Lula announces plan against deforestation in the Amazon amid emptying of Environment

Brasilia DF) – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) announced this Monday (5th) the final text of the new Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), one of the most anticipated axes of the PT government’s environmental policy. .

The announcement comes amid the emptying of the Ministry of the Environment, commanded by Marina Silva. The portfolio had attributions withdrawn by the National Congress in the last week without major resistance from the Planalto Palace.

The PPCDAm establishes guidelines for the protection of the Amazon rainforest over the next four years and is now in its fifth version with the goal of achieving zero deforestation by 2030.

Environmentalists usually claim that, in order to meet this goal, which is considered daring, it is necessary that the bodies linked to the issue be strengthened. However, the ruralist caucus of the Legislative decided to empty the ministries of the Environment and the one of the Indigenous Peoples and the government did not make efforts to revert the scenario.

The management of the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry), the instrument for controlling private lands and conflicts in preservation areas, for example, left Marina’s umbrella and went to the Management and Innovation in Public Services folder.

Created in 2004, the PPCDAm had four updates until it was discontinued by Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2019. On the first day of their new government, Lula and Marina published a decree reinstituting the plan, but the details were only defined now.

Considered one of the main mechanisms for protecting the Amazon rainforest in previous PT governments, the PPCDAm established a transversal policy of action and helped to reduce the deforestation rate by 83% between 2004 and 2012.

The current plan repeats part of the initial formula and foresees obligations not only for the Ministry of the Environment, but also for the Civil House and other ministries, such as the ministries of Agriculture, Agrarian Development, Industry, Defense, and Justice and Public security.

The text was put up for public consultation in April and received more than 500 suggestions. The final version includes the goals and indicators framework, which details expected results, deadlines and key actors. The decree that reestablished the PPCDAm also provides for the annual publication of a monitoring report.

The plan presents 12 strategic objectives, divided into four main axes: promotion of sustainable productive activities; environmental monitoring and control; land and territorial planning; and environmentally sustainable infrastructure.

In addition to monitoring deforestation alerts via satellite, the new PPCDAm proposes to monitor forest degradation indicators to organize inspection. Forest degradation is considered more silent because “vegetation remains, but in stages that lead to loss of biodiversity”.

The text highlights that, in the last four years —under Bolsonaro and his Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles (PL-SP), now a federal deputy—, there has been a reduction in the capacity of environmental agencies, such as Ibama and ICMBio.

One of the most significant alterations in the pattern of forest destruction is the increasing presence of organized crime and drug trafficking in the Amazon, which exacerbate violence and conflicts over land ownership.

The plan also lists five other changes that have occurred in recent decades: the internalization of deforestation; reconcentration of deforestation in large areas; reduced state governance in protected areas; persistence of environmental crime in production chains; and increased forest degradation.

The federal government expects to begin reviewing the Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Cerrado —the equivalent of the PPCDAm for the Cerrado— in July.

REVERSE

Alongside Lula at this Monday’s event, World Environment Day, Marina classified the decision of Congress that emptied the portfolio under her responsibility as a “retrogression”.

The minister stated that the changes approved by the Legislature go “against what it means to have robust environmental legislation”. She recalled that Lula had placed CAR (Rural Environmental Registry) and ANA (National Water Agency) under the management of the Ministry of the Environment, but the decision was reversed by parliament.

“Unfortunately, in a recent decision by Congress, we had a setback and reversal of this decision. It is a decision that is not in line with what is the strengthening of the national environmental system, which we accept because in democracy we accept legitimate decisions of Congress, but I cannot agree”, he said.

“I cannot agree because they go against the grain of what it means to have robust environmental legislation and [que] ensure that the Ministry of the Environment can fulfill its attributions conferred on it in the Constitution and in all the laws that ensured the creation of the national environment system”, he added.

The approved text dehydrated the portfolio commanded by Marina and also that of Sônia Guajajara (Indigenous Peoples), who lost the function of dealing with the demarcation of indigenous lands.

The approved report withdrew the ANA from the Environment and transferred it to Regional Development —a portfolio commanded by Waldez Góes (PDT), appointed by parliamentarians from the União Brasil.

The CAR, an instrument to control private lands and conflicts in preservation areas, also came out of the ministry headed by Marina and was allocated under Management and Innovation in Public Services, headed by Esther Dweck.

Afraid of greater defeats, the government decided not to fight to maintain its original proposal related to the environmental area.

A day earlier, on Tuesday (30), the Chamber of Deputies also approved the bill for the timeframe, in yet another victory for the ruralist group over the government’s environmental agenda.

The landmark thesis, defended by the FPA, determines that indigenous lands must be restricted to the area occupied by the peoples on the date of enactment of the 1988 Constitution.

In addition, Marina Silva faces dispute within the government itself over the possibility of oil exploration in Foz do Amazonas. The measure has the support of part of the political core and the Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira.

*With information from Folha de S.Paulo

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