The geographer and professor of the Pará State University (UEPA) Aiala Couto is in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, participating in the 27th edition of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 27. At the event, Aiala presents the result of the research "Cartography of violence in the Amazon", where he points out that environmental crimes are related to organized crimes in the region, "especially with an emphasis on organized crime factions that have connected to illegal logging, smuggling and also the issue of mining," he explains.

"From 2019 to 2021 I coordinated and developed the research, in a project in partnership with the Brazilian Public Security Forum in which I am also a researcher and which was funded by the Climate And Society Institute (ICS). We seek to understand the relationship between environmental crimes in the Amazon and organized crime, since there are connections between various illicit activities that in recent years, due to the institutional weakness of the Brazilian government in relation to environmental policies, have gained space and political and economic strength, becoming one of the greatest threats today for the forest and its peoples. In other words, there is, in this sense, a need to incorporate the environmental agenda to a public security agenda that guarantees the resolution of these problems", he evaluates.

According to him, this relationship makes illicit activities stronger in the Amazon. According to the researcher, another aspect that drew attention in the pattern of these crimes is that it was found the presence of factions near indigenous or quilombola territories, in states like Pará, Amazonas, Rondônia, and Acre. For the researcher, only with study and discussion it is possible to implement public policies to confront the problem. "Debating and publishing the material resulting from an unprecedented research becomes relevant, especially because environmental activism realizes how complex the environmental issue in the Amazon has become. Before, we used to talk about loggers, land grabbers, miners etc. Today we talk about drug traffickers and criminal factions in indigenous, quilombola, and riverine territories, and more than that, criminals financing deforestation and the invasion of indigenous lands to expand illegal mining activities. In these terms, we realize that these are problems that will not be solved without a specific agenda for the Amazon where the states of the region must commit to work together with the Union in the search for an economic and environmentally sustainable policy", he highlights.

We understand that there is a criminal relationship involving illegal deforestation, the illegal fires and this connection with other crimes, and we can say that it is a type of violence that manifests itself in the region and that somehow contributes to climate insecurity and environmental injustice" - Aiala Couto

Great effort must be made - During COP 27, Aiala will deliver the study to the Amazon governors and should also pass it on to representatives of the future federal government team, since president-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will also be at the event next week. "We believe that a great effort must be made and that without political will we won’t be able to solve these problems. Thus, the idea is that the final report and the results of the research released here at the COP 27 be explored by activists, organized civil society, politicians, reflecting as a sort of call to the new government and that from then on we can have a Ministry of the Amazon Peoples and a serious environmental agenda. Finally, perhaps it is important that we resume the true function of agencies that have been so weakened in recent years, such as Incra, Funai and Ibama", he highlights.

"We understand that there is a criminal relationship involving illegal deforestation, the illegal fires and this connection with other crimes, and we can say that it is a type of violence that manifests itself in the region and that somehow contributes to climate insecurity and environmental injustice. And that is why it is so important to highlight the role that forest people play in maintaining the forest and fighting global warming," the professor points out.

Next steps - According to the geographer, this look seeking to understand the relationship between illicit activities is a recent approach, because usually environmental crime and organized crime are analyzed separately. "We will already start another research this year about the lethal violence in the Legal Amazon, highlighting the need to qualify several types of violence that affect the people of the forest, emphasizing the conflicts related to indigenous people, quilombolas, riverines, and peasants", he informs. This study, according to the professor, will be fundamental to be able to base the construction of public policies for the region to combat environmental and organized crimes.

Forest peoples play a fundamental role in the protection of nature

For Aiala Couto, it will be important to develop mechanisms that ensure greater presence and safety of traditional peoples in the Amazon. "It is important to point out that the forest peoples play a fundamental role in the protection of nature, that is, they are kind of guardians and guarantee a kind of climatic safety. When we have the presence of predatory activities such as illegal deforestation, we also have the invasion of indigenous lands and quilombola territories, people defined as traditional populations. This fact has led to the death and threatening of leaders of these ethnic groups and even government agents committed to the environmental issue. In other words, there is, therefore, a dynamic of violence that has been manifesting itself in an intense way in the states of Pará, Maranhão, and Mato Grosso. Finally, I can say that it is only possible to talk about climate security if we have the guarantee of protection and defense of these territories that are being taken over by outsiders", he argues.

Professor Aiala Couto also wrote previously about the geography of violence in the Amazon in an article published in Liberal Amazon. Read it here.