Bolsonaro's Environmental Policy: An Increasing Risk

[Judi Lynn]

President Jair Bolsonaro’s inauguration in January marked Brazil’s entry into the ranks of nations recently electing far-right leadership. In the first five months of his term, Bolsonaro has drawn particular ire for altering environmental policies. These moves will have devastating effects on Brazil’s environment, indigenous communities and ultimately, on Brazilian political stability.


Bolsonaro off to rocky start
Following a controversial campaign, Jair Bolsonaro has been unambiguous about the direction he will lead Brazil. He has praised the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, while denigrating women, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and indigenous communities (who he has compared to ‘animals in a zoo’), indicating clear signs of democratic regression. On the other hand, Bolsonaro’s liberal economic stances initially received positive feedback and buoyed market confidence.

However, his policies surrounding deregulation and tax cuts to encourage FDI could have highly damaging consequences, particularly with respect to the environmental and indigenous communities. Indeed, one of Bolsonaro’s first policy moves involved relocating the authority to accredit indigenous reserves as protected territories from FUNAI (the National Indian Foundation) to the Ministry of Agriculture. The Ministry is lead by Tereza Cristina Dias, who has a record of favouring the farm lobby and supporting the interests of industries that demand greater access to protected land. The new measure met with heavy resistance from rights groups and indigenous leaders. Although Brazil’s national congress managed to revert the provisional measure on May 28 restoring FUNAI’s competencies to the Ministry of Justice, the President will have to endorse the newly approved text, which is highly unlikely.

Impact on the environment
As a recent transnational civil society report highlights, Bolsonaro’s policies have tremendous implications for the environment. In the first two months of 2019, Brazil saw a 54% increase in deforestation from the same period last year. On March 4th, the Mines and Energy Minister Admiral Bento Albuquerque commenced plans to permit mining activities on indigenous lands. With the new Agricultural Ministry’s tacit encouragement, indigenous communities have faced increasing waves of land grabs, violent attacks and occupations from armed bands called ‘grileiros’ who have tapped into a very profitable business, as the marketed land can increase its value up to 200 times.

Regardless of the illegitimacy of these activities (considering indigenous groups stand protected by the Brazilian constitution), these attacks have only risen. The situation has reached a point in which the Chamber of Indigenous Peoples and Traditional Communities has warned in a memo that several communities have now become endangered.

More:
https://globalriskinsights.com/2019/06/bolsonaros-environmental-policy-increasing-risk/