President Jair Bolsonaro said this Tuesday that he plans to introduce a decree that will change the protection status of the Tamoios Ecological Station in Angra dos Reis (RJ). Bolsonaro received a R$10,000 fine for fishing in this protected area in 2012. IBAMA later reversed the penalty.
Bolsonaro was unclear on whether he wanted to reduce the area’s protection or end it altogether. However, his objective is clear: to transform the ecological site into a tourist attraction, making it the “Brazilian Cancun.”
“Our country deserves a Cancun, and we can, and we are working on this in the Angra region. It just will depend on a presidential decree,” explained the president.
Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that reducing the Conservation Units by provisional measure was unconstitutional.
“The Tamoios Ecological Station doesn’t preserve anything, and since it is a rich area, there is the potential to bring in billions of (reads) each year through tourism. This is being stopped because of a lack of an objective vision,” the president said.
The president owns a house in the Mambucaba Vila Histórica, wherein 2018, in an interview with Folha, he shared his plans to transform the area into a tourist haven.
“In the hands of the Spanish, this could become Cancun,” the president says.
As a federal deputy, he was fined R$10,000 for fishing in the protected ecological area.
The Rio de Janeiro IBAMA Superintendent annulled the fine on December 20, 2018, when Michel Temer was still the president.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon