Amendments to the Atlantic Forest Law had been challenged by the Senate, and allow concessions on some items for deforestation.| Photo: Pablo Valadares/Chamber of Deputies

Federal deputies approved, on the night of this Thursday (24), articles of the Atlantic Forest Law that make the deforestation of vegetation more flexible in specific cases, such as the implementation of power transmission lines, gas pipelines, water supply, among others, without the need for prior environmental impact study (EIA) or compensation of any nature.

The items were part of amendments prepared by the Chamber of Deputies that were contested by the Senate and returned to the house for a new appreciation. The parliamentarians considered them as “suppressive” and rejected the alterations made by the senators.

With that, the text goes to the sanction of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The new legislation also establishes that secondary vegetation in the medium stage of regeneration can be felled for public utility purposes even when there is a technical alternative or another location for the undertaking. The original legislation provided that priority should be given to the technical alternative or another location.

Another point made more flexible by the legislation is that the cutting of vegetation in urban areas can only be done with authorization from a municipal environmental agency, and no longer from the state, among other permissions and compensation. The same goes for the cutting or exploration of secondary vegetation in an initial stage of regeneration in the Atlantic Forest.