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Brazil to Boost Amazon Forest Oversight as Deforestation Jumps

Brazil to Boost Amazon Forest Oversight as Deforestation Jumps

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil plans to increase oversight of the Amazon rainforest to curb land grabbers and illegal loggers who have caused a 51% jump in deforestation during the first quarter of the year, according to Vice President Hamilton Mourao.

The vice president, who leads a so-called Amazon Council responsible for coordinating federal government actions in the region, said he’ll submit by Friday a plan to President Jair Bolsonaro suggesting “repressive actions” against illegal loggers.

Brazil to Boost Amazon Forest Oversight as Deforestation Jumps

“We’ll act forcefully in areas where deforestation is accelerating,” he said during a live broadcast on Tuesday.

Data published earlier this week showed more than 300 square miles of rainforest -- or an area about the size of New York City -- was lost between January and March, compared with about 200 square miles a year ago. The acceleration of logging sounded the alarm in the government, which wants to avoid another environmental crisis after last year’s fires tarnished Brazil’s image abroad.

Virus Fighting

Deforestation accelerated more recently as the country focused its efforts on fighting the coronavirus pandemic, Mourao said.

At the height of the fires last year, Bolsonaro authorized the military to participate in actions against illegal logging and burning of the forest. Such an authorization, which doesn’t require Congress’ approval, has already expired. Currently, some 43,000 military personnel are stationed in the region but with the authorization to act along Brazil’s borders only.

Bolsonaro, who supports logging and farming in the Amazon region, has put pressure on Congress to open indigenous areas to mining operations since taking office in 2019. Earlier this year the chief executive officer of Suzano, the world’s largest producer of wood pulp, anticipated a “‘catastrophic” spike in deforestation in 2020.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.