The government in Brazil seems to be losing its grip on the Amazon region. Due to a lack of enforcement in recent years, drug criminals have been able to run freely. The illegal economy that has emerged has become so intertwined with ‘normal’ trade that it is becoming increasingly difficult to tackle this. And all of that is less far from your bed than you think.
Large parts of the Amazon are being devastated by a complex system of drug crime and other types of organized crime that affect the environment. That it is so closely linked to organized drug crime – hence the term narco-deforestation – is less known to many people.
Why did drug criminals lay their eyes on Brazil?
Brazil has a border of more than 7000 kilometers with three major cocaine-producing countries: Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. Brazil has become an important transit hub for cocaine that eventually goes to Europe, the largest cocaine market in the world.
That the Amazon, and perhaps especially the border areas with other countries, have become a dangerous area as a result, was also apparent from the murder of a British journalist in the Javari valley a year ago. The UN report writes that this is one of the ‘highest concentrations of organized crime groups in the world’.
Crime is everywhere
Cocaine trade, gangs in prisons, it may seem far away, but it is not. Drug crime in Brazil generates a lot of illegal money, which is then often invested in the construction of large farms in the Amazon region. Huge areas of forest are cut down for this, it is an example of how drug crime indirectly leads to deforestation. That is very handy, because then they can also land there with their planes to carry out cocaine transports. This deforestation is also one of the causes of the huge wildfires that appeared in the Amazon rainforest in recent years.
Illegal drug trafficking also strengthens other criminal economies in the Amazon, including illegal land grabbing, logging, mining and wildlife trafficking. An entire infrastructure has sprung up in the Amazon that is filled with illegal money.
By making a large contribution to the economy (based on illegal activities), the criminal gangs keep Brazil in a kind of hostage. At the beginning of this year, Lula took over the presidency from Bolsonaro. He has big plans to combat deforestation.