Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country\u2019s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country\u2019s environmental legislation in the past 40 years.<\/p>\n
The new law \u2013 widely referred to as the \u201cdevastation bill\u201d and already approved by the senate in May<\/a> \u2013 passed in congress in the early hours of Thursday by 267 votes to 116, despite opposition from more than 350 organisations and social movements<\/a>.<\/p>\n It now goes to the president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva<\/a>, who has 15 working days to either approve or veto it.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cEither way, its approval is a tragedy,\u201d said Suely Ara\u00fajo, 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no precedent for how damaging this law is,\u201d she said, describing it, as have several other environmental organisations<\/a>, as \u201cthe greatest setback to Brazil\u2019s environmental legislation\u201d since the 1980s, when licensing first became a legal requirement in the country.<\/p>\n One of the main points of criticism of the law is that it allows projects classified as having \u201cmedium\u201d polluting potential to obtain an environmental licence through a self-declared online form \u2013 without prior impact studies or regulatory review. Previously, this fast-track process was limited to low-risk activities.<\/p>\n According to Ara\u00fajo, this will affect about 90% of licensing procedures in Brazil, including those for mining companies and the vast majority of agricultural activities.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re seeing the implosion of Brazil\u2019s environmental licensing system, that is going to become full self-licensing, where a company just clicks a button and the permit gets printed,\u201d said Ara\u00fajo, who served as president of Brazil\u2019s environmental protection agency, Ibama, from 2016 to 2018.<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 excluding more than 30% of Indigenous lands and over 80% of quilombola areas<\/a> that have been awaiting official titling for years.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of these lands are already under dispute or being targeted by exploitative companies,\u201d said Dinamam Tux\u00e1, executive coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (Apib), who described the law\u2019s approval as \u201cthe legalisation of a process of extermination of Indigenous peoples\u201d.<\/p>\n Tux\u00e1 says Lula should veto the bill, but recognises that in a predominantly opposition-led congress, the president\u2019s decision is likely to be overturned. \u201cThat\u2019s why civil society must remain organised to pressure lawmakers not to overturn the veto,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> and previous rulings by the supreme court.<\/p>\n Some activists have criticised Lula\u2019s administration for not doing enough to prevent the bill\u2019s approval, and even for giving it a free pass, as reported by the news outlet Suma\u00fama<\/a>. Resistance to the bill was primarily confined to the environment minister, Marina Silva, who described it as \u201cthe burial of environmental licensing<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n