Under the banner of progress: Brazil’s largest anti-illegal logging operation
In Brazil, ‘timber’ and ‘wood’ are the same word: madeira. There is no distinction between the material and how the material is utilized — we don’t specify its utility in its definition. Wood is, nevertheless, utilized frequently all over the world. For those who don’t know, Brazil is the only country named after a tree. The importance of this tree, pau-brasil, is highlighted by the function of its timber, therefore, by its economic significance. The trunk is red, the sap is red; it, in a way, bled. This sap was used to dye velvet, and the wood created bows of string instruments such as violins and cellos. The luxury exuded by the most symbolic being of this nation is seldom enjoyed by its population.
In 2015, Brazil “produced” 136 million cubic meters of logs, worth about 250 million US dollars. The Hancock Timber Resource Group described the accelerated growth of this industry between 2000 and 2012 as “development”, which decreased unemployment, increased foreign investments, and minimized deforestation through the expansion of Eucalyptus plantations. However, the country has remained in dire economic conditions despite the outpour of foreign investment nearly a decade after this report. And this year, in the largest anti-illegal logging operation in the history of the country, in the state with the highest rate of deforestation — Pará — the timber seized was of “native woods of the Amazon biome” and did not correspond with the information declared officially.
The initiative by the Federal Police, conducted between the states of the Amazon and Pará, called Operation Handroanthus, seized about 220 thousand cubic meters of wood, worth around 130 million Brazilian reais. Over half of it, 130 cubic meters, was recently released after an ugly dispute between the minister of environment, Ricardo Salles, and the Federal Police commissioner, Alexandre Saraiva — who was fired the day after reporting his concerns about the minister. While Salles defended the loggers and guaranteed the legitimacy of the documentation, Saraiva accused Salles of boycotting the operation by undermining the legitimacy of the police investigation: "If no one has claimed [70% of the seized wood], how can the minister say that everything is alright and the Federal Police investigation is wrong?" (Alexandre Saraiva, at Brasil de Fato)
An investigation against the minister has finally gone underway, and the ex-commissioner celebrated by citing the bible: “Psalm 96:12 — Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein; then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice”. Such response proves to be surprisingly unreassuring of his motivations to protect and respect nature. It rather speaks to a desire for divine judgment, or for upholding religious values which have done next to nothing to protect Brazilian forests throughout half a millennium. The quote, in fact, is unfinished. In this translation, it continues to say: rejoice “before the Lord. For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with His truth.”
We certainly ought to pay attention to those who judge the Earth — the world — in the name of the Lord, but are in “truth” protecting their own economic interests. Perhaps, a more interesting topic of discussion surrounding this fiasco is why these government institutions have been so ineffective in fulfilling their duties. Ministries, institutes, the police and so many other branches of government have been unable or unwilling to do their jobs for, essentially, as long as they have existed. In its nearly 200-year history, the Brazilian government has continuously failed to fulfil its fundamental promise of “order” and “progress”.
Environmental activists are murdered — executed. Indigenous peoples are displaced and violated. Deforestation is not even close to coming to an end. And corruption, in this landscape of injustice and inequality, faces nothing but new opportunities to burgeon. One can only wish for the problem to be punctual, present in the dispute between these two government employees. If so, we could comfortably count on the problem to be solved with their firing. Unfortunately, the problem will persist, and we ought to ask ourselves — does it work to ask for the government to be better? Throughout the long history of our governments, have we seen significant structural changes from asking them to please stop killing indiscriminately?
The police didn’t steal timber from unnamed logging companies, the forests are being incessantly robbed of trees, for hundreds of years, and we have nearly nothing to show for it. Too many Brazilian people are still poor, starving, homeless, and these hundreds of thousands of cubic square meters of wood are certainly not going towards building them shelter. Within the vast beauty and wealth of the land I was born in, I am yet to see my peers reap the benefits of it. More often than not, this is due to government policies, and not in spite of them. So, rather than asking these institutions for changes to these policies, what could we be doing in our lives, in our communities, to make these institutions and policies obsolete?
MIRNA WABI-SABI
is a writer, political theorist, teacher and translator. She’s site editor at Gods and Radicals, and managing editor at PLATAFORMA9.