The budgets of federal agencies responsible for socio-environmental functions have been falling significantly over the past eight years, but reached rock bottom under the Bolsonaro administration, reaching a 17-year low. These funds are used to combat deforestation and fires, to formalize and maintain Protected Areas, and to protect Indigenous and traditional communities.

This is what the report “Financing environmental management in Brazil: an assessment based on the federal public budget”, carried out by the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).

The document gathers information from 2005 to 2022 about the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and the main agencies subordinate to it, such as the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), responsible for the management of federal Conservation Units (UCs).

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As shown in the study, the initial budget allocation for environmental management in Brazil fell 71%, plummeting from R$13,1 billion in 2014, when it reached its highest level in history, to R$3,7 billion in 2021.

The budget allocation is the total amount of resources reserved for a specific purpose by the Annual Budget Law (LOA), but which is generally not fully paid. Actual spending, however, decreased by 45%, from R$5,7 billion to R$3,1 billion in the same period.

The deficit is even greater when analyzing specific agencies, functions, and periods, especially in comparison with the current administration. Taking 2012 as a reference, the budget allocation in 2021 fell by 66%. Considering only the Ministry of the Environment, and not its subordinate agencies, the drop was even greater: the initial allocation and actual discretionary spending plummeted 72% and 86%, respectively, in the same period.

In 2012, the lowest rate in the historical series of deforestation in the Amazon was recorded, coinciding with the end of a period of consolidation of important environmental management measures, such as the creation and management of protected areas, command and control policies and environmental monitoring.

Discretionary spending

From 2018 to 2021, the ministry's discretionary spending fell by 56%. In short, last year the ministry's actual spending was five times lower than in 2017, the lowest in the entire historical series.

Discretionary expenditure is that allocated to the final actions of official institutions, excluding mandatory expenses, for example, salaries, social security, other social charges and debts.

"In addition to measures to relax Brazilian environmental regulations, encouraging predatory practices in biomes, the country has been experiencing low budget execution since 2019, which further hinders the implementation of environmental policies. In other words, in addition to budget cuts, agencies are not spending 100% of the approved budget," explains Antonio Oviedo, an ISA advisor and one of the authors of the analysis.

The report also analyzed the budgets of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB); the National Institute for Space Research (INPE), which monitors deforestation; Funai, responsible for the demarcation of Indigenous Lands; and the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), which is responsible for regularizing quilombola territories.

Public budget

A analysis confirms the diagnosis that the “environmental dismantling” promoted by the Bolsonaro government also affected the public budget, along with the weakening of participation bodies, legislation, policies and sector bodies.  

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“In parallel with the relaxation of environmental regulations and the institutional dismantling of the main bodies responsible for implementing environmental policy, in recent years Brazil has adopted a series of fiscal austerity policies that, by restricting the allocation of resources necessary for implementing the policy, put at risk the continuity of important programs to combat environmental degradation,” says the study.

He further emphasizes that the dismantling of environmental policies has resulted in record deforestation and wildfires in the country, the spread of invasions of protected areas, and land grabbing. Last year, the deforestation rate in the Amazon reached 13 km2, the third consecutive record and the highest number in 16 years. 

"This reduction has extremely serious consequences. From 2018 to 2021, we observed a 149% increase in deforestation in federal Conservation Units and over 34% in Indigenous Lands. In the Pantanal Biome, the reduction in water surface area increased by 27,9% over the same period," Oviedo emphasizes.  

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