Brazil’s Congress has passed a bill prohibiting environmental agencies from using satellite images to restrict the commercial use of illegally deforested lands. Instead, areas suspected of illegal deforestation will have to be confirmed by authorities on the ground.
Supporters say satellite-only enforcement infringes upon farmers’ right to a fair defense. Its critics, which include the environment ministry, warn the measure will weaken environmental protection and create unsafe conditions for IBAMA, Brazil’s federal environmental police.
The bill, passed May 20, could jeopardize around 70% of IBAMA’s actions in the Brazilian Amazon, Jair Schmitt, director of environmental protection with IBAMA, told Agência Pública.
IBAMA currently uses satellite imagery to detect illegal deforestation and issue land-use restrictions, which prohibit farmers from selling products from illegally deforested land. DETER, the satellite monitoring system run by Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, processes georeferenced forest cover imagery every 15 days to identify deforestation hotspots and send alerts to IBAMA, which can immediately block the area from commercial activity.
If the bill is signed into law, officials would need to send inspectors to the site in person to take immediate action. On the ground enforcement is already a significant challenge. Brazil has about 1,250 agents to patrol a forest roughly the size of Western Europe.
IBAMA officials warn banning satellite technology makes enforcement in such remote areas significantly slower and more expensive. “It’s like wanting to put down our cellphones and go back to sending messages by fax,” Schmitt told Mongabay journalist Fernanda Wenzel.
Between January and September 2025, IBAMA issued 3,520 land blocks for deforestation; 60% of them were in the Brazilian Amazon.
The bill’s creator, congressman Lucio Mosquini, argues the bill gives farmers time to respond to an alert with further clarifications before a remote block on their land.
“We must guarantee every Brazilian citizen the right to defense and due process,” Mosquini said in Congress. “We cannot override legal procedures in the name of an environmentalist ideology.”
Congresswoman Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environment minister, said the bill will endanger environmental police agents. In March 2025, five agents were ambushed by a group of 30 people during an illegal logging operation in the Tenharim Marmelos Indigenous territory in Amazonas state. An environmental police vehicle was set on fire, and the agents hid in the forest to escape gunfire.
“It is unjust to expose [inspectors] to face-to-face operations where they are met with gunfire from people who invade and illegally seize public and Indigenous lands,” Silva said before the vote in Congress. “It’s equivalent to saying that a traffic fine identified by a radar is only valid if it is issued face-to-face between a federal highway police officer and the offender.”
The bill will now be sent to the Senate for consideration.
Banner image: Environmental police operation against illegal deforestation in Espigão do Oeste, Rondônia in the Brazilian Amazon. Image courtesy of Fernando Augusto/Ibama.
Credits
