In defeat for the Pocket Governor Colonel Marcos Rocha (PSL), the Court of Justice of Rondônia considered unconstitutional a law, approved in May 2021, which generated the reduction of 219,000 hectares of state conservation units — which would pave the way for legalize deforestation and land grabbing. The decision was unanimous.
“The duty to effectively preserve environmental assets was not complied with. And the ‘solution’ was to endorse the illegality and encourage illicit and spurious occupations,” said Judge Miguel Monico Neto, in his vote in the judgment, which took place this Monday (22 ).
“If the law remains, it will be the typical victory of daring, in which real criminal organizations encourage invasions in institutional areas that should be protected,” he said.
In his decision, the magistrate complied with the opinion of the PGE (State Attorney General), according to which the reduction of the RESEX (Extractivist Reserve) Jaci-Paraná and the PES (State Park) Guajará-Mirim goes against the public interest and could not have carried out without technical studies, in addition to the risk of creating more conflicts between invaders and traditional and indigenous populations.
Adin (Direct Unconstitutionality Action) was the responsibility of the Public Ministry of the State of Rondônia.
In his oral statement, the Attorney General, Ivanildo de Oliveira, recalled that Governor Rocha himself signed a veto message to the bill approved by the Legislative Assembly, calling the reduction the “greatest environmental setback in the history of Rondônia”.
The message, revealed by the sheet, was never published in the Official State Gazette: hours after signing the veto, Rocha changed his mind and decided to approve the reduction of protected areas in full, on May 20 of this year.
The governor never explained the turnaround. Wanted by the report this Tuesday (23), the government of Rondônia did not say whether it will appeal.
One obstacle is the position of the PGE itself, which would be in charge of the appeal, but drafted the opinion against the reduction and ratified this position during the judgment on Monday.
In a press release, the state government limited itself to saying that “it respects the determination of the Judiciary and will continue to work with other state actors to reduce the socio-environmental conflicts that currently occur in the aforementioned conservation units”.
The law annulled by the Justice would practically extinguish the Resex Jaci-Paraná, which would be without 88% of the territory of 191 thousand hectares. It is one of the most devastated protected areas in the country, with more than half of its forest already converted to pasture.
There are 120,000 heads of cattle, according to the state government, despite large-scale cattle raising being a prohibited activity.
“It was our victory”, says indigenous leader Txai Suruí, 24, the main Brazilian standout at the recently concluded COP26, in Glasgow, while speaking at the main event of the climate summit.
“These are conservation units next to the Karipuna indigenous land. If we lost these areas, it would be much more weakened, at the mercy of invaders. In addition, this action would be used to eliminate other conservation units”, says the young woman, of the Paiter-Surui people.
In the last year of the law course, Txai Suruí is part of the legal core of Kanindé, one of the NGOs that filed against the reduction, including the WWF.
Monday’s decision, however, did not include an order to withdraw the invaders.
In addition, with the expectation of regularization, deforestation between August 2020 and July 2021 accumulated 10,700 hectares in Jaci-Paraná, according to the Prodes system, by Inpe (National Institute for Space Research). It was the third most deforested conservation unit in the country during that period.
For the coordinator of the legal center at Kanindé, Ramires Andrade, the next step will be to remove the invaders and recover the area. “This is not our expected result yet. It is necessary to remove the invaders and the cattle. We will insist on this search.”
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