A call made by singer and songwriter Caetano Veloso should bring together artists and socio-environmental movements in front of the National Congress this Wednesday (9), in protest against bills that dismantle environmental legislation.
Dubbed the destruction package, the set of projects is composed of four guidelines: indigenous lands, pesticides, land grabbing and environmental licensing. In common, the proposals have the sense of making environmental rules more flexible.
With the exception of the projects on indigenous lands, most of the proposals have already passed through the Chamber of Deputies and are awaiting consideration by the Senate, which may have the final word on the bills on pesticides and land grabbing.
Along with his wife and producer, Paula Lavigne, Caetano Veloso decided to put on a show in Brasília to draw attention to the proceedings in Congress. The articulation was made in partnership with environmentalists.
While Lavigne extended the call to the artistic world —confirming names such as Daniela Mercury, Bruno Gagliasso, Lázaro Ramos, Emicida, Criolo, Maria Gadú, Letícia Sabatella, Seu Jorge and others—, the bridge with political leaders was facilitated by the Climate Observatory, which brings together 56 environmental organizations.
Before the public act, the group should meet around 1 pm with the Minister of the Federal Supreme Court (STF) Cármen Lúcia and other ministers of the court. The agenda for the Judiciary is the so-called cattle: the Executive’s decisions that reduced environmental protection in the last three years.
Among them are changes in the rules on wood exports, which led to the fall of the then Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles, the setback of Brazil’s environmental target in the Paris Agreement, the change in the composition of Conama (National Council for the Environment) and the stoppage of the Amazon Fund.
The group also wants to alert the STF about the projects being processed in Congress.
“If they are approved as they are, they will all go to the Supreme Court, as they are unconstitutional”, says the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, Márcio Astrini, citing articles 225 and 231 of the Federal Constitution, which deal, respectively, with environmental rights. and indigenous.
Then, the group of celebrities and environmentalists should meet with Senate President Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD) and other senators. The meeting should take place around 3 pm in the Black Hall of Congress.
According to the manifesto signed by 232 socio-environmental organizations and movements, the request to the Senate is “that no proposal be put to a vote until it is aligned with what science says, with the demands and needs of traditional and rural populations and in the light of the climate emergency we are experiencing”.
Starting at 3 pm, a sound car in front of the National Congress should alternate speeches and songs, with voices from environmentalists, black and indigenous leaders.
They will take turns at the microphone with celebrities such as Alessandra Negrini, Baco Exu do Blues, Bel Coelho, Bela Gil, Bruno Gagliasso, Christiane Torloni, Criolo, Daniela Mercury, Emicida, Lázaro Ramos, Leona Cavalli, Leonardo Gonçalves, Letícia Sabatella, Malu Mader, Maria Gadú, Maria Ribeiro, Nando Reis, Nathalia Dill, Natiruts, Paola Carosella, Paula Burlamaqui, Rafaela Kalimann, Seu Jorge and Zezé Polessa.
Representatives of the CNBB (National Conference of Bishops of Brazil) also confirmed their presence. On Monday (7), the organization published a note against bills 490/2007, which makes it difficult to demarcate indigenous lands, and 191/2020, which regulates mining on indigenous lands.
While PL 191/2020 awaits the creation of a special committee in the Chamber, PL 490/2007 awaits the appointment of a rapporteur to go to the plenary of the deputies. The proposal creates a time frame to restrict the creation of indigenous lands, which would put at risk at least 66 territories, inhabited by more than 70,000 indigenous people, according to a note from the Climate Observatory.
The bill that facilitates the registration of pesticides (PL 6,299/2002) is criticized for taking powers away from Ibama and Anvisa and also for allowing the registration of substances hazardous to health, such as carcinogens. It had been sitting in the Chamber since 2018 and was approved by the plenary last February.
Approved by the deputies last year, the project for the general environmental licensing law, which is being processed as PL 2,159/2021 in the Senate, is widely criticized for exempting most projects from the environmental license, including mining dams, making the process that today is the general rule.
The so-called PL on land grabbing also depends on the Senate. Although it has been the subject of protests from artists, companies and even the international community in the last two years, the PL was approved by the Chamber last August and attached to a similar proposal by the Senate, PL 510/2021.
Aimed at facilitating land tenure regularization, the proposal is criticized for encouraging land grabbing, by extending the time frame so that recently invaded public lands can be regularized. The PL also puts an end to face-to-face inspections in the land regularization process.
“Public pressure still has its effect. In three years of Bolsonaro’s government, we only had one legislation [antiambiental] approved”, evaluates Astrini, referring to law 14.285/2021, which takes protection from urban Permanent Preservation Areas, approved last December.
