Clearing of timbers and deforestations are occurring in all the regions of Brazil, and not only in the agricultural frontiers. This is one of the environment information collected by the Environment Supplement of the new Survey of Basic Municipal Information – MUNIC, carried out in partnership with the Environment Ministry. The fieldwork was made in 2002. It is the first environment research, including municipalities, carried out by the IBGE.

Through questionnaires answered by town halls of the 5,560 municipalities which existed in that year, IBGE discovered that two new areas of deforestations not detected yet by satellites might be appearing: in the north of Pará, in the Amazon Forest, and in the Cerrado, in the west of Bahia. The deforestations, by the way, are the main cause of atmospheric pollution in the Brazilian cities, according to their town halls, but the open-air sewage – directly related to infant mortality, was the environmental problem that more affects the life conditions of the citizens.

The pollution of rivers and small bays has been already observed in 38% of the Brazilian cities and in 77% of the cities of Rio de Janeiro, the most affected state.

The pollution of soils affects 33% of the municipalities and four among five Major Regions. In 13 among the 22 Brazilian cities with more than 500 thousand inhabitants, the health activities’ residues have already affected a greater number of municipalities than the industrial residues as its main cause.

In 2002, while 600 town halls had a specific place to receive packages of pesticides, 978 discarded such open-air disposals leaking recipients.

Floods, sliding of hillsides, droughts and erosion are the environment disasters most common in Brazil: 41% of the cities in the Country were affected by at least one of them, and 47% had losses in agriculture, livestock or fishing, due to environmental problems.

The MUNIC 2002 carried out, also, the first national survey of the Municipal Units of Environment Conservation: they were 689, scattered by 10.5 million hectares in 436 cities. Approximately one-third of the Brazilian municipalities had Environment Councils and 30% had begun the local implementation of the Agenda 21, but 68% among them had a specific environment department. In 2002, 1,121 Brazilian municipalities had degradation in legally protected areas. Also, the environment problems of two specific regions were pointed out: the hydrographic Basin of the São Francisco River and the area of influence of the highway Cuiabá – Santarém (BR 163).

Town halls show clearing of timbers and deforestations throughout all the Country

In all the regions of the Country, and not only in the agricultural frontiers and in the Deforestation Ark, the effects of the clearing of timbers and deforestations are observed. This is one of the main conclusions of the Environmental MUNIC. Answering to the questionnaires of this survey of the IBGE, town halls of all the federation units informed the occurrence of clearings of timbers and deforestations among the municipalities administered by them. Hence, although being more frequent in the North, Northeast and Central West, the clearing of timbers and deforestations are a generalized problem. Only in Amazônia Ocidental (part of Amazonas, south of Roraima and part of Acre) there were contiguous municipalities – including large extensions of land – that did not inform clearing of timbers and deforestations.

Amazônia and Bahia may have two new areas of clearings of timber detected by the MUNIC

Town halls of Amapá and north of Pará indicate the occurrence of clearing of timbers and deforestations affecting the life conditions of the local populations. With the aid of satellites, the National Institute of Spatial Surveys – INPE and the Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources Brazilian Institute – IBAMA monitor sources of heat in the ground and periodically photograph the Amazon Forest, but still have not observed these phenomena in the mentioned regions, which may indicate the arising of a new front of clearing of timbers and deforestation in Amazônia, whose magnitude is not still perceptive to the satellite sensors.

Another locality in danger is the Cerrado of the west of Bahia, where many municipal administrators point out clearing of timbers and deforestations changing the life quality and the landscape. Maybe it is being repeated in this locality the agricultural expansion, which already substituted by big soybeans plantations, a big part of the savannas already existing in Central Brazil.

The observance of new frontiers of destruction on the savannas of Bahia and in the Amazon forests may help to stop these important localities to have a new degradation, contributing to its preservation, making that in them, it may be developed sustainable economic activities.

Satellites detect non-informed clearings by town halls throughout BR 163

The comparison among the information collected by the MUNIC, and the town halls, with the information of the INPE and the IBAMA also reveals that the municipal administrators did not inform the occurrence of clearings and deforestations in regions were, it is known, they are happening in a generalized form: throughout the BR 163 (Cuiabá – Santarém), in the North of Mato Grosso and in the West of Tocantins, including areas of the Deforestation Ark (see maps 21 and 22 in the publication of the MUNIC).

It is possible that some municipal administrators connect deforestations and clearings to economic development, and therefore they don’t indicate their occurrences afraid of delaying or obstructing the covering with asphalt of the BR 163, which would not benefit wood, agriculture and mining enterprises in the region.

Clearing of timbers and deforestation are related one to another.

Among the 1009 municipalities that mentioned deforestations changing the life condition of the population, 684 (or 68%) indicated also the occurrence of clearing of timbers. The inverse approach leads to a similar condition: 72% of the 948 municipalities that also indicated the occurrence of clearing of timbers affecting the local life conditions, indicated also the occurrence of deforestations with the same effects.

One-third of the municipalities that mentioned the occurrence of deforestations and clearing of timbers made effective actions in order to stop them. This, even with only 10% of them having received, officially, from the state governments, the administration of forest resources. Indicators of similar interest were found in relation to the use of the soil. The number of municipalities that, really, administered its soil and forest resources overpassed the ones who received officially, from the State Administrations, such function.

An important datum is that 81% of the municipalities which mentioned the occurrence of clearing of timbers and deforestation have a specific environment department. Hence, the incentive of partaking responsibilities between the Federal Government, States and Municipalities, as well as the qualification of these last ones towards inspection and control can be very efficient, since the municipal administrators are nearer the environment degradation and its consequences.

Open-air sewerage is the environment factor that most affects the population

The Environment Appendix identified 1.159 municipalities with infant mortality rates above 40 deaths per one thousand life births (data from the Census 2000). In this group of municipalities, 584 indicated environment changes with consequences upon the life conditions. The most frequent change was open-air sewerage (327), followed by the occurrence of endemic disease (cholera, dengue, yellow fever and malaria) or epidemic (304) and the existence of a disease configuration (266).

Among the 1,159 municipalities with high rates of infant mortality, 1,086 are in the Northeast, 48 are in the North and 25 are in the Southeast – all these in Minas Gerais. The most mentioned cause among the 53% administrators of the 5,560 municipalities of the Country as the one that most affected the municipal environment was the sanding of water bodies. The survey revealed, also that is still small, the number of administrators which relate environment problems to life conditions. This association is more frequent in the municipalities with high rates of infant mortality.

Absence of sanitation is related to high infant mortality up to five years old

Relating the absence of suitable sanitation with infant mortality, it must be pointed out the installment of public water and sewerage system in the Brazilian housing units. Among the 10.4 million Brazilian housing units, according to the Census 2000, which did not have a suitable sewerage disposal, almost four million were in the Northeast region.

While the mortality rate of below five years old children living in suitable housing units (those with water and sewerage disposal) was 26.1 per thousand, for those who lived in unsuitable housing units, the rate reached 44.8 per thousand, reaching even 66.8 per thousand in the Northeast.

According to the National Survey of Basic Sanitation, although only 116 of the Brazilian municipalities did not have water system in 2000, slightly more than half of them (52.2%,) had sewerage disposals.

In 2000, among the 56.7 thousand below five-years old infants deaths registered in the Northeast, 6.2 thousand occurred due to infectious or parasite causes, which represents 56% of the total of deaths due to these causes in the Country.

Clearing of timbers is the main cause of air pollution in the municipalities

The air pollution is not a problem limited to the great urban centers and its most frequent cause are not the industries or the automotive vehicles, but the clearing of timbers and the unpaved roads. This is the diagnosis of the Environment Appendix of the MUNIC 2002.

The results of the study show that 1,224 municipalities (22% of the total), including the Federal District, informed the occurrence of frequent air pollution. Almost half of the Brazilian population (85 million) lived in the municipalities that mentioned the problem and 54% of them were in the Southeast.

Among the municipalities which informed the occurrence of air pollution, the more indicated causes were: clearing of timbers (64%), unpaved roads (41%), industrial activity (38%), agricultural activity – dust, pulverization of pesticides, etc. – (31%) and vehicles (26%).

The air pollution has multiple origins: 70% of the municipalities which mentioned the problem indicated two or more causes for its occurrence, being that the average remained around 2.5 reasons. Only one city (Ipojuca - PE) verified all the nine causes of atmospheric pollution.

The clearing of timbers is the most indicated cause of pollution in almost all the regions. The exception is the South, where the top of the ranking is occupied by agriculture (53% of the municipalities). Clearing of timbers remain in second place, together with the unpaved roads (43%), which also appear as the second cause in the North, Northeast and Central West of the Country. In the Southeast this position is occupied by the industrial activity (45%).

The clearing of timbers is the most significant cause in the small urbanization cities (urban population rate up to 30%) as well as in those with high urbanization (urban population rate equal or above 70%). The unpaved roads figure as the second more frequent cause among the low urbanized cities and the third among those highly urbanized.

Clearing of timbers pollute more in smaller municipalities

Clearing of timbers prevailed as the cause of atmospheric pollution among the smaller cities. They are mentioned by 61% of the municipalities with up to 20 thousand inhabitants that mentioned facing air quality degradation and by 69% of the cities that had between 20 thousand and 100 thousand inhabitants. In the first population group, the second place is occupied by unpaved roads (42%); in the second, the position remains with the industrial activity (46%).

Among the municipalities with more than 100 thousand inhabitants, clearing of timbers remain in third place in the ranking of causes (they were indicated by 62% of the municipal administrators), below the industrial activity of automotive vehicles, almost together, with 66% and 65% respectively.

The unpaved roads exhale dust, which carries also other harmful substances. According to the Annual Statistics of Transport 2001, the Brazilian highway system had more than 1.7 million Km and less than 10% of it was paved.

Northeast and Southeast have more cities with polluted air

The atmospheric pollution is a problem verified in the whole country, with regional particularities. The North and Central West regions registered the major levels of air pollution - respectively, 30% (138 cities) and 28% (127). Still, both regions have a lower number of cities than the others.

Because of this it shall not be ignored, in absolute numbers, that the air pollution affected 369 municipalities (21%) of the Northeast and 324 (19%) of the Southeast. Altogether, these municipalities represented more than half of those that, in the country, mentioned the occurrence of air pollution.

Among the cities with up to 5 thousand inhabitants, 11% mentioned facing the problem; from the group from 5.001 to 20 thousand inhabitants, the percentage remains in 20%. The percentage increases to 33% among the cities that have between 20 thousand to 100 thousand inhabitants; to 45% in the group between 100 thousand to 500 thousand inhabitants; and increases to 75% among the 33 municipalities that have more than 500 thousand inhabitants.

In this group, the town halls of eight cities– Manaus (AM), Belém (PA), Teresina (PI), Natal (RN), Recife (PE), Maceió (AL), Curitiba (PR) and Porto Alegre (RS) – informed not having significant atmospheric pollution, although at least three among them (Recife, Curitiba ande Porto Alegre) are known as municipalities which have to face the problem of air quality.

Specific legislation is the measure used against air pollution

Among the 1.224 municipalities which mentioned problems with the atmospheric pollution, 57% informed to have a specific environment legislation about air quality; 16% said they apply a environment permission of the potentially polluting activities, and 14% said that they had already canceled the license of polluting activities – same percentage that informed having ordered the temporary suspension of the polluting activities.

The highlight concerning the diminishment of air pollution was the state of Rio de Janeiro, in which more than half of the municipalities with the problem (18 or 55%) mentioned having suspended temporarily the functioning of polluting activities. The Northeast had the lowest proportions.

Water pollution affects 77% of the municipalities of Rio de Janeiro

Water pollution affects 38% of the Brazilian municipalities, mainly those more populated. Between June/ 2001 and June/ 2003, these 2.121 municipalities recorded the occurrence of pollution frequently in rivers, lakes, small bays, dams, fountains, subterranean waters etc.

The proportion of municipalities affected by the pollution of waters is higher in the South (45%) and Southeast (43%). The states that mostly recorded this occurrence were: Rio de Janeiro (77%), Amapá (69%), Espírito Santo (60%), Pernambuco (56%) and Santa Catarina (55%). In the other extreme, Piauí (7%), Tocantins (12%), Acre (18%), Amazonas (19%) and Mato Grosso (25%) had the lowest proportions.

The pouring of industrial residues, oils and greases (including oil pruning) was indicated by 521 municipalities as one of the main causes of water pollution. In the Southeast (31%) it was observed the major proportion of these municipalities, followed by the North (28%). Rondônia (45%), Espírito Santo (43%), Rio de Janeiro (41%) and Sergipe (39%) presented the highest proportions.

The high percentages found in Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro occur, mainly, due to the exploitation of petroleum. On the other hand, Piauí did not register any occurrence of this type and Paraíba (8%), Alagoas (9%) and Bahia (12%) registered the lowest percentages.

Industrial and health services residues contaminate the soil

The soil contamination is also a big problem for 33% of the Brazilian municipalities, and the major proportions of occurrence were observed in the South and Southeast: 50% and 34%, respectively. The main causes of soil contamination were: use of fertilizers and pesticides (63%) and unsuitable destination of domestic sewerage (60%).

The contamination of soil by these last ones reaches a higher proportion of municipalities in all the regions, with the exception of the South: in the North, it reached 32% (against 10% of the industrial residues); in the Northeast, 21% (against 8%); Southeast, 19% to 12%; Central West, 21% to 14% and South, 7% to 10%. Among the municipalities with more than 500 thousand inhabitants, 13 registered mainly, this type of soil contamination.

1.682 municipalities produce toxin residues and do not have industrial landfill

Around 97% (5.398) of the Brazilian municipalities do not have industrial landfill inside their territorial boundaries. An important part (69%) of them declared that they did not produce toxin residues in significant quantity, although 30% (1.682 municipalities) mentioned they generated residues in significant quantities and did not have industrial landfill.

It was observed carelessness with toxin residues, mainly, in the most populated municipalities (with more than 100 thousand inhabitants): among the 1,682 which do not have industrial landfill and produce dangerous residues in significant quantity, more than 80% (1,406) are in the Northeast, Southeast and South. Regarding where the garbage goes, 162 (10%) municipalities declared sending the toxin material to landfill in another city, and of the 1,520 others, 37% deposited toxin garbage in open-air disposals in their own territory.

Among the medium municipalities, from 20 thousand to 100 thousand inhabitants, 73% (a total of 324 municipalities) destine toxin residues to garbage deposits inside their own limits.

Whereas the open-air disposals (or garbage deposits) in the own municipality is the most common destination of toxin residues among the municipalities of the North (68%), Northeast (57%) and Central West (44%), the non-specified destiny is mostly common in the municipalities of the South (45%) and Southeast (33%). It is possible that this elevated proportion of municipalities that do not specify the destinies of the toxin residues occurs due to the lack of information or lack of residue planning, once the destination of residues is a responsibility of the one who generates it, according to the Law 6.438/81.