Brazil’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld major changes to laws that protect the Amazon and other biomes, reducing penalties for past illegal deforestation in a blow to environmentalists trying to protect the world’s largest rainforest.
The Brazilian Congress agreed to sweeping revisions in the law in 2012 that included an amnesty program for illegal deforestation on “small properties” that occurred before 2008 and reduced restoration requirements in others.
The changes effectively reduced deforested land that must be restored under previous rules by 290,000km2, an area nearly the size of Italy, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Science.
Environmentalists said that the revised laws, known collectively as the forest code, would create a culture in which illegal deforestation is acceptable.
“This awards the guy who deforested, awards the guy who disobeyed the law,” said Nurit Bensusan, policy coordinator at the Brazilian non-governmental organization Instituto Socioambiental. “With this amnesty, you create a climate that invites deforestation in the future. It creates the impression that if you deforest today, tomorrow you’ll be handed amnesty.”
Farmers and the agriculture lobby argue that the new laws allowed for continued growth of the sector key to the Brazilian economy, without bogging it down in adjudicating crimes of the past.
The court decision has finally brought legal certainty to rural producers by forgiving penalties for deforestation before 2008 provided that they comply with the law as rewritten in 2012, said Rodrigo Lima, director of agriculture consultancy Agroicone. “If this apparatus had been struck down, for example ... everyone who submits information on the rural land registry could be fined at any moment even as they are complying with the [current] law.”
The protections in question include those that apply to the Amazon rainforest, the majority of which lies in Brazil, which is vital to soaking up carbon emissions and countering climate change.
Deforestation in the Amazon fell in the August 2016 to July last year monitoring period for the first time in three years, although the 6,624km2 cleared of forest remains well above the low recorded in 2012 and targets for slowing climate change.
In televised oral arguments, Attorney General Grace Mendonca defended the 2012 revisions as constitutional, saying that they had been designed to strike a balance between environmental protection and economic development.
However, many parts of the law designed to protect the environment have not been enforced, with measures such as a national registry of rural land still not fully implemented.
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
The latest batch from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s e-mails illustrates the extraordinary scope of his contacts with powerful people, ranging from a top Trump adviser to Britain’s ex-prince Andrew. The US House of Representatives is expected to vote this week on trying to force release of evidence gathered on Epstein by law enforcement over the years — including the identities of the men suspected of participating in his alleged sex trafficking ring. However, a slew of e-mails released this week have already opened new windows to the extent of Epstein’s network. These include multiple references to US President Donald
CHARGES: The former president, who maintains his innocence, was sentenced to 27 years and three months in prison for a failed coup bid, as well as an assassination plot Far-right former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro is running out of options to avoid prison, after judges on Friday rejected his appeal against a 27-year sentence for a botched coup bid. Bolsonaro lost the 2022 elections and was convicted in September for his efforts to prevent Brazlian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking power after the polls. Prosecutors said the scheme — which included plans to assassinate Lula and a top Brazilian Supreme Court judge — failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass. A panel of Supreme Court judges weighing Bolsonaro’s appeal all voted to uphold
RSS