Map of forest protected areas and Forest Stewardship Council endorsed sites. From WCMC, 1996
In January 2002, IBAMA announced plans to restructure and modernize, after receiving funds from the Brazilian government. The plan includes creating and filling 2,650 positions for environmental specialists. The president of IBAMA, Hamilton Casara, hopes the reorganization of IBAMA will resolve the problem of too few staff members in its 450 offices countrywide, especially in the Amazon, the Northeast, and the Central Western part of Brazil. He has pledged to increase the amount of Brazilian land in protected areas, from 5% to 10% within the next year. The new protected areas will contain all of Brazil’s ecosystems.
Since the inception of IBAMA in 1989, it has created 22 new protected areas totaling 3 million hectares. During the same period, approximately 3000 IBAMA workers have retired. Because of funding shortages, the vacant positions were not filled and Brazil’s protected areas are severely understaffed. According to Casara, there are 155 technicians currently on staff, while it is estimated that 650 is the minimum number needed to sufficiently monitor the protected areas of Brazil. Thirty-five percent of protected areas IUCN categories I and II and thirty- four percent of those that are categories III to VI are managed only by a director without additional staff, such as administrators, tourist guides, or park guards. In most parts of Brazil, one guard monitors 6,000 squared kilometers of protected area on average and in the Amazon the situation is even worse, with one guard for every 11,000 squared kilometers.
IBAMA’s goal is to hire 2000 environmental analysts in positions such as inspectors, officers, managers, and guards for Brazilian protected areas. Casara also hopes to place 300 people in the Ministry of the Environment and 350 people in the National Water Agency. He wants to put a management office in each capital, and more offices in those states where the environment is most stressed. Finally, he hopes that increasing the size and capacity of the IBAMA staff will modernize Brazil’s protected areas and improve the services IBAMA provides to Brazilian society.
ParksWatch: January 2002