HomeNewsBriefBrazil Uses Drones to Monitor Environmental Crimes
BRIEF

Brazil Uses Drones to Monitor Environmental Crimes

BRAZIL / 20 OCT 2011 BY RONAN GRAHAM EN

Environmental police in Brazil have enlisted the help of unmanned drone planes to help tackle the illegal exploitation of the country's resources, reported Latin Trade magazine.

The São Paulo Environmental Police has purchased a number of the unmanned aerial vehicles which they will use to monitor environmental crimes in rural locations, according to the report. Fifteen officers from the force have received special training in operating the drones, which will assist police investigations into crimes such as deforestation and illegal fishing.

A number of Latin American governments, including Brazil, have purchased Israeli-made drones for use in border patrol operations and in fighting drug trafficking. Brazilian firm AGX Tecnologia has now developed sophisticated drone planes using Brazilian technology, with the intention of selling to the country's environmental police forces, as Latin Trade reports.

Bianca Kancelkis, AGX Tecnologia’s director for environmental projects, explained to the magazine that piloted planes are more expensive and require a take-off and landing strip, which can be hard to come by in the remote locations where environmental crimes generally take place.

Environmental crime is a growing problem in Brazil. According to a recent report in Brazilian newspaper O Globo, as much as half of the territory reserved for indigenous communities along River Guama in the state of Para, in northern Brazil, has been seized by drug traffickers, loggers, and farmers. At least six killings linked to land conflict have been recorded in Para state in recent months, with conflict between illegal loggers, the local people and environmental activists.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BRAZIL / 1 SEP 2023

The dismissal of top security officials in the Brazilian state of Amazonas suggests corruption could complicate Lula’s battle to save…

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 2 JUN 2022

Illegal gold mining drives the destruction of Peru's Amazon, where fortune seekers strip forests and leave behind poisonous pools of…

BRAZIL / 28 DEC 2021

There was record destruction of the Amazon in 2020, as the rainforest lost an area around the size of Belize,…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…