BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazil will cut down on efforts to combat ecological criminal activities during the coronavirus outbreak, an authorities at ecological agency Ibama told Reuters, regardless of concerns that minimized security could result in a spike in logging.
SUBMIT IMAGE: A deforested and burnt plot is seen in Jamanxim National park in the Amazon, near Novo Progresso, Para state, Brazil September 11,2019 REUTERS/Amanda Perobelli
Ibama Director of Environmental Management Olivaldi Azevedo said the outbreak has actually left him little choice however to send out fewer enforcement personnel into the field because of the highly contagious infection.
He approximated that one-third of Ibama’s field operatives are close to 60 years old or have medical conditions that put them at greater danger for serious signs of the virus.
Ibama has actually not worked with new representatives in years since of government budget plan cuts and its ranks are rapidly aging.
” There’s no other way you can take these people who are at danger and expose them to the infection,” Azevedo said. “There is no choice between something and the other. It’s a responsibility.”
2 sources at Ibama, who were not licensed to speak with the media, said rank-and-file field agents are worried about their own health and the risk they could spread out coronavirus to the rural areas where they run.
Logging specialists stated that while health issues need to be a top priority, the poli