Army brought in to help illegal Amazon timber crackdown

An illegal logging camp in the Amazon © Greenpeace/Daniel Beltra

Stung by the recent rise in deforestation rates in the Amazon, the Brazilian government is cracking down on the illegal loggers who are ripping up the rainforest; their year-long initiative - known as Operation Fire Belt - is targeting areas where deforestation has been most acute.

Hundreds of police and environmental officials are being backed up by army troops to enforce national forest laws which are being flouted by loggers and landowners. Around 300 agents have been sent to just one town, Tailandia, to inspect the local sawmills; of around 100 mills operating there, only 21 have the correct licences.

If sending the army in seems heavy-handed, bear in mind what happened in Tailandia last week when rioting sawmill workers chased inspectors from Brazils' environment protection agency out of town. The International Herald Tribune reports that sawmill owners threatened to fire anyone who talked to the inspectors, provoking the hostile reaction.

So hence the military back-up and there's no doubt these inspections need to be carried out. Before they were forced to flee from the angry mob, the team checked 10 mills and seized 13,000m3 of illegal timber (enough to fill 640 trucks) in the process.

Just how far the government can enforce this crackdown remains to be seen, but campaigners in our Brazilian office are keeping up the pressure, describing this as a chance for the administration to show its commitment to protecting the rainforest and enforcing its own laws. The Brazilian media is also on their backs with inch after column inch devoted to coverage of the operation, and Amazon deforestation has been constantly hitting the headlines for over a month.