March 1, 2023

13:03

Mencius Melo – From Amazon Agency

MANAUS – The BR-319 Observatory (OBR-319), which monitors 13 municipalities, between Amazonas and Rondônia, located in the area of influence of the highway, published a study that points out the six municipalities that have deforested the most around the road. Canutama, Humaitá, Lábrea, Manicoré, Porto Velho and Tapauá are responsible for 94% of the deforestation. Together they have deforested 159,659 hectares, an area equivalent to almost 160,000 soccer fields. The information is from the publication “Retrospective 2022: deforestation and hot spots in the area of influence of the BR-319 highway”.

According to researcher Paula Guarido, who knows the region and analyzed the data, the area is under pressure due to the dismantling of the environmental policy in Brazil, in addition to the demobilization and destructuring of command and control agencies such as the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMbio), and the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai). These actions have caused successive records of deforestation and fires recorded in the last four years. This period includes the administration of former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

Paula Guarido highlighted the situations and actions that led to the scenario of pressure on the region that comprises municipalities located south of the highway and are closer to the “arc of deforestation”, a region historically more subject to deforestation. “The sum of the incentive to illegal activities, such as deforestation, mining and land grabbing, the non-allocation to public lands and the lack of inspection by the federal and state spheres, encouraged this scenario”, he said.

Lábrea

In the negative set of numbers, the municipality of Lábrea had the highest deforestation rate throughout the year, with 55,332.93 hectares. The municipalities of Porto Velho, Lábrea, Manicoré, Humaitá and Canutama were responsible for 89%, which is equivalent to 12,533 hot spots in the region.

The Observatory’s study points out that government decisions that accelerated the licensing of the “Middle Stretch” and the unprotection of the Jacareúba-Katawixi Indigenous Land (TI), actions that took place at the end of the Bolsonaro government, contributed to the environmental worsening of the BR-319. The “Middle stretch” is 405 km long and begins at Km 250, reaching the BR-230 at Km 655, near Humaitá. The stretch is considered the most damaged part of the road.

The data reveal that the situation on BR-319 mirrors the reality in Amazonas, which was the state in the Legal Amazon with the largest increase in deforestation compared to 2021, with a rate of 24%. “It is very difficult to provoke some reaction from the public power, in the sense of fighting illegalities, when you have a government that is averse to dialogue, as was the case with the Bolsonaro government”, lamented researcher Paula Guarido.