Brazil Prepares to Roll Back Green Laws

Amidst the turmoil of the presidential impeachment process, members of Brazil's Congress are set to dismantle environmental protection laws.

Taking advantage of Brazil’s present political turbulence, as the battle to impeach President Dilma Rousseff reached its climax, reactionary politicians are quietly rolling back environmental and indigenous protection laws in defiance of the country’s commitments under the Paris Agreement. 

Environmentalists say that if the bill known as PEC 65/2012, now at the Senate committee stage, is approved, it means that major infrastructure projects will be able to go ahead regardless of their impacts on biodiversity, indigenous areas, traditional communities and conservation areas.

Instead of a careful if somewhat slow licensing process which involves scientific assessments including biological, botanical, anthropological and archaeological studies, developers will merely have to present a proposed study of environmental impact to be allowed to begin – without actually having to carry out the study.  And once a project is under way it cannot be canceled or suspended by the environmental protection agencies. 

Environment organisations, both governmental and non-governmental, have protested strongly at the bill’s implications.  For Marilene Ramos, the president of the official agency for the environment and renewable resources, IBAMA, ... it means Brazil is going in the opposite direction to developed countries and will no longer be able to control infrastructure  projects. 

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