The real perpetrators of environmental crimes in Brazil

One year after flopping at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, President Jair Bolsonaro decided to skip the 2020 edition of the notorious gathering of big business, political leaders, and key members of academia. Without Mr. Bolsonaro in attendance, Economy Minister Paulo Guedes is Brazil’s most-senior official at the event, being entrusted with the mission of selling an image of environmental respect, institutional normalcy, and readiness for investments.

Speaking at a panel about the government’s efforts to prevent Amazon deforestation—or lack thereof—Mr. Guedes said “poverty” is the environment’s worst enemy.

“People destroy the environment because they need to eat. [Poor people] have all the concerns that are no longer the concerns of those who have already destroyed their forests, who have already fought their ethnic minorities, those things … It is a very complex problem, there is no simple solution.”

We at The Brazilian Report went ahead to fact-check Mr. Guedes’ information, looking at the database of fines of Brazil’s environmental protection agency Ibama. We examined the top 10 transgressors since...