How Ricardo Salles falsified environmental map to benefit mining companies.
It was a normal Monday at the São Paulo State Environment Secretariat when Victor Costa received an unusual request. Fernanda Lemes, coordinator of the Management Plan Unit, asked him to "change some maps"; "They started pressuring me, saying it was urgent, a request from the secretary," he said.
By Tatiana Dias and Rosângela Lotfi, in Intercept Brazil It was a normal Monday at the São Paulo State Environment Secretariat when Victor Costa received an unusual request. Fernanda Lemes, coordinator of the Management Plan Unit, asked him to "change some maps." He found it strange. This wasn't how this type of request usually came.
Then coordinator of the Geoprocessing and Cartography sector of the State Secretariat for the Environment, and therefore responsible for preparing maps for any type of project and environmental licensing, he asked why the change had been made. “I asked them to formalize it by email,” he recalls. Zoning maps take months to prepare. They are made by researchers, discussed in public hearings, and approved by the environmental council. “They started pressuring me, saying it was urgent, a request from the secretary.”
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