NO! Brazil's VP Notes That Country's Efforts To Fight Deforestation In 2020 Started Too Late

Wow! What an unexpected, and courageous assessment!

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil’s Vice President Hamilton Mourao said on Friday that the government started efforts to fight environmental destruction too late and that as a result soaring deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is unlikely to improve in 2020.

Deforestation in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon soared in 2019, the first year of right-wing Jair Bolsonaro’s presidency, with researchers saying his calls for economic development in the Amazon have emboldened illegal loggers and land speculators. Mourao’s remarks were in reaction to preliminary data released by government space research agency INPE on Friday that showed a further 25% increase in the destruction for the first six months of 2020, compared to the same period a year ago.

Bolsonaro deployed the military to fight Amazon deforestation and fires in May, an operation that’s been extended through November, but Mourao said that this was not early enough.

“It started late, obviously. It started in May, which will give us a better situation in relation to fires, but not for deforestation,” Mourao told reporters while leaving his office. “The operations against deforestation should have started in December last year,” he added.

EDIT

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-environment-enforcement/brazil-acted-too-late-to-halt-deforestation-this-year-vice-president-says-idUSKBN24B2PU