At ICMBio alone there is a workforce deficit of 7 000 people, including employees, firefighters and volunteers, though new hiring processes have helped reduce the gap at the federal level in recent years. According to the TCU (2013), in 2012 one-quarter of federal and state protected areas in the Amazon region had no staff, only three protected areas reported that the number of staff was sufficient. Attracting staff for the long term has proved difficult in some areas, notably remote parts of the Amazon, where working and living conditions (e.g. health, education, housing, transport) are demanding.