Brazil officials failed to act after warning of 'fire day' in Amazon, prosecutors say
Source: The Guardian
Brazil officials failed to act after warning of 'fire day’ in Amazon, prosecutors say
Investigation into why environment agency ignored warnings that farmers and land-grabbers were planning day of coordinated fires
Dom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
Mon 26 Aug 2019 23.23 BST Last modified on Tue 27 Aug 2019 01.36 BST
Brazilian environmental officials and federal prosecutors say that they sent a warning that farmers and land-grabbers in the Amazon were planning a day of coordinated fires on 10 August to send a message to far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, but authorities failed to act.
Wildfires and burning deforested land are common during the Amazon’s dry seasons but peaked this month to more than 26,000 – the highest August figure since 2010. The environmental disaster has taken on international dimensions and overshadowed the G7 meeting in Biarritz.
Federal prosecutors in the Amazon state of Pará have now launched an investigation after revealing that they warned Brazil’s environment agency Ibama that a “fire day” demonstration was being planned around the town of Novo Progresso.
The prosecutors noted that the local Folha do Progresso news site had reported on plans for the fire day 5 August. “We need to show the president that we want to work” one local farmer told the website, adding that the only way to clear land for pasture was by felling trees and burning them.
But Ibama did not reply to the warnings until two days after the protests began, when it said that its operations had been hampered because police support had been withdrawn, putting their teams at risk in a region where they already face threats.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/26/brazil-amazon-fire-day-warning