Green Criminology and prevention of environmental damage in protected areas in the Amazon

Abstract

The era of extremes was scene of debates on environmental preservation. Protected areas emerged in this scenario as a protective instrument, aiming to protect the natural resources and way of life of traditional populations in a specific geographic area. However, the mere existence of protected areas did not prevent illegal acts from harming those spaces. The study aimed at proposing preventive parameters for the control of environmental infractions in similar protected areas, through the identification of the generic profile of these protected spaces, da characterization of environmental infractions, and of the identification of the parameters of prevention to the environmental infractions. The research is descriptive in terms of its objectives and documental in relation to the methodological procedures used, covering five Federal Conservation Units of the Guajará-Mirim Amazonian Municipality. The study showed that: the irregularity of the land aspects is a factor of conflicts in three analyzed areas, directly influencing the pressures and threats of conservation units; there is no demarcation of the physical limits in the specially protected territorial spaces of the sample; 60% of the sample has environmental emergencies, totaling 15,586 hectares of fires and 281 hectares of deforestation; there is insufficient human resources, since the management of conservation units is carried out in 80% of the sample by a single person, responsible for performing critical actions to protect and prevent illegal activities in the protected area; 21 records of environmental infractions were drawn up, motivated by planned actions, denunciations and established inspection plans; in the searched records, there are no indications of infraction in three of the five protected areas of the sample, predominating illicit related to the fauna; and, in terms of authorship, the male gender predominated in 81% of the records. Three parameters of prevention to environmental infractions were verified: actions of inspection to the natural capital in protected areas; Land regularization, as an instrument of environmental justice; And environmental education as a way of perceiving environmental infraction through situational understanding. It was concluded that only the implementation of conservation units does not legitimize environmental preservation. Prevention of environmental damage is and will always be the most effective way to control negative impacts on the environment.