A group of nine former Ministers of the Environment sent a letter to Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG) on Monday night (6), asking that bills on environmental licensing, mining in indigenous lands, pesticides and land regularization are deliberated outside the electoral climate.
“It is strongly recommended that the deliberations take place with the possible consensus outside the electoral climate, even considering the future perspectives of a new management better aligned with Brazil’s national and international environmental and climate commitments”, says the letter signed by Marina Silva, Carlos Minc, Edson Duarte, Gustavo Krause, Izabella Teixeira, José Carlos Carvalho, José Goldemberg, José Sarney Filho and Rubens Ricupero.
The charge takes place after the report of the Sheet have shown Pacheco’s articulation to approve anti-environmental projects without going through the Environment Commission.
The projects being articulated in the Senate deal with the registration of new pesticides, renegotiation of environmental debts, amnesty for deforestation, construction in Permanent Preservation Areas and the opening of a road through the Iguaçu National Park.
Nicknamed ‘boiadinhas’ by environmentalists, they could test the climate for projects with greater repercussions, such as those dealing with environmental licensing and land tenure regularization.
For the former ministers, the articulation is a contradiction in terms of the commitment announced by Pacheco in March, when the president of the Senate met with the group and stated that he would hold a broad debate on the social-environmental issues.
Questioned by the blog, Pacheco did not respond to the decision to process projects related to the environmental agenda without going through the Environment Commission.
“I reiterate that in the Senate there will be no abuse in environmental or agribusiness matters. Imputing the Senate anything other than that is unreasonable,” he said in a note sent by the press office.
“No matter was or will go directly to the Plenary without going through committees. This is how it is with land regularization and environmental licensing, which have been discussed in committees for some time. plenary, this can be done, analyzing case by case”, he adds.
Read below the full letter of the former Ministers of the Environment to the President of the Senate
Excellency Mr Senator Rodrigo Pacheco
President of the Brazilian Senate
We thank you for the attention and interest shown by you. in the dialogue with the Forum of Former Ministers of the Environment to address the main critical issues under examination by this legislative house in terms of the climate agenda and socio-environmental rights.
As you know, this Forum has focused on issues that affect the Brazilian people’s constitutional right to a balanced and healthy environment and, as expressed in a hearing with Your Excellency. at the end of March, we are currently particularly concerned about the PLs on Agrochemicals, Land Regularization, Environmental Licensing and Mining in Indigenous Lands.
As Your Excellency demonstrated his agreement at the aforementioned audience, are topics of extreme relevance and sensitivity for the future of Brazil and the strategic realignment of our development with the Sustainable Development Goals and the international commitments on Climate and Biodiversity, managed and assumed by us here in our territory in 1992, at the Environment Summit, in
Rio de Janeiro.
The country’s political moment is critical and violence has become commonplace, whether against Indigenous Peoples and their territories or against rural leaders and forest defenders, with a 75% increase in the number of murders of family farmers, indigenous people and quilombolas in conflicts in the field in the last year.
At the same time, we are witnessing a constant increase in deforestation and the appropriation of public lands and their natural resources, facilitated by the weakening of the performance of environmental defense and inspection agencies. The data are public and we know that they are known to you, so we will not go into length exposing them here.
We are very concerned about the intensification of polarization in the political field on the eve of a decisive election for the country, in which the socio-environmental issues discussed here will be used to intensify divisions and instill even more violence, which can even occur during the debates and deliberations of the two houses (Senate and Chamber), influenced by conjunctural electoral interests.
In our analysis, we also consider that the Federal Supreme Court is dealing with seven judicial review actions (for action, omission and non-compliance with fundamental precepts) that address flagrant omissions and flexibilities operated by this government. These judgments have direct impacts on
issues under consideration by the Senate, such as those referring to deforestation control, land control in protected areas, environmental licensing and other instruments of environmental policy.
Such decisions, to be taken in the short term, have general repercussions throughout the national territory, including on the other powers of the Republic, including the federal legislature. For example, the decision, by 10 x 0, in ADI 6808, on April 28, declared the issuance of environmental licenses automatically and without inspections unconstitutional, even in activities and undertakings of small and medium impact, a central theme in the debates concerning to PL 2.159/21 under the rapporteurship of Senator Kátia Abreu.
Finally, it is necessary to measure and consider the high risk that the necessary improvements made by the Senate to the Bills in question, in view of the strong political harmony between the Presidencies of the Chamber and the Republic on anti-environmental agendas, could be overturned without any debate or consideration, in a single vote in Plenary, when the lights go out of this 56th legislature and this government, with disastrous consequences not only for the environment, but also for the country’s weakened economy.
Your Excellency has received in audience in its office, in addition to artists, representations of ambassadors concerned with the possible consequences of the approval of the anti-environmental package on important international agreements and agendas such as Brazil’s participation in the OECD, or the conclusion of the European Union agreement with Mercosur, pending ratification by countries that have already shown strong concern with the environmental and climate agenda.
The European Community recently concluded a consultation to approve a resolution that will create barriers for imported products that may be related to deforestation in post-2020 tropical forests, and debates the creation of a carbon tax on products imported from countries and sectors that do not meet reduction targets. of greenhouse gas emissions.
In the context described above and given the complexity and risks involved in a hasty approval of this set of proposals, we propose that you extreme caution in relation to the dynamics of debates and approval of these Bills.
It is strongly recommended that: (1) the discussions and negotiations around this sensitive agenda take place ordinarily within the scope of the thematic committees, without any haste and with a broad debate with the social actors involved, which has not yet happened, not even the public hearings committed by Your Excellency occurred based on the reports; and that: (2) the deliberations take place with the possible consensus outside the electoral climate, also considering the future perspectives of a new management better aligned with Brazil’s national and international environmental and climate commitments.
It aggravates the situation discussed here, contrary to your commitment. to broaden and guarantee a republican debate on projects of socio-environmental relevance, the decision of terminative processing only in the Agriculture Commission (CRA) of two Law Projects (PL) that insert new setbacks to the Forest Law, namely: (i) PL no. 2,374/2020, which provides for a new amnesty for deforestation carried out in Legal Reserves between 2008 and 2012; and (ii) PL nº 1.282/2019, which allows intervention in Permanent Preservation Areas for the irrigation dam, which puts Brazilian water resources at risk. In the same way, the most recent progress concerning the PL on Agrochemicals (PL 1,459 of 2022) has caught our attention and is particularly concerned, where the last order indicates that it will only be processed by the Committee on Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, contrary to the understanding made with Your Excellency at our last meeting.
The Senate, composed in its absolute majority, like Your Excellency, of large, experienced politicians who do not represent just one or another isolated economic sector, can and must demonstrate that our Democracy is strong, responsible, resilient and resilient and that will do everything possible to put Brazil back in its
historical trajectory towards socially fair, economically viable, environmentally balanced and low-carbon development.
We remain committed to the careful examination of the matters under consideration so that, at the opportune moment and in a republican, independent, public and transparent manner, we can express ourselves in relation to the reports that may be offered by their respective rapporteurs in the thematic commissions on the environment, agriculture and
Constitution and justice.
Yours sincerely,
Carlos Minc, Edson Duarte, Gustavo Krause, Izabella Teixeira, José Carlos Carvalho, José Goldemberg, José Sarney Filho, Marina Silva, Rubens Ricupero
