Lula reestablishes Amazon Fund and revokes Bolsonaro’s pro-mining decree

On his first day in office, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) issued a series of decrees that interfere with environmental policy. The set reestablishes the Amazon Fund, makes room for the restructuring of Conama (National Council for the Environment) and revokes the decision that made the laws to combat illegal mining more flexible.

The measures were announced at the inaugural session of the ministers of the new government and later disclosed by the transition team.

Lula fulfilled the promise made during the campaign and signed a decree that reestablishes the control instances of the Amazon Fund.

Under Ricardo Salles, the Ministry of the Environment extinguished the council that managed the fund, which caused its donors, such as Norway, to freeze transfers to the instrument. Shortly after the election of the PT, the country, however, had already stated that it would finance the fund again.

Now, the Amazon Fund should see the R$ 3.3 billion to which it is already entitled unlocked and should still start receiving new transfers – according to the governor of Pará, Helder Barbalho, of more than R$ 5 billion.

Lula also revoked Bolsonaro’s decree that created the program called Pró-Mape, which aimed to encourage “artisanal mining” — in practice, an impulse to illegal mining, in indigenous lands and areas of environmental protection.

At the time, the General Secretariat of the Presidency said that the program inaugurated “a new perspective of public policies on mining activities in Brazil.”

Finally, the president determined, by means of an order, that the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva (Rede), has 45 days to prepare a proposal to restructure Conama (National Council for the Environment).

The council was emptied by former president Jair Bolsonaro (PL) in 2019, when he excluded members of civil society from its participation. Since then, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) has been triggered by the case and formed a majority to overturn the reverse measure, but, in practice, nothing happened.

Lula still has to sign a decree that reestablishes the PPCDAm (Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon). The measure had already been announced by Minister Marina Silva on her first day after she was appointed to head the portfolio.

As disclosed by the transition team, a decree will still be published “that re-establishes the fight against deforestation in the Amazon, in the cerrado and in all Brazilian biomes, recovering the protagonism of Ibama”.

_{The Planeta em Transe project is supported by the Open Society Foundations.}