Timber trafficking still thrives in Brazil’s Western Pará

In 2020, the Federal Police in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas launched an operation to seize more than 40,000 trunks of native trees which had been illegally felled and were being transported along the Mamuru River. 

Consisting of more than 200,000 cubic meters of timber, and with an estimated value of USD 24.5 million at the time, it was the largest confiscation of illegal timber in Brazil’s history.

Months later, Brazil’s then-Environment Minister Ricardo Salles visited the area of the operation and claimed the police’s action had been incorrect, “proving” the legal origin of just two of the more than 40,000 smuggled trunks in question.

Between 2019 and 2021, Mr. Salles served as environment minister for the far-right Jair Bolsonaro government and was favored by the former head of state for his extremely lax environmental policies. 

During the start of the Covid pandemic, he claimed during a cabinet meeting — of which footage was later made public in connection with an unrelated matter — that the government should “run the cattle herd” through rules and regulations in the environment and other areas, taking advantage of the press’s focus on the pandemic to loosen as many rules as possible.

In the case of the Mamuru River, Mr. Salles met with the loggers involved in the case and promised them a speedy resolution. The Federal Police chief in Amazonas state was removed from his post and in May 2021, the timber was cleared to...