People walk past a mural that reads in Portuguese: “Every vote counts” in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 25 October 2022. In a last-minute effort to win reelection on Sunday, 30 October, Marcos Rocha, the governor of Rondonia, in the Brazilian Amazon and a staunch ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, revoked the protection of a large swath of the Amazon forest. Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Photo
People walk past a mural that reads in Portuguese: “Every vote counts” in Sao Paulo, Brazil, 25 October 2022. In a last-minute effort to win reelection on Sunday, 30 October, Marcos Rocha, the governor of Rondônia, in the Brazilian Amazon and a staunch ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, revoked the protection of a large swath of the Amazon forest. Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Photo

By Fabiano Maisonnave
29 October 2022

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – In an effort to get more votes and win reelection, the governor of the Brazilian state of Rondônia on Friday revoked the protection of a large swath of Amazon forest.

Marcos Rocha, a staunch ally of far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, signed a decree that abolished the Soldado da Borracha Ecological Station, which is 1,790 square kilometers (691 square miles).

In the decree, Rocha stated that the goal was to legalize about 760 land grabbers, from illegal loggers to cattle ranchers, inside the preserved area. By law, a designated ecological station forbids economic activity and human occupation.

The measure, likely to be challenged in court, opens the door for increased deforestation in the area, which is about twice the size of New York City. It also underscores that, while many people internationally and in Brazil want to protect the Amazon, many Amazon dwellers are in favor of development and believe it’s for them to decide.

“Even if it is revoked, this measure will have consequences,” Indigenous leader Txai Suruí told The Associated Press in a phone interview. “It will make it more difficult to expel the invaders. They will destroy what’s left.”

Suruí added that the race has become a competition for whoever is closer to Bolsonaro.

Satellite view of deforestation in Rondônia state, Brazil, 1975-2001. Data gathered by several satellites in the Landsat series of spacecraft shows enormous tracts of forest disappearing in Rondonia, Brazil from 1975 through 2001. The human phenomenon of deforestation starts, especially in the dense tropical forests of Brazil, when systematic cutting of a road opens new territory to potential deforestation by penetrating into new areas. Clearing of vegetation along the sides of those roads then tends to fan out to create a pattern akin to a fish skeleton. As new paths appear in the woods, more areas become vulnerable. Finally, the spaces between the “skeletal bones” fall to defoliation. Photo: Joycelyn Thomson / Horace Mitchell / Darrel Williams / NASA / GSFC
Satellite view of deforestation in Rondônia state, Brazil, 1975-2001. Data gathered by several satellites in the Landsat series of spacecraft shows enormous tracts of forest disappearing in Rondônia, Brazil from 1975 through 2001. The human phenomenon of deforestation starts, especially in the dense tropical forests of Brazil, when systematic cutting of a road opens new territory to potential deforestation by penetrating into new areas. Clearing of vegetation along the sides of those roads then tends to fan out to create a pattern akin to a fish skeleton. As new paths appear in the woods, more areas become vulnerable. Finally, the spaces between the “skeletal bones” fall to defoliation. Photo: Joycelyn Thomson / Horace Mitchell / Darrel Williams / NASA / GSFC

In June, a police investigation inside the protected area identified a criminal organization that alone has deforested 96 square kilometers (37 square miles). About 39% of the area has been deforested, according to the latest state figures.

Rocha, a military police officer, is in a tight race against Sen. Marcos Rogério, another close Bolsonaro’s ally. In Congress, the lawmaker earned the nickname “pitbull” for his fierce defense of Bolsonaro during an inquiry commission that investigated corruption and negligence during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rondônia state, which was developed and largely deforested by settlers of European descent in the 1970s and 1980s, is one of the most loyal strongholds of Bolsonaro, who also faces a run-off on Sunday against former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Brazilians go the poll on Sunday, the runoff for races in which no candidate garnered a majority during the first round of voting earlier this month.

In the first round, Rocha got 39% compared to 37% for Rogerio.

Amazon governor revokes forest protection in re-election bid