All manuscripts, articles and scientific compilations produced by the Chico Mendes Conservation Institute (ICMBio), an environmental research organization linked to the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, must be evaluated by the director before being sent to scientific publications, specialized editions, annals of events and the like.
The decision will take effect from April 1, in compliance with the ordinance 151 published in the official gazette on March 10.
The current director of Biodiversity Research, Evaluation and Monitoring at ICMBio – who will be responsible for evaluating the texts – is Marcos Aurélio Venâncio, lieutenant colonel of the São Paulo state military police reserve.
Venâncio has a degree in law and public management and has experience in training public agents for environmental enforcement.
Created in 2007, the ICMBio is a public body that investigates biodiversity, the environment and socio-environmental issues. The Institute manages 334 environmental conservation units distributed throughout the Brazilian territory.
At ICMBio there are also 14 research centers that generate knowledge about birds, primates, Amazonian biodiversity, carnivorous and aquatic mammals, traditional peoples and other topics.
One of them is the Tamar Center, recognized around the world for its work in the conservation of sea turtles. Last year This center alone generated eight articles in international scientific journals, one participation in an international event, one book chapter, one graduate thesis, one master’s thesis, and one doctoral thesis. Before the pandemic, in 2019, the scientific productions of the center were almost 30.
The academic community and specialists in environmental and scientific policy are alarmed by this decision, which, they affirm, may mean an attempt to censor Brazilian scientific production.
“In addition to the impact on the production and projection of the ICMBio at the national and international level, this decision sets a dangerous precedent for all of us, Brazilian researchers from all areas, who have a duty to publish data of public interest.”
Luciana Barbosa, Federal University of Paraíba, coordinator of the Working Group on the Environment of the Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science.
The decision, however, is not a surprise to ICMBio workers. According to biologist Taciana Stec, who is part of Politica por Inteiro, a movement specialized in monitoring environmental laws, this ordinance is in line with the new code of ethics for ICMBio workers, which has been in force since May 2020, and that, among other things, it establishes that the Institute’s staff cannot “speak on behalf of the Institution if it is not authorized by the competent authority.”
For Suely Araújo, senior specialist in public policy at the Climate Observatory, it is “an authoritarian decision, without purpose. It is an unnecessary control, without foundation, that only demotivates the team ”. Between 2016 and 2018, Araújo chaired the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, an entity that, like ICMBio, depends on the Ministry of the Environment.
“The law that supervises the conduct of federal public servants already provides sanctions such as judicial processes and even the dismissal of public servants who disclose confidential data, a category that does not apply to the management plans of the conservation units and data obtained in investigations. scientific, for example ”, explained Araújo to SciDev.Net by phone.
However, the restriction imposed on ICMBio would not be the only official attempt to limit scientific freedom in Brazil, although it is apparently the first to be made public.
The president of the SBPC, Ildeu de Castro Moreira, specified to SciDev.Net that “it is not an isolated case.”
“There are already several situations that restrict freedom of expression and academic freedom, as well as individual freedom, in which professors and researchers are unduly accused, and also ordinances with institutional norms that threaten those freedoms,” he said.
“The SPBC and other scientific entities have ruled on these individual cases; We will act together with the Supreme Federal Court to ensure that the Brazilian Constitution is respected ”, stressed Castro Moreira.
The SBPC published a open letter expressing concern about the consequences of the measure.
For the researcher Luciana Barbosa, professor at the Department of Plant Science and Environmental Sciences of the Federal University of Paraíba and coordinator of the SBPC Environmental Working Group, the decision puts at risk the right to information and transparency of scientific research and it can cause serious damage to Brazilian science.
“Paragraph 9 of Article 5 of the Federal Constitution guarantees freedom of expression also for intellectual activity ”, he reminded SciDev.Net by Whatsapp.
“In addition to the impact on the production and projection of the ICMBio at the national and international level, this decision sets a dangerous precedent for all of us, Brazilian researchers from all areas, who have a duty to publish data of public interest,” he added.
In a note from ICMBio’s communication advisory, emailed to the requirements of an interview from SciDev.Net, it is noted that “there is no censorship. Any publication that is intended to be made on behalf of the organization will continue to be previously analyzed, however, now, delegated to the director of the area and not by the president of the organization.
Dangerous background
At the beginning of this month, the presidency of the Institute for Applied Economic Research circulated a internal document in which it indicated that the disclosure of research developed by the institute must have the prior approval of the management.
And a few days ago, the site The Intercept Brasil revealed a series of threats on social media against Lucas Ferrante, a researcher at the National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA).
Ferrante published articles in renowned magazines such as Science and Nature evaluating the dismantling of environmental policies by the current Brazilian government, and predicted the collapse caused by the pandemic in Manaus, capital of Amazonas.
In 2019, the monitoring data of the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) showed an increase in Amazon deforestation of 88 percent compared to the period from June 2018 to 2019.
Bolsonaro and members of his government tried to publicly discredit the data. In a press conference, Bolsonaro said that “the data are liars. We are going to call the president of INPE here to talk about it and put an end to the issue ”, achieving an echo also in the foreign press.
By publicly criticizing his claims, the then president of the Institute, Ricardo Galvão, was separated from the position, which generated an international commotion. In 2021, Galvão He received the Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
“In the 14 ICMBio research centers there are institutions that predate the Institute itself. To deconstruct this is to deconstruct a long history of research in the environmental area in Brazil, ”lamented Suely Araújo.
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