The first year of the new presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was a tale of two Brazils: In the Amazon, federal agents were finally cracking back down on land grabbers and illegal gold miners following the cycle of impunity that had become the norm under the previous president, Jair Bolsonaro. But in the capital, Brasília, the agribusiness lobby steamrolled its agenda through a compliant Congress, whose agriculture caucus, the FPA or Bancada Ruralista, easily passed two of the four bills that make up what critics call the “Destruction Package” — legislation aimed at weakening environmental protections and Indigenous rights in Brazil. The marco temporal or “time frame” bill imposed a cutoff date on Indigenous land claims, making it even more difficult to demarcate Indigenous territories, and opened the latter up to mining and agribusiness — in clear violation of the Constitution. The bill passed but was vetoed by Lula, only for Congress to overturn that veto. The same thing appears likely to happen with the vetoes the “poison bill,” which largely deregulations the approvals and use of pesticides, and which Lula has similarly vetoed. Lula’s coalition, led by his Workers’ Party (PT), also watched as the FPA passed bills making it easier to repave the BR-319 highway that cuts through the Amazon, and establishing the framework for a carbon market that exempts the agribusiness sector from emissions caps. Both bills were approved in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies, and are now awaiting a vote in the…This article was originally published on Mongabay
The post Brazil’s environmental David fights Congress’s agribusiness Goliath: Interview with Nilto Tatto appeared first on EnviroLink Network.