Dominated by ruralists, the Environment Committee of the Chamber approved a bill that expands the permission for the removal and use of wood on farms, exempts rural landowners from reporting to environmental agencies and allows the transport of the product between properties of first-degree relatives , also without the need for authorization from an environmental agency.
The project approved this Wednesday (23) provides for the management of wood within the farms in an amount of up to 40 cubic meters per property, over a period of one year. The proposal amends the Forest Code, which allows up to 15 cubic meters.
A truck transports between 30 and 50 cubic meters of wood, taking into account recent apprehensions by environmental inspection agencies.
Deputies from the environmentalist front and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that work in the area see the risk of facilitating the trafficking and smuggling of wood with the text of the bill.
Proponents of the proposal claim that wood is essential for family farming and that the focus is on small rural producers.
On the same day, the Environment Commission approved a second amendment to the Forestry Code, with the inclusion of irrigation infrastructure works in the criterion of public utility, which allows the felling of native vegetation in APP (permanent preservation area).
A third approved project allows the use of high altitude fields in the Atlantic Forest that had already been deforested by 2012, the year of approval of the current Forest Code.
All projects were led by ruralists who are part of the Environment Commission.
With the approval, the projects will be analyzed conclusively by the Constitution and Justice Commission, without the need for submission to the plenary. Afterwards, the proposals go to the Senate.
In the case of the wood project, authored by Deputy Lucio Mosquini (MDB-RO) and reported by Deputy Evair Vieira (PP-ES), the removal of up to 2 cubic meters of wood per hectare is authorized.
Management cannot compromise more than 15% of the legal reserve area, nor exceed 40 cubic meters of wood per year for domestic and energy use on each rural property.
“The transport of firewood or wood from occasional management, without commercial purpose, to the property of a first-degree relative of the owner, for consumption in the recipient property, does not require authorization from the competent environmental agency”, says the text of the project.
A member of the environmentalist front and the Environment Commission, deputy Rodrigo Agostinho (PSB-SP) claims that the text is “dangerous” and could be used to facilitate timber trafficking. “The project would only allow the transport of small amounts of wood or firewood.”
According to the parliamentarian, more than a thousand bills in Congress are “bad for the environment” and are being discussed in different committees.
“We monitor each of these proposals from the environmental front. In some matters we managed to make proposals for harm reduction, in others we managed to remove them from the agenda and in others we suffered defeats, as we are a minority in a committee dominated by agribusiness”, says Agostinho.
For Raul do Valle, specialist in public policies at WWF-Brazil, the approved project “opens a hole in the system of controlling wood in the country, which is already problematic”.
“The project allows the transport of wood anywhere in the country without any type of environmental control. This will be a feast for loggers. Whoever is transporting will be able to do so without registration with an environmental agency, saying where he comes from where he is going, without proof “, he states.
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