Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles has resigned over alleged involvement in the illegal timber trade. Brazil's Supreme Court has ordered two investigations against him. However, environmental protection continues to be systematically undermined.
Salles' resignation was long overdue. He is considered a close confidant of President Jair Bolsonaro. Both have systematically undermined state environmental protection programs and effectively rendered environmental authorities unable to act.
Deforestation is increasing, persecution is decreasing
You can measure it in the Amazon the sharp increases in deforestation and forest fires. These are almost always the result of criminal activities involving illegal deforestation and illegal land grabbing.
Minister Salles indirectly called for deforestation, land grabbing, the displacement of indigenous people and the occupation of protected areas. And he deliberately weakened the government agencies that could do something about it. The number of environmental crimes prosecuted in Brazil has gradually fallen in recent years. In 2018, before Bolsonaro and Salle took office, around 4,000 cases were initiated to investigate possible illegal deforestation. This number fell to 3,000 in his first year in office in 2019 and halved to around 2,000 cases in 2020.
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But Salles obviously overdid it. He is now being investigated for corruption and timber smuggling as well as obstruction of justice. He is said to have covered up illegal deforestation in the Amazon region. The judiciary has ordered searches and banking, telephone and tax secrecy has already been lifted. You can be excited.
Environmental policy as a policy of environmental destruction
I think that’s all right and gratifying. But of course you have to look at this in the context of the conditions in Bolsonaro's Brazil. From the start, Salles was only an environment minister on paper. In spirit he was always a minister of environmental destruction. He was completely in line with Bolsonaro. His The Amazon agenda continues to be exclusively oriented towards the short-term interests of agribusiness, the mining industry and large landowners – to the long-term harm of all Brazilians and people worldwide.
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Environmental destruction continues
Salles will go down in Brazilian history as the worst environment minister of all time. But his policy will remain the same for the time being. On the day of Salles' resignation, a bill that would once again weaken indigenous rights to their land cleared the next hurdle in parliament. It is another step among many since Bolsonaro took office that has systematically undermined environmental protection and the protection of indigenous territories.
Brazil will only be able to breathe a sigh of relief again when the entire Bolsonaro system is history.
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