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Amazon Forest Sites sold by Facebook Marketplace ads!!!

Amazon Forest
                                               Image Source - Yahoo News

Parts of the Brazilian Amazon rain forest are being sold illegally on Facebook, the BBC found.

Protected areas include forests of land and land set aside for indigenous peoples.

Some of the sites listed on Facebook's separate ad service are as large as 1,000 soccer fields.

Facebook says it is "ready to work with local authorities", but has indicated it will not take independent steps to stop the trade.

"Our marketing policies require consumers and sellers to comply with laws and regulations," adds a California technology company.


The leader of one of the affected traditional communities urged the technology company to do more.

And campaigners say the country's government is unwilling to stop the sale.

"Earth invaders feel so powerful that they are not ashamed to log on to Facebook and make illegal international agreements," said Ivaneide Bandeira, head of an independent environmental organization Kanindé.

No certificates
Anyone can find illegally attacked sites by typing Portuguese-type search terms such as "forest", "native forest" and "logs" in the Facebook Marketplace search tool, and select one of the Amazon region regions as a location.

Some lists contain satellite imagery and GPS coordinates.

Many real estate agents openly admit that they do not have a title deed, which is the only document proving land ownership under Brazilian law.

Illegal employment is generated by the Brazilian cattle industry.

'No danger'
Brazil's Amazon deforestation has been on the rise for 10 years, and Facebook Marketplace has become a marketplace for marketers such as Fabricio Guimarães, who was photographed with a hidden camera.

"There is no danger of being tested by government officials here," he said as he walked through a piece of forest that had burned down.

With the land illegally cleared and ready for farming, he had tripled his initial claim of $ 35,000 (£ 25,000).

Fabricio is not a farmer. He has a steady middle-class job in the city, and he considers rain forests to be an investment opportunity.

The BBC later contacted Fabricio about his response to the investigation but declined to comment.

Secret travel
Many of these ads came from Rondônia, the busiest forest in the rainforest region of Brazil.

The BBC has arranged meetings between four businessmen from the government and an undercover detective claiming to represent wealthy investors.

One man, named Alvim Souza Alves, was trying to sell a plot of land within the Uru Eu Wau Wau National Park for £ 16,400.

It is home to a community of more than 200 people from Uru Eu Wau Wau. And at least five other groups that have never been in contact with the outside world also live there, according to the Brazilian government.

But at the meeting, Mr. Alves said: "There are no Indians. From where my land is, they are about 50km away. I will not tell you that at the same time they are not moving."

The BBC showed a Facebook ad to community leader Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau.

He said the lot is in the area used by his community to hunt, fish and collect fruit.

"This is disrespectful," he said.

"I don't know these people. I think their purpose is to cut down indigenous forests, permanent deforestation. To ruin our lives, don't you say."

He called on the authorities to intervene, and urged Facebook - "the most popular social media platform" - to take action.

Changed status
Another reason for the illicit land market is the prospect of parole.

Mr Alves said he had been working with others to persuade politicians to help them acquire land that had been legally stolen.

"I will tell you the truth: if this is not resolved with [President] Bolsonaro there, it will not be resolved," he said of the current government.

A common strategy is to destroy the world and urge politicians to destroy its security, on the basis that it no longer serves its original purpose.

Land grabbers can legally buy land from the government, thereby making their applications legal.



Mr Alves took a secret BBC journalist to meet someone who described him as the leader of the Curupira Association. Brazilian state police described the group as an illegal land grabbing operation aimed at invading indigenous areas.

The two men told a reporter that high-ranking politicians were assisting them in organizing meetings with government agencies in the capital Brasília.

They said their main ally was Congressman Colonel Chrisóstomo, a member of the Social Liberal Party, of which Bolsonaro had been a member until he founded his party in 2019.

When contacted by the BBC, Colonel Chrisóstomo admitted that he had helped organize meetings, but said he was unaware that the group was involved in a land strike.

"They didn't tell me," he said. "When they invade the world, they have no support."

When asked if he regrets organizing meetings, he said: "No."

The BBC contacted Mr Alves for his response but declined to comment.

The BBC also contacted Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles.

He said: "The government of President Jair Bolsonaro has always made it clear that it is a state that does not tolerate crime, including the environment."

The government has reduced the budget for the inspection of Ibama, a company that manages deforestation management, by 40%.

But Mr Salles said the coronavirus epidemic had disrupted law enforcement in the Amazon, and that the country's governments were also responsible for deforestation.

"This year the government has launched the Verde Brasil 2 program, which seeks to control illegal deforestation, illegal fires, and to join efforts between the provincial and international governments," he added.

However, Raphael Bevilaquia, a Rondônia-based provincial prosecutor, said the situation had worsened under the current government.

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