Forests for sale in Brazil!

Since Jair Bolsonaro assumed the Brazilian presidency, deforestation is not only on the rise, it is increasingly out of control. This is largely due to the dismantling of government regulatory agencies, and it means that those who deforest feel more empowered by the impunity that reigns. On top of this, the neoliberal policy of privatization of forests, along with other criminal actions, means that the forests and Brazil are, effectively, for sale. Bolsonaro recently signed Decree N °10.623/2021 to create the “Adopt a Park” program. Brazilian group, Carta de Belém, denounces that with this decree, the government “puts an end to the public policies of conservation, recovery and improvement of federal Conservation Units forever. ‘Adopt a Park’ privatizes and transfers public responsibility to legal entities and natural persons—both national and foreign—promoting private governance of territories of collective and social interest. For only 50 reais/10 euros per hectare, the ecocidal government is offering a real bargain for the common goods of Brazil.” Read the letter from Carta de Belém in Portuguese here.
Another worrying piece of news—broadcast by BBC Brazil through a documentary—is the criminal act that, in the Amazonian state of Rondônia, areas within environmental reserves and indigenous territories are advertised under the “sale of residential properties” section of MarketPlace, a Facebook space open to users. See the documentary here.