As Brazil's Fire Season Ramps Up, Gov. Issues Meaningless Fire Ban Under Corporate Pressure
In the face of increasing pressure from international business, entrepreneurs and investors, Vice President Hamilton Mourão has declared that the Bolsonaro government will decree, in the next few days, an “absolute moratorium” on burning the Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetland biomes for 120 days. The moratorium could be extended, depending on the occurrence of fires in the coming months. Fires in the other Brazilian biomes will be allowed in a controlled manner.
Mourão also announced that the government will take action to suppress illegal fire in coming weeks. The new ban will encompass double the time in comparison to a similar measure adopted last year. In 2019, the 60-day moratorium decreed by the government ended up being extended by an additional 60 days. The poor results achieved at curbing 2019’s fires, however, are well known.
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The business declaration was backed by major transnational industrial and commodities players active in the Amazon region and across Brazil, including Amaggi (the world’s largest private producer of soy), Suzano (Latin America’s largest pulp and paper company), Vale (the gigantic Brazilian mining company), Bradesco (one of Brazil’s biggest banks), Alcoa, Bayer, Shell, and Siemens, along with the highly influential Brazilian Agribusiness Association (Abag) and Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oil Industries (Abiove). All these interests are showing concern over business prospects in Brazil in view of its negative global image resulting from the socio-environmental policies of the Bolsonaro administration.
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Despite Mourão’s statement, Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, an NGO that is a coalition of 50 organizations that analyzes climate change in the Brazilian context, expressed his skepticism about the new initiative to Mongabay. “The decree does not even get close to bringing any type of solution to the fires situation. It is a symbolic gesture, as it has no practical effect,” said Astrini. “In fact, the fires — which we saw last year in the Amazon and [which] we are seeing again now, whose prospect is that they will repeat themselves and in a worse scenario — are directly linked to deforestation and criminal actions. It is not just by making one more law that the crime will be fought. What we need are actions to repress criminal activity. And this increase in deforestation that leads to criminal fires is the result of a consistent policy designed by the government to favor this state of affairs.
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https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/brazil-bows-to-pressure-from-business-decrees-120-day-amazon-fire-ban/
