ISA and UFRJ report points out that the initial budget allocation for environmental management in Brazil fell by 71% between 2014 and 2021
The budget of federal agencies with socio-environmental functions has been falling significantly in the last eight years, but has reached rock bottom in the Bolsonaro government, reaching the lowest value of the last 17 years. The resources 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 "The financing of environmental management in Brazil: an assessment from the federal public budget", made by the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
The document gathers information from 2005 to 2022 on the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and the main bodies subordinate to it, such as the Brazilian Institute for 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).
As shown by the study, the initial budget allocation for environmental management in Brazil fell by 71%, dropping from R$13,1 billion in 2014, when it reached its highest level in history, to R$3,7 billion in 2021.
The budget allocation is the total of resources reserved for a given purpose by the Annual Budget Law (LOA), but which, in general, are not fully paid. On the other hand, the expenditure actually made decreased by 45%, falling from R$ 5,7 billion to R$ 3,1 billion in the same period.
The gap is even greater if specific bodies, functions and periods are analyzed, especially in comparison with the current management. Taking the year 2012 as a reference, the budget allocation in 2021 had a reduction of 66%. Considering only the MMA, and not the agencies subordinated to it, the fall was even greater: the initial allocation and the effective discretionary expenditures 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 policies and the control and monitoring environmental.
discretionary spending
From 2018 to 2021, discretionary spending carried out by the ministry fell by 56%. In summary, last year the resources effectively spent by the ministry were five times lower than in 2017 and are the lowest for the entire historical series.
Discretionary expenditure is that intended for the final actions of official institutions, excluding mandatory expenditures, for example, with salaries, social security, other social charges and debts.
“In addition to the measures to make Brazilian environmental standards more flexible, encouraging predatory practices in biomes, since 2019 the country has been showing low budget execution, which makes the implementation of environmental policies even more difficult. That is, in addition to the reduction in budgets, the agencies do not spend 100% of the approved budget”, explains Antonio Oviedo, 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 instances of participation, legislation, policies and bodies in the sector.
“In parallel with the flexibilization of environmental regulation and the institutional dismantling of the main implementing agencies of environmental policy, in recent years Brazil has adopted a series of fiscal austerity policies that, by constraining the allocation of resources necessary for the implementation of the policy, put at risk risk the continuity of important programs to combat environmental degradation”, says the study.
He also reinforces that the dismantling of environmental policies resulted in records of deforestation and fires in the country, the advance of invasions on protected areas and land grabbing. Last year, the deforestation rate in the Amazon reached 13 km2, the third successive record and the highest number in 16 years.
“This reduction has very serious consequences. From 2018 to 2021, we have seen a 149% increase in deforestation in federal Conservation Units and more than 34% in Indigenous Lands. In the Pantanal Biome, the reduction in the water surface increased by 27,9% in the same period”, emphasizes Oviedo.
Report highlights
- The results show the fall in the budget execution of the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), especially in the period of implementation of the Forest Code. Between 2018 and 2019, the amounts allocated to the agency were reduced from BRL 147,5 million to BRL 85,1 million (a 27,2% decrease). The values of the following years continued to fall, reaching a level of R$ 51,46 for the year 2022. Between 2019 and 2022, there was a further drop in the initial allocation to the agency of 39,6%.
- Funai presented in 2021 the lowest initial allocation of the analyzed period, with a reduction when comparing the largest budget of the historical series, which reaches 43%. Between 2018 and 2022, there was a reduction of almost a quarter of the resources allocated to the agency, from R$ 715,7 million to R$ 561,6 million.
- Inpe, responsible for one of the main measures that reduced deforestation by 83%, between 2004 and 2012, has already suffered a 74% reduction in its expenses (initial allocation).
- The budget dedicated to indemnities, the demarcation of territories and the promotion of quilombola communities to Brazil is negligible, accumulating a reduction of 100%. The same for the demarcation of the TIs, which has already reduced 71%.
- Regarding the management of TIs and UCs, the country currently invests R$ 17,00 per hectare of IT and R$ 7,00 per hectare of UC.
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