Brazil deploys troops in Amazon to prevent deforestation by fire

Brazilian troops will be redeployed to the Amazon rainforest to stop illegal logging and unauthorized fires. President Jair Bolsonaro has issued a decree providing for the deployment of servicemen in four Brazilian states until the end of August and, if necessary, their mission will be extended.

The troops will be deployed in the states of Para, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, and Rondonia, the areas most affected by illegal deforestation in 2020. Their task will be to prevent people from cutting down trees and then setting fire to the deforested land plots to turn into farmland.

This is not the first time that Bolsonaro has decided to deploy thousands of servicemen to prevent deforestation and fires. The previous mission ended last April but, as yet, no improvement has been recorded.

Experts claim that with this decision, Bolsonaro is seeking to persuade the U.S. administration to allocate funds now that Brazil can supposedly be seen to be making efforts to address the issue. Brazil had previously asked the USA for one billion dollars annually to reduce deforestation by 30-40%. However, Washington made it clear that no funds would be provided unless Bolsonaro took action to halt the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.

Márcio Astrini, the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory non-profit organization, described the deployment of troops as a “smokescreen”. He noted that the authorities’ intentions were far from protecting the rainforest.

On the contrary, Astrini said, “the government has adopted a series of measures that simply destroy the state’s monitoring capacity, such as stopping environmental fines″.

In 2020, 98.9% cases of deforestation were illegal and yet only in 5% of these cases did the authorities levy fines.

Moreover, in 2020 deforestation reached the highest level in the past 12 years. The national space research agency INPE revealed that loggers had cut down the forest across 11,088 sq km, an area seven times the size of London. The trend also continued in 2021 with deforestation surging a further 25% within the first five months of the year comparing to the same period in 2020. In May alone, deforestation increased by 67% in comparison with May 2020.

“To make matters worse, this is a year affected by La Niña, which especially makes it dry in the southern Amazon and this expands the window of deforestation and burning,” the non-profit organization, Amazon Environmental Research Institute has warned.

The Amazon rainforest covers an area of 6.7 million sq km which means it is vital for slowing down the pace of global warming. Brazil holds about 60% of the rainforest on its territory.