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outdoorsAlso in this section: Police operation in the Amazon exposes corruption of environmental agencies by Greenpeace International On June 2 the Brazilian Federal Police carried out today a full-size operation in Mato Grosso which resulted in the dismantling of a gang responsible for defrauding logging authorizations in the state for 14 years. The Brazilian Justice Ministry issued warrants of arrest for 89 people --- including IBAMA (the Brazilian Environmental Agency) agents and loggers, who are responsible for 1.9 million cubic meters of timber illegally exploited in the Amazon. This volume could be loaded into 76,000 trucks, which would cover the distance between Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. During the investigations, 283 forest management plans were suspended and another 36 were canceled for indefinitely. Also, 431 "ghost logging companies" were exposed all over the Mato Grosso state. The operation also exposed falsification on ATPFs (Authorization of Forest Products Transport), the "laundry" of authorizations in order to be used again and field inspection frauds. This operation, involving 450 Federal Police agents and 31 IBAMA agents, is the largest ever carried out by the Federal Police in the Brazilian Amazon. "It is important to stress that the arrests of loggers and IBAMA agents today in Mato Grosso are not isolated cases. The Federal Police and IBAMA should extend this kind of investigation for other Amazon states, such as Para and Rondonia, where deforestation and illegal logging are rampant," said Paulo Adario, Greenpeace Amazon Campaign coordinator. The approval of the Proposed Law 4776/05, which regulates management concessions of forested public lands, is potentially an important step to secure control of the Amazon’s wealth by the federal government. However, the new law will only succeed if the environmental agencies responsible for monitoring and control, such as IBAMA, are depurate of those involved in fraud and corruption. "The real implementation will only be possible with law enforcement and governance in the Amazon. Today's operation in Mato Grosso shows the real risks involving forest concessions," said Adario. "Also, the federal agencies such as IBAMA, the Federal Police and INCRA (the National Institute of Colonization and Land Reform) need to be strengthened and prepared to fight illegal logging, land grabbing, deforestation and crimes against human rights."
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