Unmasking the impunity of illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: A call for enforcement and accountability
Open accessAbstract
Amazon deforestation has been growing since 2012 and more recently under record rates. In fact, a new wave of rainforest destruction is on, challenging environmental agencies and policymakers. Political negligence has boosted deforestation in the Amazon, when coupled with deforestation drives that we already know about, as well as exempting environmental offenders and clearing the way to major infrastructure projects, in addition to weakening environmental agencies and command and control policies. In this letter, we share perspectives on the dynamics of deforestation alerts in the Brazilian Amazon and the action of public enforcement agencies, to draw attention to the urgency of supporting these entities for resuming the fight against deforestation. Our results reveal the few enforcement actions on deforestation alerts (1.3%) by the major environmental agency from the federal government. When compared with state government agencies, our in-depth case study showed a higher number of enforcement actions, promoting accountability for illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. It is evident that budget cuts for federal environmental agencies and changes in enforcement procedures have jeopardized actions to combat illegal deforestation. Our analysis calls for federal agencies to resume their powers, and for state agencies to recognize their role in environmental reinforcement and assigning liability. In the end, we list five key factors for reestablishing enforcement actions by public agencies for fighting deforestation and improving dissuasive effects.
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In public lands, the Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) has helped address illegalities since 2004.
“In public lands, the Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) has helped address illegalities since 2004, but its implementation fluctuates and was notoriously absent during the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022), reinforcing an entrenched culture of impunity in the region (Carrero et al., 2020;Coelho-Junior et al., 2022).”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Coelho-Junior et al., 2022
Section 1, “Political negligence boosts Amazon deforestation” (page unavailable), says PPCDAm strengthened environmental enforcement and contributed to a reduction in deforestation, and that the government shut it down in 2019. It does not specify that PPCDAm addressed illegalities on public lands or establish the claimed 2004 start date. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredLaw enforcement in conservation areas is scant, and smallholders that embrace cattle openly ranch inside nature reserves and even Indigenous territories.
“Meanwhile, law enforcement in conservation areas is scant, and the smallholders that embrace cattle openly ranch inside nature reserves and even Indigenous territories (Coelho-Junior et al., 2022;Candino et al., 2024).”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Coelho-Junior et al., 2022
Section 3 reports that only 1.3% of Brazilian Amazon deforestation alerts matched federal infraction notices or embargoes, supporting the point that enforcement is scant. It does not establish that enforcement is specifically scant in conservation areas or that cattle-raising smallholders ranch inside nature reserves or Indigenous territories. The cited passages have no page numbers. (LLM, conf=0.87)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPPCDAm's implementation fluctuates and was notoriously absent during the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022), reinforcing an entrenched culture of impunity in the region.
“In public lands, the Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) has helped address illegalities since 2004, but its implementation fluctuates and was notoriously absent during the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022), reinforcing an entrenched culture of impunity in the region (Carrero et al., 2020;Coelho-Junior et al., 2022).”
From Beyond the “supply chain” framing: Cattle ranching as a vanishing mediator of deforestation and dispossession in the Brazilian and Colombian Amazon (2026) · cites this paper as Coelho-Junior et al., 2022
Section 1, “Political negligence boosts Amazon deforestation” (page unavailable), says PPCDAm strengthened enforcement and that the government shut it down in 2019. It links weakened enforcement to fewer infraction notices, consistent with the claim about impunity. The paper does not establish PPCDAm’s status throughout the entire 2019–2022 administration or document fluctuations in its implementation beyond the earlier success and 2019 shutdown. (LLM, conf=0.83)
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Research works printed but not linked: 12
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Bastos Lima, M. G., & López, J. (2026) · World Development · doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2026.107532
- Authors
- Coelho-Junior, M. G., Valdiones, A. P., Shimbo, J. Z., Silgueiro, V., Rosa, M., Marques, C. D. L., Oliveira, M., Araújo, S., & Azevedo, T.
- Affiliations
- Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia (BR)
- MapBiomas (BR)
- Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (BR)
- Venue
- Environmental Research Letters
- Publisher
- IOP Publishing
- Published
- 2022-03-09
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 041001
- ISSN
- 1748-9326 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4210641175
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 2
- FWCI
- 3.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Environmental Research Letters (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Finance Code 001)
- MapBiomas network and its funders
- The Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships (2017-0082)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Regulation and Compliance Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Nature and Landscape Conservation › Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses
- Keywords
- illegal deforestation, Brazilian Amazon, environmental law enforcement, impunity, accountability, environmental agency, budget cuts, infrastructure projects, command-and-control policy, political neglect
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