Amid the worst fire crisis in the Amazon in recent years, the government has not added any money to the Inpe (National Institute for Space Research) budget for monitoring fire risk and land cover and has left it susceptible to negotiations. Congress could potentially cut nearly 38% of the amount earmarked for 2020.
Monitoring is carried out by Inpe's satellite systems, which identify fires in the Amazon region and inform the location of the fire outbreaks to the enforcement authorities.
Next year, the budget will be R$ 2.01 million. Also, an additional R$ 1.21 million was included in the supplementary credit schedule subject to parliamentary approval, totaling R$ 3.22 million. The data is contained in the 2020 budget bill, presented to Congress last Friday (30).
By comparison, in 2019 the government requested and Congress authorized the same R $ 3.22 million for monitoring by Inpe's systems, but not including anything in the extra credit bill submitted to Congress.
By cutting the monitoring program budget by 2020, the executive seeks to comply with the golden rule, which prevents the government from borrowing to pay current expenses such as salaries and retirement. But at the same time, it shares with the legislature the responsibility to prevent environmental crises such as the current one, which has gained international repercussion for the way President Jair Bolsonaro (PSL) responded to criticism from European leaders.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon