Rio de Janeiro’s Tijuca National Park has become a laboratory for the reintroduction of locally extinct species. A study shows that, of the 33 species of large and medium-sized mammals that used to occur in the park area, only 11 remain today.
Restoration initiatives are slowly making a mark on the Atlantic Forest, a Brazilian biome that has been reduced to about a quarter of its original area. Brazil has made global commitments to restore tens of millions of hectares of forest by 2030, but the much smaller programs underway in the Atlantic Forest show country is still unable to monitor restoration efforts effectively.
The Military Operation Green Brazil in the Amazon Is Ending. The Order Now Is Results-Based Environmentalism 0 views Shares
A military operation against environmental violations in the Brazilian Amazon is coming to a close this month after nearly two years, but the show of force, backed by US$ 71 million in funding, has had no meaningful results and leaves the region vulnerable to the pressures of economic development, experts say.
Operation Green Brazil was launched in August 2019 in response to the widespread fires in the Amazon that year. It was extended in May 2020, and again at the start of February, with President Jair Bolsonaro subordinating federal environmental agencies to the military’s authority throughout the campaign.
As Brazil’s military pulls out of the Amazon, its legacy is in question
On April 30, the Brazilian government will officially end Operation Green Brazil, a military-led campaign that started in August 2019 to combat the peak of illegal fires in the Amazon.
In that time, the military has gained increasing power in environmental policies implemented in the Amazon, even undercutting federal environmental agencies in their enforcement work and filling key positions in the agencies.
Experts have criticized the operation’s high costs five times higher than the budget for the environmental protection agency which has gone mainly into enforcement in already demarcated or registered areas while ignoring disputed lands, which are more susceptible to illegal exploitation.