Lula's Amazon pledge looks distant as Brazil battles deforestation

Agents of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) measures a tree extracted from the Amazon rainforest, in a sawmill during an operation to combat deforestation, in Placas, Para State, Brazil January 20, 2023. REUTERS/Ueslei Marcelino

URUARA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's environmental enforcement agents set out in January on their first mission this year to combat illegal deforestation, with renewed energy after the election of a president who has promised to stop surging Amazon rainforest destruction.

But, after years of dwindling funding and staff at the environmental agency Ibama under former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, only two of the 12 agents on the mission near the town of Uruara had any experience with field operations.