Brazil's environmental workers tell of decline before fires

As fires burn across the Brazilian Amazon, the vast state of Amazonas has been among the hardest hit, with more than 6,600 blazes recorded in August, 2 1/2 times more than the same month a year ago.

Yet official documents seen by The Associated Press show that Brazil's government has begun legal procedures to transfer all employees out of three of the state's four federal environmental protection offices, which are in charge of defending the rainforest from deforestation, land grabbing and illegal fires.

It's part of a broader erosion of the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, known by its Portuguese initials as Ibama, whose field operations appear to have declined sharply since the early part of this year. The agency's funding for discretionary spending and enforcement operations this year faces a 24% cut, a significant blow to what two experts described as an already small budget.

FILE - In this Sept. 2, 2019 file photo, logs lay at a lumber mill surrounded by recently charred and deforested fields near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil. While the vast Amazon rainforest acts as a bulwark against climate change because its lush vegetation absorbs heat-trapping carbon dioxide, experts say current fires are manmade, often set illegally by land grabbers who are clearing the forest for cattle ranching and crops. (AP PhotoAndre Penner, File)

The budget decrease came as part of a wider austerity push by President Jair Bolsonaro, who took office Jan. 1 and is seeking to rein in spending by Brazil's financially strapped government. But critics note that he has also complained that environmental regulations hinder development in the Amazon.

Ibama staffers say the regional offices are critical to their jobs, giving them closer knowledge of problem areas and faster response times in the country's most extensive state. larger than Texas, California and Montana combined.

Ibama agents often plunge deep into the jungle aboard helicopters or boats, wearing bulletproof vests and carrying arms to confront illegal loggers or ranchers who cut away the forest and then set fires to clear the land.

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2019 file photo, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, back, embraces his Environment Minister Ricardo Salles during a military ceremony for the Day of the Soldier at the army headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil. Amidst a broader government effort to slash public spending, Salles announced in April a 24% budget cut for Ibama, the government’s Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resource, which carries out on-the-ground operations tackling environmental crime in hot spots identified through a mix of intelligence and satellite images. (AP PhotoEraldo Peres, File)

The sharp increase in fires this year has roused global concern because the Amazon rainforest acts as a bulwark against climate change. Its lush vegetation absorbs heat-trapping carbon dioxide and the moisture given off by its trees affects rainfall patterns and climate across South America and beyond.

Boslonaro told reporters he would attend the upcoming U.N. General Assembly in September to deliver a speech expected to focus on the Amazon, which he says was "ignored" by previous administrations.

His administration argues that the lack of economic opportunities and cumbersome red tape in the Amazon region contributes to rampant illegal deforestation. It says the region can be protected while allowing far more development than conservationists believe is safe.

FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2019 file photo, a cut tree stands in a burned area near the Krimej indigenous village of the Kayapo indigenous group in Altamira, Para state, Brazil. Federal prosecutor Ricardo Negrini says authorities failed to act when his office warned of reports that farmers in Para had called for "a day of fire" to ignite multiple fires on Aug. 10. (AP PhotoLeo Correa, File)

Bolsonaro has sent troops to aid in fighting the blazes and banned fires to clear land in the Amazon for 60 days.

But the president has fiercely resisted efforts to treat the Amazon as a global issue, notably clashing with French President Emmanuel Macron, who told his Brazilian counterpart during the peak of the fires: "We cannot allow you to destroy everything."

Bolsonaro has also accused non-governmental groups of inefficiency and trying to stifle Brazil's economy by preventing development in the region.

FILE - In this Aug. 27, 2019 file photo, Kayapo indigenous members of PREVFOGO, a group that combats and helps to prevent fires, pause after working on the Bau indigenous reserve in Altamira in Brazil's Amazon where fires are burning. The group, which also works to improve the use of land for farming, depends on Ibama, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, a government environmental agency whose on-the-ground operations to tackle environmental crime declined by 23% since 2018, according to the Brazilian not-for-profit Observatorio do Clima. (AP PhotoLeo Correa, File)

The president also is no big fan of Ibama and its enforcement actions, complaining that an "industry of fines" has slowed economic development in Latin America's largest nation.

"I will no longer allow Ibama to distribute fines right, left and center," Bolsonaro said before taking office. There is a personal edge to the issue: He was fined by the agency years ago for fishing in a protected area.

Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles have also talked of ending Ibama's legal authority to burn heavy equipment being used by illegal loggers.

FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2019 file photo, a fire burns in highway margins in the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, part of Brazil's Amazon, Sunday, Aug. 25, 2019. The vast state of Amazonas has seen one of the sharpest increases in fires this year, with over 6,600 fires recorded in August, a 157% jump compared to the same month a year ago. (AP PhotoEraldo Peres, File)

Critics say the top-level skepticism and budget cuts are having an impact in the field. On-the-ground operations carried out by Ibama agents from January through April declined 58% from the same period last year, according to official data obtained by the Brazilian group Climate Observatory. The decline began under the previous government in 2018, when operations were down 23% but accelerated this year.

Prosecutors in the northeastern state of Para, which borders Amazonas, are investigating the link between the decline in Ibama's activities and the rise in fires this year, which have broken out at a pace not seen since 2010.

Federal prosecutor Ricardo Negrini said authorities failed to act when his office warned of reports that farmers in Para had called for "a day of fire" to ignite multiple blazes Aug. 10.

Ibama told prosecutors it wasn't able to intervene because police forces in the state had been refusing to offer security. Ibama agents have sometimes been met with gunfire when confronting illegal loggers and miners.

Negrini said he found that state police had declined to escort Ibama agents for months despite a longstanding tradition of cooperation between the two bodies. Documents seen by AP show that police forces denied six requests from Ibama in June and July.

In the documents, police say the lack of an official cooperation agreement prevented them from joining such operations, though Negrini said that had not been an issue in the past.

Ibama and the environment ministry did not reply to several requests for comments.

But in the past months, hundreds of workers from Ibama and another public agency, the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, have signed letters denouncing what they contend is government neglect of the environment.

Ten employees of environmental agencies interviewed by AP complained of a growing sense of censorship, intimidation and retaliations from superiors.

"This is not a problem of difficult transition (from one administration to the other), because people are trying to understand how to do their jobs," said André Barbosa, president of an association of federal environmental employees in Rio de Janeiro. "This is a project to break the system down, so that people no longer have the capacity to work."

In response to such complaints from public workers, federal prosecutors issued a statement this month asking government officials to strengthen environmental protection and to refrain from encouraging law-breaking or delegitimizing the work of Ibama agents.

They also gave officials 30 days to present information that proves they had used "technical criteria" to appoint new supervisors, many of whom have a military background.