The Illegal Selling of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest
Figure 1. In 2019, the world watched the world's tropical forests burn. Source: Unsplash.
In February 2021, an investigation by the BBC revealed a widespread network of classified advertisements on Facebook selling protected areas of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, including national forests and land reserved for indigenous peoples, with some plots as large as 1,000 football pitches. The majority of the advertisements were sourced from the northern state of Rondônia, Brazil's most deforested state, making the investigation's findings notably detrimental to the ongoing battle against deforestation.
Figure 2. Brazil's northern state of Rondônia holds the title as the country's most deforested state. Source: BBC
The 2010s marked a decade of negative records for the environmental community. Despite multiple major international initiatives to reduce deforestation by the end of the decade, including Brazil’s Valparaíso Project, the suffering of tropical forests was more enhanced than ever before. In 2015, increasing deforestation led to a historic plunge, with global forest cover dropping below four billion hectares of forest for the first time in human history. The end of this so called deadly decade, further confirmed the extent to which the pace of climate change posed a threat towards tropical forests; as in 2019 the world watched with shock the world's forests burn.
One of the tropical forests that experienced the most destruction was the Amazon, the largest rainforest in the world. Due to the severe weather conditions and resulting fires, scientists observed that the tree and plant species began transitioning gradually from that of a rainforest to that of a wooded savanna. During that year, the number of fires raging in Amazon were 80% higher than in 2018 and thus, they were rightly characterised as the most severe case of fires in nearly a decade. Despite the unfortunate circumstances of 2019, Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his administration team proceeded to broadly defund the nation's environmental regulatory, protection and enforcement agencies.
The plots being sold on the popular social media platform were found to be illegally invaded by 'land grabbers' in the region, familiar with the persuasive measures that have acted as loopholes within the Brazilian environmental policies. These land grabbers have obtained methods of proving that these specific areas of protected land no longer sustain their original purpose and therefore convince politicians to amend the land's protected status, thus, allowing individuals to purchase the land. While illegal loggers refer to tactics such as camouflaging equipment with paint and foliage, deviating aerial surveillance, as discovered by the National Geographic.
Figure 3. In 2015, global forest cover dropped below four billion hectares of forest for the first time in human history. Source: Unsplash.
The ongoing battle with land grabbers has been linked to a variety of reasons. However, their careful selection of undesignated and poorly-managed federal and state public land covering millions of hectares is widely believed to be their leading motivation.
In 1965, Brazil created and passed its first Forest Code, a law requiring Amazonian landowners to dedicate between 35 to 80 percent of their property to native vegetation, an obligation which meant that only 20 percent of the land could be farmed for personal use. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the intention behind this regulation was the protection of the rainforest, the task of tracking property boundaries of a 2.72 million square mile area poses multiple difficulties. Clear ownership records exist for only 10 percent of the private land in the Amazon, hence in 2010, Brazil introduced a law for all rural properties to be mapped and registered through CAR (Cadastro Ambiental Rural). CAR allows for rural property owners to meet their state’s Forest Code obligations.
Deforestation statistics in the Amazon can be accessed by the public via information released by the federal government or by non-governmental organisations; yet, the accuracy of the statistics, with regards to how much of the lost growth was legal, illegal, or caused by fires is often questioned. Reasons for the inaccurate information are related to the growth covering millions of hectares, which affects coordination efforts implemented for the management of protected areas and land tenure, including the lack of financial resources to pay the costs of land registration and licensing,
The illegal advertisements can be very easily tracked and found by simply typing Portuguese equivalents of key search words, such as "forest", "native jungle", or "timber" on the Facebook Marketplace, and then by selecting an Amazonian state as the purchasing location of your choice. Some listings contain the location and costs, while others only feature satellite images and GPS coordinates.
Figure 4. Indigenous leaders have been urging the authorities and the social media platform, Facebook, to intervene in the illegal trading and destruction of the rainforest and take action. Source: Unsplash.
In his interview with the BBC, Fabricio Guimarães, one of the most experienced Amazon site sellers revealed that the illegal business activity carries no risk of an inspection by state agents, even in the case of arsons initiated by the sellers. Another seller called Alvim Souza Alves was attempting to sell a critical epidemiological state belonging to the Uru Eu Wau Wau indigenous reserve, home to a community of more than 200 Uru Eu Wau Wau people and a minimum of five isolated (from the outside world) groups. However, upon meeting with the BBC, Alves claimed that the nearest presence of the indigenous people was 50 km away.
The statement made by Alves was shared with the community leader Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau, who revealed that the land was an area regularly used by his community to hunt, fish, and collect fruits, and described the sellers' objective as an attempt to not only deforest the surviving indigenous land but to eradicate the native people's lives as well. Uru Eu Wau Wau further advised the authorities and Facebook to take immediate action so as to put an end to this situation.
In response, Facebook announced that it would be working closely with the Brazilian authorities in order to remove the advertisements from its platform; however it would not be taking action on its own to combat the illegal trade of the Amazon plots. The statement by the social platform was not well received by indigenous leaders and environmental enthusiasts of the region, who have dedicated years towards achieving the complete protection of the rainforest.
Figure 5. In 2021, the Brazilian government launched Operation Verde Brasil 2, aimed to control illegal deforestation and illegal fires, and join forces between the federal government and states. Source: Unsplash.
The BBC additionally approached Brazil's Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, who reassured the broadcasting company that the government of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has always maintained a zero-tolerance policy for environmental crimes. Salles elaborated on the government's efforts to combat illegal deforestation and illegal fires through Operation Verde Brazil 2 (Operation Green Brazil 2) [1], as well as their attempt to unite the federal government and the states.
On 2 March 2021, Brazil's top court ordered an additional investigation into how the illegally-acquired Amazonian plots inhabited by indigenous tribes were put up as legitimate listings on Facebook. The investigation acted as a direct response to a lawsuit filed by charities and opposition parties accusing the government of insufficiently protecting the indigenous tribes from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso confirmed in his ruling that several advertised plots indeed belonged to the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people. The indigenous peoples were now exposed not only to the dangers of deforestation and forest fires, but also to the coronavirus because of the failure of the illegal land-grabbers to take the necessary precautions.
The continuous battle against the illegal deforestation of the Amazon rainforest has witnessed decades of structural damage, as well as a large wave of disapproval from the indigenous peoples that have been affected towards the government with the former accusing the Brazilian officers of not making the inadequate steps to solve the problem, and of being involved with the illegal land grabbers. The weakened conservation efforts and a 13-year intense deforestation period have undermined international treaties and commitments, including the Paris Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as stated by a UN Environment Programme spokesperson interviewed by the BBC.
Figure 6. The ruling by Supreme Court Justice Luis Roberto Barroso brings forth hope that the law will work in the Amazon rainforest and its inhabitants’ favour. Source: Unsplash.
The BBC’s investigation and accompanying documentary broadcast has provided environmentalists and the indigenous people of the rainforest with the hope that laws can be implemented to prevent illegal land-grabbing and deforestation activities, rather than aid them.
[1] The legal basis for the operation is Decree No. 10.341 of 6 May 2020, signed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, which authorises the deployment of the Armed Forces to guarantee law and order with the aim of preventing and combating environmental crimes, as well as fighting fires in the private and nationally protected areas registered as the Legal Amazonia.
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