In a letter, former ministers of the Environment asked the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), for a meeting to discuss the concern with two anti-environmental projects scheduled for voting in the coming weeks: the Environmental Licensing PL (PL 2159/21 ) and Land Regularization (PL 510/21), dubbed the land grabbing PL.
The General Environmental Licensing Law project dispenses with the current rite – which provides for environmental impact studies, assessment and inspection – for most projects, including works with significant impact and risk, such as dams.
The so-called land grabbing PL aims to facilitate the regularization of land, extending the deadline for admitting the regularization of recent occupations and dispensing with field inspections. In practice, flexibilization would also encourage land invasion and consequent deforestation.
“We view the imminent approval with great concern [dos projetos de lei]”, says the letter sent on Thursday (2) and signed by former Environment Ministers Marina Silva, Rubens Ricupero, José Goldemberg, José Sarney Filho, Izabella Teixeira, Carlos Minc, Edson Duarte, Gustavo Krause and José Carlos Carvalho .
The letter demands consistency after Pacheco said at COP26, the UN climate change conference that took place in November, that “Brazil needs to recognize the serious problem of illegal deforestation.”
“We all followed their statements during the event”, says the letter from the former ministers, noting that the president of the Senate was the only head of a Brazilian national power to participate in the COP26.
The text also defines as unacceptable the mark achieved by deforestation this year, 75% higher than the rate of 2018. “With regard to combating the loss of forests, we show the world how this problem is faced. Between 2004 and 2012 we managed to reduce the rates of deforestation by 83%”, says the group.
The text also suggests the approval of PEC 233/2019, a proposed amendment that includes climate stability in the Federal Constitution, and of PL 6.230/2019, which proposes plans to prevent deforestation and fire control for all biomes in the country.
“In this group, we gathered the experience accumulated in more than four decades of building the country’s socio-environmental governance, including all the political parties that governed the country in that period. We learned from each other’s experience and sought to cooperate to build a modern, socio-environmental legislation democratic”, says the letter.
Sought out by the blog, the office of the Senate presidency stated that the letter was received, but there is still no forecast for a meeting with the former ministers.
.
