As a regional coordinator at Brazil鈥檚 National Indian Foundation (Funai), Jussielson Gon莽alves Silva was tasked with protecting forests in the western state of Mato Grosso.
Instead, he and two other Funai officials were leasing Indigenous reserves to cattle ranchers for kickbacks worth up to US$190,000 a month, according to Brazil鈥檚 federal police, who the ex-navy officer on 17 March.
Gon莽alves Silva is one of the who have been appointed to key environmental agencies under President Jair Bolsonaro. The aim is to obstruct their work from the inside, says Suely Ara煤jo at the Climate Observatory in S茫o Paulo.
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鈥淭his case is symbolic of the growing illegality and impunity in the Amazon under Bolsonaro,鈥� says Ara煤jo.
Deforestation has soared since Bolsonaro took office in 2019. Another 13,235 square kilometres of the Amazon rainforest , up 22 per cent from the previous year and the highest amount since 2006. Even in January, when heavy rains usually protect the forest from fires, 430 square kilometres were cleared 鈥� five times the area lost that month the previous year.
Conservationists largely blame the right-wing president, who has environmental protections, development of the Amazon and environmental institutions.
鈥淲e are losing control,鈥� says Ara煤jo, a former president of Ibama, Brazil鈥檚 environment agency.
Accelerating deforestation has had deadly consequences for both wildlife and Indigenous people, many of whom have been killed in violent clashes with loggers. Its demise is also accelerating global warming, say ecologists. They predict that it will eventually reach a tipping point where it shifts from a lush rainforest to a more open ecosystem resembling a savannah.
When that shift will occur is contentious. But researchers agree that Bolsonaro is bringing the date forward by weakening Brazil鈥檚 key environmental institutions, which has allowed organised crime groups to make mass land grabs.
Funai was founded to protect Brazil鈥檚 Indigenous groups 鈥� many of whom are uncontacted 鈥� and, in turn, the country鈥檚 forests, as the fate of the two are intertwined.
But Bolsonaro wants to develop the Amazon, where he has said Indigenous groups live like 鈥渁nimals in zoos鈥�. , he transferred the responsibility of demarcating Indigenous territories as protected lands to the ministry of agriculture.
Unable to eradicate environmental agencies, the ex-military captain has obstructed and made them impotent by and filling them with who share his pro-development agenda, Ara煤jo says. 鈥淚nstitutions like Funai have almost been destroyed. They are being managed by people that are against the very proposals of the institution,鈥� she says.
The arrest of Gon莽alves Silva is the latest scandal to suggest that Funai has been tainted by politics. In February, Indigeneous rights organisation Survival International documents suggesting that the agency discredited evidence of the existence of a previously unknown uncontacted tribe.
A Funai spokesperson said that the foundation 鈥渃larifies that it does not support any type of illicit conduct and is at the disposal of the police authorities to collaborate with the investigations. The foundation also informs that the head of regional coordination was dismissed from the position.鈥�
As Bolsonaro has weakened the institutional guardians of the rainforest, his anti-conservation rhetoric has encouraged land grabbing for cattle ranching, soya bean cultivation and illegal gold mining, says , an ecologist studying the impact of deforestation at . Guns and murders over land disputes聽are as a sense of impunity in the rainforest grows.
鈥淭he Amazon can be such a lawless place and word of mouth has a lot of power,鈥� says Berenguer. When Brazil鈥檚 space agency monitoring loss of the forest canopy in 2008, people in the Amazon would whisper to her that 鈥渢he satellites are watching鈥�. Now, they speak freely of burning or chopping down primary forest in national parks and Indigenous reserves, she says.
Farmers often clear small lots for agriculture or mining, which organised crime groups later buy, Berenguer says. A Indigenous groups are forming defence forces to protect themselves against armed land grabbers amid a spate of killings in remote areas by illegal gold miners.
Illegality has become so prevalent that if a new Brazilian president is elected in October, they will need to take actions akin to a peace process if they want to save the Amazon, says Adriana Ramos at Brazilian human rights and conservation group the Socio-Environmental Institute.
鈥淚magine a region that already has a history of Indigenous leaders and environmentalists shot in land conflicts and then add a lot more guns,鈥� says Ramos.
In preparation for the COP26 climate summit in 2021, to reach zero illegal deforestation by 2028. The promise was largely seen by experts as hollow. 鈥淭his is a game that Bolsonaro is playing,鈥� says Carlos Nobre at the University of S茫o Paulo.
, over 90 per cent of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is illegal, but Bolsonaro is pushing to fast-track a . Brazil鈥檚 Congress is expected to vote in the coming weeks on a bill that would allow mining in Indigenous reserves .
Around a sixth of the Amazon has already been lost and Nobre estimates that it will reach a tipping point when around 25 per cent has been deforested 鈥� at the current rate, in another 15 to 20 years. There are already signs that the rainforest is聽losing its resilience and dry seasons in heavily deforested areas in the southern Amazon are now five weeks longer than they were decades ago.聽鈥淲e are at the edge of this cliff,鈥� he says.
