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Cases / Space debris and re-entry · Brazil · 2019

Brazil removes space research chief after Amazon deforestation alerts

Short record: the main facts, with sources. A full case file has not been prepared.

Nature's voice · report
No measurement of the harm done to me here is on record.
Did nature suffer? Not measured.
What the record lacks: 1 none on record · 1 insufficient · 1 not measured See the gaps

Brazil removed Ricardo Galvão, head of the national space research institute INPE, on 2 August 2019, after its DETER satellite alerts showed Amazon deforestation up 88 percent in June. Under the government, action was taken on only about 2 percent of deforestation alerts, which puts the reliability of official monitoring at stake.

What?
Brazil removed the director of the national space research institute INPE on 2 August 2019, after its satellite alerts showed Amazon deforestation up 88 percent in June. Mongabay
Where?
Brazil, Amazon Mongabay
When?
June 2019 alerts; director removed on 2 August 2019 Mongabay
Who?
Gained
None on record
Lost
  • Independent deforestation monitoring — The director of the agency that issued the alerts was removed Mongabay
Harmed
  • Amazon forest — Deforestation alerts rose 88 percent in June 2019 against a year earlier Mongabay
Why?
The sources reviewed do not give a formal reason; the president publicly called the data a 'lie'. Mongabay
How?
The agency director was removed, while enforcement action followed about 2 percent of deforestation alerts. Eixos
6 of 6 questions answered from the record

What happened

The record, in order.

Brazil removed Ricardo Galvão as director of INPE on 2 August 2019, after its DETER satellite alerts showed Amazon deforestation 88 percent higher in June 2019 than a year earlier (Mongabay).

President Bolsonaro called the data a 'lie', according to Mongabay.

About 2 percent of deforestation alerts led to enforcement action under the Bolsonaro government, according to Eixos citing MapBiomas data.

Environmental infraction notices fell from 4,620 a year to 2,610 under Bolsonaro, according to a Poder360 analysis of UFMG data.

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    Lawsuits and rulings

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    What we don't know

    Undisclosed, unproven, untried: recorded as data.

    Nature

    • Not measured Harm to nature: The record holds no measurement of harm to nature.

    Record

    • Insufficient Reported but not verified: annual official PRODES deforestation figures of 10,129 square kilometres in 2019, 13,038 in 2021 (the peak), 6,288 in 2024 and 5,796 in 2025, and a fall after the government changed.
    • None on record Not stated in the sources reviewed: the formal grounds for the removal of Ricardo Galvão.

    Did the harm stop?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Who paid?

    Not stated in the sources reviewed.

    Sources

    Voices on record: — Company or project— Government and regulators— Courts✓ Press and investigations— Communities and civil society— Researchers

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