Criminal networks are plundering the Amazon River basin, a Brazilian bishops’ conference official told the Vatican newspaper.
“Illegal activities include unauthorized mining and the illegal occupation of land that, after being deforested by arson, is converted to intensive corn and soy cultivation for export,” said Luis Ventura Fernández, executive secretary of the conference’s Indigenous Missionary Council. “Hunting and fishing are practiced without any control.”
The official said that “the resources allocated to the police to combat environmental crimes are scarce, and investigations very often fail to lead to convictions, creating a climate of impunity that favors criminal organizations. The political and institutional will to intervene decisively is also very often lacking.”