Brazil’s Environment Minister relying on Chamber president to push mining in the Amazon

RIO DE JANEIRO,  BRAZIL – Ricardo Salles has been fluctuating between ups and downs in the Jair Bolsonaro government.

Pointed out by environmentalists as a representative of ruralists in the Ministry of Environment and viewed by some diplomats as an extremist, Salles is seeking a chance to remain in the post.

To this end, he is seeking support from new Chamber president Arthur Lira (PP-AL) to pass bills dear to Bolsonarism, which have the potential to wipe out forested regions and which could threaten the survival of traditional populations.

Among these bills are land tenure in forest regions and the authorization for mining in indigenous lands. Both of these have all the ingredients to advance under Lira’s management.

The first indication the Minister sent to the Bolsonarist support base was to complain that during Rodrigo Maia’s (DEM-RJ) administration, which ended early this month, governmental agendas made little progress. Now, he says he is confident that the situation will be more favorable to the government.

“What we have seen over this period that ended is that not even debates were possible. Bills or even provisional measures lapsed in Congress, and discussions never took place,” said Salles in an interview on SBT’s program Poder em Foco, in which EL PAÍS took part as a guest.

About his support for the controversial mining bill on indigenous lands, the Minister says he would like to see clear rules on the matter.

“Mining in the Amazon, be it on or off indigenous lands, what rule will be imposed? We have been waiting since the 1988 Constitution for the solution of a norm that already provided for regulation, and this issue has been pushed under the carpet year after year. So it is necessary to discuss this and find a way, the solution is not to have no solution.”

In this political roller-coaster, Salles remained in good standing with the president even after repeated high deforestation and fire rates in the Amazon forest and the Pantanal wetlands throughout 2019 and 2020.

His prestige declined in March last year, after he was filmed at a cabinet meeting saying that the government should take advantage of the pandemic to “pass bills” on relaxing environmental rules. He was out of the headlines for a while after this event. More recently, his name made headlines again when Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in the US presidential race, and several analysts expected him to be dismissed.

He remained in office because Bolsonaro was annoyed with his vice-president Hamilton Mourão, who heads the now defunct National Amazon Council. The president wanted to have someone to oppose the general. Mourão is perceived by some Bolsonarists as a threat to the president, who has now amassed over 60 motions for his impeachment.

This battle has been won by the Minister, for the time being, since the military indirectly subordinated to the council will no longer operate in the surveillance of the Amazon region over the next two months.

Interestingly enough, the same Centrão voting bloc that can lend Salles a lifeline with the prestige he enjoys with Lira, is the very group that can overthrow him, in search of power in the Ministries Esplanade. Salles’ name along with that of Foreign Minister Ernesto Araújo, is again being pointed out as one of the next to be dismissed in an imminent cabinet reform conducted to accommodate Centrão politicians.

“The position belongs to the president (…) I’m not worried if there will be a reform, if there won’t be a reform,”he said in the SBT program.

First meeting with Biden’s representative

While trying, once again, to hold on to his position, Salles is trying to convey institutionalism and proactivity. On February 18th, Salles and Ernesto Araújo met for the first time by videoconference with US Secretary of State John Kerry.

At the time, they took a proposal to Biden’s representative in the environmental area, in which they asked for more funding for environmental protection. According to sources, the American government did not disagree with the proposal. It only signaled that some kind of financial compensation could be presented in the coming months.

Salles’ search for more funding has several reasons. Among them is that in 2021, the Ministry of Environment will be faced with one of its lowest budgets in decades. The practical result of this will be a reduction in inspections, which are increasingly reduced, and administrative downsizing.

Nevertheless, despite fewer resources, since Bolsonaro came to power the country has waived donations from Norway and Germany through the Amazon Fund. Currently, there are 40 environmental protection projects with R$1.4 billion frozen in accounts because Bolsonaro and Salles decided to change the management rules of these resources.

The reason is ideological. “Instead of sending the money for projects and ideas the government doesn’t necessarily agree with, we said we wanted to have a greater involvement in this, and the donors, Norway and Germany, didn’t agree,” justified the Minister.

As an alternative to these funds, Salles said that Brazil is trying to persuade wealthy countries to donate more for environmental protection. The Brazilian counterpart would be to bring forward the deadline for zero carbon gas emissions in the country from 2060 to 2050.

The bill would be costly for wealthy countries, including the United States: US$10 billion a year (around R$53 billion). “We are asking for 100 Amazon Funds per year,” he stated in the interview, recorded on February 10th.

Source: El Pais

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