Ministry of the Environment loses 23% of its budget

In the same week that the UN released a report showing that the planet is going through a 6th mass extinction process due to accelerated man -induced biodiversity loss, the Minister of the Environment formally announced cuts of almost 23% on its general budget. The cuts were directed to affect specific areas of the Ministry. The Secretary on Climate Change, in charge of implementing the goals of the Paris Agreement, had 95% of its budget frozen; the area that works to prevent and control forest fires lost 38,4% of its resources; the licensing sector lost 42% and the program that supports conservations units lost 25% of their respective budgets. Two months before the start of the forest fire season, the cuts, along with the changes in staff and the silencing of technicians, compromised the operational capacity of the main environmental agencies in the country.