#devastation bill

[persephones-domain]

The Brazilian Senate has just approved Bill 2159/2021, dubbed the “Devastation Bill” — we still have margin to halt it!

I'll be succinct. It's a severe blow to not only the Constitution but to the environmental future of Brazil and the world entire.

We have until 8 August to act — just two days left to sign the petition here:

SIGN THE FUCK OUT OF THIS PETITION AND SHARE IT FAR AND WIDE

Article 225 of the Brazilian Constitution is clear: Everyone has the right to an ecologically balanced environment. This right — essential to a healthy quality of life — cannot be trampled for the economic interests of the few.

This Bill:

Legalises “self-licensing” for medium-impact projects, bypassing proper technical environmental assessments;

Allows political bodies with no environmental expertise to approve high-risk projects;

Excludes Indigenous and traditional communities from decision-making, in violation of ILO Convention 169;

Completely ignores the climate crisis, even as Brazil prepares to host COP30;

Undermines the Paris Agreement, paving the way for new environmental disasters, like the Mariana dam collapse.

According to the Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG):

The Ferrogrão railway project between Mato Grosso and Pará alone could cause the loss of 53,000 km² of Amazon rainforest by 2030 — an area the size of Croatia.

Paving the BR‑319 highway could result in up to 9,400 km² of deforestation per year, adding up to 170,000 km² by 2050. All of this would be worsened by the removal of the technical environmental checks currently required by law.

Now: President Lula still has the power to veto Bill 2159/2021. His decision will be crucial, not just for the future of the Amazon and traditional peoples, which, arguably, are the most important factor, but for Brazil’s climate commitments on the global stage.

[notwiselybuttoowell]

Brazil passes ‘devastation bill’ that drastically weakens environmental law

President has 15 days to approve or veto legislation that critics say will lead to vast deforestation and destruction of Indigenous communit

Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country’s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country’s environmental legislation in the past 40 years.

The new law – widely referred to as the “devastation bill” and already approved by the senate in May – passed in congress in the early hours of Thursday by 267 votes to 116, despite opposition from more than 350 organisations and social movements.

It now goes to the president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has 15 working days to either approve or veto it.

Even if he vetoes the legislation, there is a strong chance that the predominantly conservative congress will overturn that, triggering a likely battle in the supreme court, as legal experts argue that the new law is unconstitutional.

“Either way, its approval is a tragedy,” said Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory civil society group, arguing that the legislation would, among other serious consequences, drive large-scale deforestation and heighten the risk of human-caused climate disasters.

“There’s no precedent for how damaging this law is,” she said, describing it, as have several other environmental organisations, as “the greatest setback to Brazil’s environmental legislation” since the 1980s, when licensing first became a legal requirement in the country.

One of the main points of criticism of the law is that it allows projects classified as having “medium” polluting potential to obtain an environmental licence through a self-declared online form – without prior impact studies or regulatory review. Previously, this fast-track process was limited to low-risk activities.

“We’re seeing the implosion of Brazil’s environmental licensing system, that is going to become full self-licensing, where a company just clicks a button and the permit gets printed,” said Araújo, who served as president of Brazil’s environmental protection agency, Ibama, from 2016 to 2018.

The law also states that agencies responsible for protecting the rights of Indigenous and quilombola communities will only have a say in licensing processes for projects located on officially recognised territories – excluding more than 30% of Indigenous lands and over 80% of quilombola areas that have been awaiting official titling for years.

“Many of these lands are already under dispute or being targeted by exploitative companies,” said Dinamam Tuxá, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), who described the law’s approval as “the legalisation of a process of extermination of Indigenous peoples”.

If the law does come into force, it is likely to trigger a wave of legal challenges, as activists and legal experts argue that it violates the constitution and previous rulings by the supreme court.

Some activists have criticised Lula’s administration for not doing enough to prevent the bill’s approval, and even for giving it a free pass, as reported by the news outlet Sumaúma. Resistance to the bill was primarily confined to the environment minister, Marina Silva, who described it as “the burial of environmental licensing”.