A senior Brazilian police officer stated that Brazil is moving forward with the establishment of an international security center in Manaus to unite Amazon nations in policing the rainforest, sharing intelligence, and pursuing criminals.
According to the officer, a building has been rented and equipment is being purchased for the center, which will have police representatives from the other seven countries of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO).
The main focus of the center will be to combat drug trafficking, the smuggling of timber, fish, and exotic animals, as well as deforestation and other environmental crimes. Illegal gold mining on protected reservations of Indigenous peoples like the Yanomami will also be a priority.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is emphasizing the importance of uniting the Amazon countries against criminal activity in the world’s largest tropical rainforest, in an effort to restore Brazil’s environmental credentials following a period of soaring deforestation under the previous administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Financed with 9 million reais ($1.8 million) from the Amazon Fund, the Center for International Police Cooperation (CCPI) is now scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of this year.
Furthermore, Brazil will share the technology it has developed to trace the origins of illegally extracted gold in the rainforest with its Amazon neighbors.
This technology, which aims to establish the “DNA of gold,” uses radioisotopes to determine the origin of gold by checking particles of the metal, ore, or dirt against samples collected from gold mining areas across Brazil.
The Brazilian Federal Police has developed the technology in collaboration with the University of Sao Paulo and has secured 50 million reais from the Amazon Fund to implement a program that will require a radioisotope scan, possibly from Japan, and handheld radioisotope identification devices to be used in ports and airports.
ACTO members will be requested to conduct similar mapping of samples in their countries, the senior police officer mentioned.
(Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
