January 2, 2023

18:01

Marcela Leiros – From Amazon Agency

MANAUS – President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) signed this Sunday, 1°, during the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministers, the “revocation” of a package of acts of former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL). The highlights were the return of the Amazon Fund; revocation of the decree that legalized illegal mining in the Amazon; and restructuring of the National Environment Council (Conama).

See what was revoked by Lula in the environmental area:

• Revocation of Decrees 10.223/2020 and 10.144/2019, which extinguished the governance of the Amazon Fund, the largest financial policy for environmental preservation in the world;
• Revision of decree N° 11,018/2022, which maintained the emptying of the National Environment Council (Conama);
• Repeal of decrees 10.142/19, 10.239/19 and 10.845/21, which allowed the accelerated increase of deforestation in the Amazon and other biomes;
• Revocation of Decree No. 9.760/2019, which stipulated that fines must be reviewed in conciliation hearings, which resulted in discounts or cancellation of sanctions;
• Repeal of decree N° 10,239/2020, which transferred the National Council of the Legal Amazon (Cnal), from the Ministry of Environment to the vice-presidency of the Republic of Hamilton Mourão (Republicanos).
• Revocation of Decree No. 10,966/2022, which legalised illegal garimpo in the Amazon from a regulation of the so-called “artisanal mining”.

Also read: ‘The world is waiting for Brazil’, declares President Lula in his inauguration speech

To AMAZON AGENCY, the executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, Márcio Astrini, says that Lula’s revocation undoes a dismantling promoted by the former government and re-establishes environmental governance in Brazil.

“It also has a very big highlight for the amount of acts of the environment. It is the portfolio, so far, within the Esplanade, that has received more administrative acts by the President of the Republic, which also shows the importance that the agenda has for Lula”, he said.

But Astrini reminds us that there is still much to be done. “The rebuilding of Ibama’s field inspection capacity, hiring of staff, the review of the Brazilian CDM. There is still a series of measures to be taken. Now, this beginning shows that President Lula’s commitment was not just a campaign speech. It is coming to life and becoming concrete”, he added.

In the analysis of the environmentalist Carlos Durigan, the destructuring of State agencies, collegiate bodies and committees such as the Conama, and policies such as the Action Plan for Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAM) and the Amazon Fund, together with the permissibility and impunity for environmental crimes have left deep scars and great social and environmental devastation, especially in the Amazon. For him, the measures of the new government generate optimism.

“The first measures of the new Lula administration, already sworn in, to sign decrees and measures that include, for example, revocation of authorizations for mining in indigenous lands and conservation units, resumption of work to combat deforestation and reactivation of the Amazon Fund, among many others, certainly generate a feeling of optimism that the socio-environmental agenda in Brazil should return to the axis of responsibility and common sense”, he said.

Celebration

In the social networks, there was also commemoration. Journalist Lívia Lamblet said that the repeal of “artisanal mining” is a new era. “Lula revoked the decree that allowed illegal mining on indigenous lands. It’s a new time, friends”, she posted on Twitter.

The Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining (National Mam) stated, also on social media, that the revocation is the result of a popular demand. “It is in the document delivered by the Permanent Mining Forum, which Mam is part of, to the Working Group of the Mines and Energy Transition of the Lula Government!” the organisation said.