the Brazilian government keeps blocking international conservation funding and continues to starve its own environmental enforcement agencies of both resources and autonomy. Amazon fires and destruction is a crisis both Brazil and the world can’t afford.”
Notes:
[1] Photos and clip reels of forest fires and deforestation in the Amazon can be accessed here (from August 2020).
Contact:
Katie Nelson, Strategic Communications Specialist, Greenpeace USA: +1 (678) 644-1681, [email protected]
