As fires race through Amazon, Brazil's Bolsonaro weakens environment agency
1 / 4FILE PHOTO: Brazil's Amazon rainforest under siege by illegal minesBy Jake Spring and Stephen Eisenhammer
New leadership at Ibama also has made it tougher for the agency to crack down on illegal logging, farming and mining that have despoiled nearly 12,000 square kilometers in the Amazon this year, all of the former and current employees told Reuters. Brazil's Environment Ministry, which oversees Ibama, declined repeated requests for comment about budget cuts and other alleged changes at the agency. A spokesman told Reuters on Aug. 14 that previous governments were to blame for Ibama's challenges, which he said included shoddy equipment and poorly maintained field offices.
Environmentalists say Brazilian ranchers and farmers are intentionally igniting the jungle canopy to expand their operations illegally, emboldened by Bolsonaro's pro-development, anti-regulation message. Reuters was unable to confirm this claim. "With the economic crisis we started having constraints due to the fiscal situation, but it wasn't just for the environmental area, it was everyone," said Izabella Teixeira, environment minister from 2010 to 2016.
Ibama employees said they have also been hamstrung by new restrictions on their ability to destroy logging and mining equipment found in illegally deforested areas.
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