Brazil under President Jair Bolsonaro has obstructed the system for imposing environmental fines, one of the main instruments for punishing those who illegally cut down the Amazon rainforest, according to government documents and insiders.
Under a presidential decree issued by Bolsonaro shortly after assuming office, those individuals and companies accused of environmental crimes after October 2019 are entitled to "reconciliation hearings" that can reduce or cancel penalties.
A backlog of more than 17,000 fines has piled up, going uncollected as they await hearings, according to internal documents and confirmed by two sources at the main federal environmental agencies Ibama and ICMBio, both of whom requested anonymity as the information is not publicly available.