The head of Brazil's space research agency National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Ricardo Galvao, is set to leave his job following a public dispute with President Jair Bolsonaro over deforestation statistics, a spokesperson for the science ministry said on Friday.
President Bolsonaro said on Thursday that if a senior government scientist had betrayed his confidence regarding deforestation data, he would be fired, underlining how growing international pressure to protect the Amazon is weighing on his government.
Bolsonaro made the comments during a tense news conference in Brasilia, where he and members of his cabinet pushed back against reports of a recent spike in deforestation in the Amazon without giving their own assessment of the trend.
Burning forest is seen during "Operation Green Wave" conducted by agents of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, or Ibama, to combat illegal logging in Apui, Brazil, August 4, 2017. /VCG Photo
Preliminary data produced by INPE showed an 88 percent jump in deforestation in June in the Amazon rainforest compared to the same month a year ago. Data for July 1 to July 25, the latest available, recorded 1,864 square kilometers of deforestation, more than triple the amount in the month of July last year.
Bolsonaro responded angrily to the numbers, describing them last month as a lie, and personally attacking Galvao, who he said might be "in service to some NGO."
Galvao did not take the criticism lying down. In an interview on July 20 with national broadcaster Globo, he dismissed Bolsonaro's criticism as "bar talk" and "a joke of a 14-year-old boy that is not suitable for a president of Brazil." At the time, Galvao said he would not resign.
However, Galvao said on Friday that his position was no longer tenable as he left a meeting with the science minister, according to a recording broadcast on CBN.
"I will be dismissed," he said.
Illegal logging is found during "Operation Green Wave" in Apui, a southern region of the state of Amazonas, Brazil, July 27, 2017. /VCG Photo
A science ministry spokesperson said it was unclear if Galvao had resigned or been fired. A representative for INPE declined to comment.
Bolsonaro, a far-right, former army captain elected last year, has long been skeptical of environmental issues, and has repeatedly said the Amazon is a resource that belongs to Brazil, which Brazilians should choose how to administer.
Increasingly, though, that point of view has angered foreign governments and trade partners, who want Brazil to do more to protect what they say is a crucial global asset for fighting climate change.
Critics have been particularly alarmed by recent data from the internationally renowned INPE, showing this 88 percent rise in deforestation in June.
Both Bolsonaro and his environment minister, Ricardo Salles, said the figure was incorrect and caused Brazil great harm internationally.
The opposition leader in the lower house of Congress, Alessandro Molon, criticized Bolsonaro as authoritarian over Galvao's departure.
"He doesn't accept being contradicted, even when there are scientific facts to prove he is wrong, as in the case of the INPE space agency and Amazon deforestation data," Molon said.
On Thursday, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles said during a briefing that the preliminary data produced by the system, known as DETER, contained errors, and some of the deforestation picked up in June had actually occurred earlier, and certain areas had been counted twice.