Brazil & Southern Cone - January 2016 (ISSN 1741-4431)

The federal police on 13 January presented formal charges for environmental crimes against the mining firms Samarco and Vale following  the November 2015 dam burst in Minas Gerais state.

Individual executives, including the president of Samarco, Ricardo Vescovi, and six others will also face charges. Vogbr, a consultancy firm contracted by Samarco to audit the dam’s safety, has also been indicted. Fourteen people were killed in the disaster, which caused a huge wave of toxic mud to flow down an 800km stretch of the Doce River, destroying much of the plant and animal life along the river. The incident was described by one cabinet minister as Brazil’s worst-ever environmental disaster. The charges were based on a law which criminalizes activities causing pollution that risks damage to human health, the death of animals, or the significant destruction of flora.

The police indicated that further charges may follow in the course of the investigation. As the Doce River bed is considered a public good belonging to the Brazilian state, the federal police are involved. Investigations into the deaths of those near the dam at the time of its collapse are being carried out by the civil police of Minas Gerais.

Samarco responded to the news in a note published in the Brazilian media, stating that “it did not agree with the charges against its executives because until now there has been no technical study to determine the cause of the accident”. Vale also defended itself, arguing there was no definitive proof showing why the dam had collapsed. “The assumptions of the federal police on the theoretical responsibility of Vale are based on assumptions that have no actual causal link to the accident, as will be demonstrated in a technical and timely manner by Vale”, the company stated.

Vogbr, the consultancy firm, did not respond to requests for comments. In December, it was revealed that as well as being contracted to provide security assessments for the dam, the company was also hired to design an extension for the dam, a dual role prohibited by local legislation.

Forest Fires rise by over a quarter in 2015

According to the Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), the number of forest fires in Brazil increased by 27.5% in 2015 over the previous year.

Over 235,000 fires were detected by the agency in 2015, a number surpassed only by the 249,000 recorded in 2010. Among the worse affected states were Pará, Mato Grosso and Maranhão. Researchers blame the vast majority of the fires on human activity, aggravated by a dry climate, a lack of effective, real-time monitoring, and poor oversight. After years in decline, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rose in 2015, reaching a seven-year high.

According to Alberto Setzer, the coordinator of INPE’s monitoring programme, the rising price of meat has played a part in driving up the number of fires to create grazing land for cattle. “This is not about nature taking its course”, Setzer said. “This was caused by human action, whether deliberately or not”. In Matopiba, an area formed by parts of the states of Maranhão, Tocantins, Piauí and Bahia, forest fires were up 37.9%. The area produces large amounts of soya, corn, and cotton.

One of the worst fires in 2015 took place in the Chapada Diamantina area of the state of Bahia. Around 51,000 hectares (ha) of land was devastated as the fire burned for 64 days. Without sufficient numbers of firefighters, the Bahia state government requested help from the armed forces and local volunteers. Elsewhere, in the state of Maranhão, half of the indigenous Arariboia territory burned for two months. The environmental NGO Greenpeace claimed the fire was the work of loggers retaliating against the indigenous community.

• On 12 January, Samarco delivered, a day late, its emergency plan to deal with possible breaks at the other two dams at the site of the November accident which were damaged in the incident. Employees at the Fundão barrier went back to work in the New Year, tasked with clean-up operations. However, workers could be laid-off for three months from 25 January, while the investigation into the causes of the accident continues.

• Though recent statistics have disappointed, agriculture remains one of the Brazilian economy’s more successful sectors. With many commodity prices still low, the cost of beef continues to rise, meaning there is little economic incentive for the government to do more to control forest fires in 2016.