The number of federal environmental inspectors in Brazil has dropped dramatically over the last 15 years. In 2009, the country had around 1,800 environmental agents. By 2021, only 630 remained, a loss of over 65% in the workforce responsible for investigating, inspecting, and penalizing environmental crimes. As of June 2025, the number has slightly improved to 771 agents, but it remains far below the operational minimum needed to safeguard Brazil’s ecosystems.
The data, obtained by BdF through Brazil’s Access to Information Law, points to a collapse in enforcement capacities that intensified starting in 2019. The shrinking staff is mirrored by a 55% drop in environmental violation notices, from 19,645 in 2010 to just 8,391 in 2021, despite growing alerts over deforestation, fires, and illegal mining.
Tânia Maria de Souza, president of Brazil’s National Association of Environmental Specialists (Ascema Nacional), warns the weakening of oversight structures has had lasting consequences.
“A tree takes 20 or 30 years to mature. But how long does it take to cut one down? Destruction is easy. Recovery is a slow process,” she said. “Rebuilding oversight bodies, restoring funding, reopening investigations—it all takes time.”
Workers demand hiring before COP30 in Brazil
This Wednesday (3), Ascema submitted an open letter in Brasília alongside groups of recently approved civil service candidates for Brazil’s environmental agencies: Ibama (the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute), and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA).
The letter calls for the immediate appointment of all successful candidates ahead of the 30th UN Climate Conference (COP30), scheduled for November 2025 in Belém, capital of Pará state in the Brazilian Amazon.
The current staffing is described as “incompatible with the scale of MMA’s legal responsibilities.” The letter urges the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI), the Ministry of Planning, and the Office of the President to act.
“We now have less than half the staff we had a decade ago,” Souza told BdF. “The government shows political will to rebuild, but reconstruction requires people, technical teams, and territorial presence, not just seminars and meetings.”
Ascema reports a 50.9% staffing shortfall for environmental analysts at Ibama and 82.6% for administrative analysts. ICMBio operates with only 1,506 active workers, or 55% of its legally required structure.
Mass retirements loom: more than 50% of federal inspectors are already eligible to retire. “Many are staying out of commitment to the environmental cause,” Souza said, warning that the exodus could worsen suddenly.
Oversight dismantled under Bolsonaro
Although the staffing crisis spans multiple administrations, it worsened under far-right president Jair Bolsonaro (2019–2022), marked by budget freezes, public sector hiring bans, and harassment of public servants. Bolsonaro’s government also attempted to militarize environmental agencies.
Souza recalls ‘institutional harassment’ faced by civil servants and calls Bolsonaro’s tenure the peak of a long process of structural dismantling. She cites legislative threats such as the so-called “Devastation Bill” (PL da Devastação), which weakened environmental licensing procedures.
The infamous phrase “let the herd through” (passar a boiada) used by Bolsonaro’s Environment Minister Ricardo Salles, became a symbol of the administration’s deregulatory agenda. In an April 2020 cabinet meeting, Salles urged officials to exploit the Covid-19 crisis to push through deregulatory measures. This policy translated into fewer inspections and a sharp retreat of state presence in critical areas like the Legal Amazon.
Environmental crimes surge as state retreats
As enforcement declined, environmental crimes soared. According to MapBiomas, over 90% of deforestation in Brazil is illegal. Deforested area increased 56% under Bolsonaro compared to the previous four years.
The same data reveals that 58% of Brazil’s total mined surface since 1500 was exploited between 2015 and 2024. Two-thirds of that expansion occurred in the Amazon and was driven by illegal gold mining, which has doubled in the past decade.
Environment Minister Marina Silva has publicly acknowledged the magnitude of the institutional collapse. “We faced four years of destruction. You don’t rebuild a country overnight,” she said in an April 2024 interview with O Globo. “We are hiring, rebuilding systems, and redesigning public policy, but the damage was brutal.”
Souza adds that the decline in salaries has further eroded the profession. “It used to be one of the ten best-paid careers in government. Now it ranks around 60th,” she said.
This has turned environmental service into a “transitional career,” she added, with staff leaving for better-paid sectors. This constant turnover undermines institutional memory and weakens policy continuity.
The cumulative effects—understaffing, turnover, and lack of recruitment—create a fragile structure unable to meet Brazil’s escalating environmental challenges. “The first thing I can say is it affects our physical and mental health,” Souza said. “We’re all exhausted.”
What would a robust environmental state look like?
Asked to imagine a functional environmental governance model, Souza said: “The dream is to see strong, respected agencies, with valued staff and enough people to cover the entire national territory.”
That dream includes robust teams across enforcement, licensing, conservation, and research with institutional autonomy and no political interference or harassment. It also demands permanent budgets, recurring civil service exams, and the capacity to train personnel for climate and conservation challenges. “We need permanent, continuous structures, not ones that depend on who’s in power,” she said.
Souza believes this future is still possible, but only with political will, long-term planning, and urgent rebuilding of Brazil’s state capacity.
Government has not yet responded
BdF contacted both the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA) and the Ministry of Management and Innovation (MGI) to ask about delays in staff appointments and structural reform. No response was received as of the time of publication. The space remains open.
