Panel SA: Bolsonaro’s project for mining in indigenous land is incompetence, says Natura founder

The advance of bill 191, which should be voted on this month to launch mining in indigenous lands, will raise new manifestations from business leaders worried about the effects of the measure presented by Bolsonaro to Congress in 2020.

For Pedro Passos, one of the founders of Natura, the project has no technical or economic basis and reflects the setback that the country is witnessing in this government.

“It is yet another demonstration that Brazil is being led by those who do not understand, or pretend not to understand, the importance of our environmental assets and the wealth of indigenous populations. It is a mixture of incompetence, contempt for science and lack of ethical commitment with the country”, according to the businessman.

The argument used by the Bolsonaro government, that this could reduce Russia’s national dependence on fertilizers, is fallacious and opportunistic, in Passos’ opinion.

There has been a strong movement of businessmen publicly speaking out against bill 191/2020, which allows mining on indigenous lands. What is the opinion of Mr. about this? This project mirrors the setback we have seen with this government. There is no technical or economic basis for the proposal. It is yet another demonstration that Brazil is being led by those who do not understand, or pretend not to understand, the importance of our environmental assets and the wealth of indigenous populations. It is a mixture of incompetence, contempt for science and lack of ethical commitment to the country.

President Bolsonaro claims that this measure would help solve the problem of Brazilian dependence on imported fertilizer. Can the timing of the war in Ukraine help those who defend the idea? The Bolsonaro government’s arguments are fallacious and opportunistic. UFMG researchers have recently demonstrated, based on official data, that the Legal Amazon holds only one third of the country’s potassium deposits and only 11% of this is in indigenous lands in the process of demarcation. If we consider only the indigenous areas already approved, which are the vast majority, there is no overlap.

Certainly, the fact that we are not self-sufficient in fertilizers has nothing to do with mining on indigenous lands. I believe the president should work harder on the agenda to eliminate the bottlenecks that hamper the productivity and competitiveness of our economy, without diverting attention from the real issues.

What is the assessment of Mr. about the efforts that have been made in recent years by sectors of the Brazilian business community to try to convince the Bolsonaro government to regain a leading role in the global discussion on the environment? The businessman knows that the current environmental policy has caused losses for business abroad, and the damage to the image that the country has been suffering generates inevitable restrictions on Brazilian products. In order to face the decarbonization of the economy, the public and private sectors are globally accumulating efforts in the search for new solutions.

Regulatory frameworks, investments in science and technology and changing habits are movements orchestrated by governments committed to a sustainable economy that seeks to respect the limits of the planet. This is not the reality experienced here.

An eventual re-election of Bolsonaro brings what kind of concern to the environmental agenda? Unfortunately, the concern is with the continuity of the setback experienced in these years, when Brazil ceased to be the country respected for good environmental practices, responsible interlocutor in global forums and reference for the relevance of its legislation.

The denial of science, the frightening indicators of deforestation, the dismantling of environmental protection mechanisms are evidence of the direction that needs to be stopped.

​Joana Cunha with andressa Motter and Ana Paula Branco