Chamber approves MP that loosens protection to the Atlantic Forest – 03/30/2023 – Environment

The plenary of the Chamber of Deputies changed the text and approved an MP (provisional measure) of the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government that loosened the protections to the Atlantic forest, the most devastated biome in the country and where most of the Brazilian population is concentrated. The matter will now go to the Senate.

The measures that change the norm were not initially foreseen in the text of the MP, but were included by the rapporteur, deputy Sérgio Souza (MDB-PR), former president of the FPA (Parliamentary Front for Agriculture), guarantor of the ruralist group.

They ended up changing the Atlantic Forest Law and were criticized by environmentalists and parliamentarians, who classified what happened as “extremely serious”, which implies “irreparable damage”.

For the approval of the MP, an agreement was signed between leaders of the centrão and the leadership of the Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) government. According to parliamentarians, the government is not committed to sanctioning the norm and, if there is a veto, the House will not overthrow it.

The MP eased the deforestation of primary and secondary vegetation in the advanced stage of regeneration by withdrawing the requirement, currently provided for in the law, that this could only occur when “there is no technical and locational alternative to the proposed development”.

The measure also says that the removal of the biome will depend “exclusively on authorization from the competent municipal environmental body” —excluding the need for a technical opinion on the action.

The text also ended the requirement for compensatory measures to suppress vegetation outside permanent preservation areas (APP) and limited these measures to an area equivalent to that which was deforested for the implementation of linear projects, such as transmission lines and public water supply systems. water.

For the implementation of these undertakings, the MP also removed the need to carry out a prior study of the environmental impact, as well as the capture, collection and transport of animals.

Environmentalists criticized the amendments that were incorporated into the measure, stating that it implies serious setbacks.

“The approved wording is full of legislative contraband, with several setbacks, unrelated to the original theme of the provisional measure. By doing so, in addition to incurring formal unconstitutionality, the text proposes a true environmental disaster for what little is left of the Atlantic Forest, for conservation units and even for risk areas around rivers”, says Maurício Guetta, legal consultant for Instituto Socioambiental (ISA).

The public policy director of SOS Mata Atlântica, Malu Ribeiro, says that it is the “biggest tortoise in history” in an MP and that she “broke it to pieces with the Atlantic Forest Law”.

“In practice, this approval places Brazil against the grain of what the world expects. It favors and increases deforestation, distances the country from international commitments on climate, water and biodiversity”, says Malu.

The change in the text was also criticized by parliamentarians. Deputy Fernanda Melchionna (PSOL-RS) said that it causes “irreparable damage” and imposes the “end of zero deforestation”.

“It is extremely serious that a jabuti amendment has been incorporated, which has nothing to do with the Forestry Code, and which breaks down the Atlantic Forest Law by allowing the suppression of vegetation in the medium and advanced stages for infrastructure works”, he tells the Sheet.

The MP also amended the Forest Code, extending the deadline for rural landowners to regularize their properties and start having access to a benefits program that guarantees, for example, the suspension of fines for deforestation.

It provides that rural landowners who have not yet registered their properties in the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry) can join the Environmental Regularization Program (PRA) by the end of 2023 or 2024 — depending on the size of the property — and start the reforestation process. of deforested areas.

This is the sixth time that this deadline has been postponed since the implementation of the Forestry Code. The latest deadline was December 31, 2022.

Registration, mandatory for all rural properties, serves to control and monitor environmental crimes committed on these properties and to develop related public policies.

The postponement, in practice, allows landowners to postpone the start of reforestation and, therefore, to explore areas of irregular destruction.

In addition, the text sets a limit of one year for the start of forest reconstruction actions, counted from the call of the competent bodies, which are most often state entities that can take months to contact the rural owner — delaying even more the process of recovery of the environment.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}