Controversial Environment Ministry Measures during Pandemic Reduce Environmental Oversight

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The suggestion, made by Minister of the Environment Ricardo Salles at a cabinet meeting on April 22nd, that the government should take advantage of the media’s focus on the Covid-19 epidemic to introduce changes and “simplify” environmental standards in the country, has sparked criticism among environmentalists in Brazil and abroad. The main changes implemented by the government in the environmental area occurred while the number of deaths by Covid-19 increased.

During this time, Salles and his subordinates pushed for changes that range from relaxing export controls on native timber to amnesty for deforesters in areas of the Atlantic Forest. Salles states that his intention is to “de-bureaucratize and simplify rules,” but “within the law”.

During the cabinet meeting, which had its video released to the public on Friday, May 22nd, Salles suggested that the government join “efforts” to seize the moment when media attention was focused on the epidemic caused by the novel coronavirus, to pass “non-statutory” reforms, which do not require congressional approval and can be achieved through executive ordinances, normative instructions or decrees.

“The opportunity we now have, that the press is not … It’s giving us a bit of relief in other topics, is to pass the non-statutory reforms of deregulation, simplification, all the reforms that everyone during these trips that Onyx (Lorenzoni) mentioned surely demanded from him, demanded from Paulo (Guedes),” said Salles at the meeting.

One of the most striking cases of the “non-statutory” changes Salles referred to at the meeting was the order he signed recognizing permanent preservation areas (APPs) deforested before July 2008 as established occupational areas, thus permitting the return of farming activities in these areas.

The measure has direct impacts on the preservation of the Atlantic Forest, the most devastated biome in Brazil, because the APPs are deemed crucial to the region’s water security. Furthermore, by recognizing these deforested areas as commercially established, the measure opens a loophole for landowners who have been fined for deforestation to be granted amnesty. The measure has been challenged in court by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office (MPF).

The case was even mentioned by Salles during the cabinet meeting, when he emphasized the need to make ready the Federal Solicitor General’s Office (AGU), which defends the federal government in lawsuits filed against it.

– This very week we signed a measure at the request of the Ministry of Agriculture, namely to simplify the Atlantic Forest Law, to use the forest code. Today the newspapers are already reporting that they are going to file judicial and civil lawsuits throughout Brazil against the measure. So, we need to have the AGU artillery in place,” said Salles.

One day before the confirmation of the first case of Covid-19, on February 25th, during Carnaval, the president of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), Eduardo Bim, released native wood exportation without IBAMA’s prior authorization.

Until that time, for a timber shipment taken from native forest to be exported, IBAMA was required to grant a permit. The rule was created as a means to reduce the chances of fraud and export of timber harvested from illegal areas. The February measure was taken following a request from two logging associations in Pará.

Shortly after the affair, in March, another change was introduced. Amid the repercussion of the release of timber exports, Eduardo Bim signed an internal regulation that restricted the agency’s employees’ access to the press. Staff who fail to comply with the ordinance may be punished. The measure is internally handled as a “gag order” for civil servants opposed to the management of Bim and Salles.

Another change implemented in the environmental area was the restructuring of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), in charge of managing conservation areas throughout Brazil. The change is yet another instance of a non-statutory change, as it did not need to receive Legislative sanction, and came into effect in May.

The body, which had already been experiencing a militarization process with the appointment of more state police officers to senior positions to the detriment of career officials, saw this step intensify.

The government reduced from 11 to 5 the number of the agency’s senior managers, which is in charge of 334 units throughout Brazil. Through an ordinance, the ICMBio command opened the door for management positions to be staffed by people from outside the agency.

The result is that of the five ICMBio senior management positions, only one is held by a career employee. The remaining four are headed by state police officers. On the very day that Salles suggested that the government seize the moment to implement the changes, the National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) published a normative ruling allowing the legalization of farms in areas that today are part of indigenous lands that are currently being certified.

As the certification process of indigenous lands takes many years, the instruction allows farmers or land-grabbers to occupy and legalize lands in areas where there is evidence of isolated indigenous peoples. The risk is that, by the time the land is effectively certified, much of it will have already been deforested. The measure was not signed by Salles, but was an old claim of ruralists to whom the Minister is close.

On April 14th, Salles took one of the decisions that caused the most uproar since the start of his administration. He dismissed IBAMA’s then inspection director Olivaldi Azevedo after a number of the body’s operations were taken against miners operating on indigenous lands.

However, Olivaldi was only the first in a string of dismissals from IBAMA’s inspection department after these operations. Afterwards, two other officials were dismissed. Both had been in charge of operations to fight miners.

Another instance of a non-statutory change occurred in May, when President Jair Bolsonaro decreed the second Guarantee of Law and Order (GLO) operation to fight environmental crimes in the Amazon. The first was decreed in 2019, amid the negative international repercussions on the increase in the number of forest fires in the Amazon.

But unlike in 2019, this year’s GLO introduced a new feature that removed even more power from environmental bodies linked to the Ministry of the Environment (MMA). The decree establishes that IBAMA and ICMBio will come under the jurisdiction of the Armed Forces in operations that take place during the GLO.

The change came with the inclusion of a short sentence in the 2020 decree compared to that of 2019. The subordination to the military was criticized by officials and environmentalists.

Salles reaffirms his position

Salles reacted in a note on Monday, May 25th: “I have always advocated de-bureaucratizing and simplifying regulations, in all areas, with common sense, and within the law. The tangle of irrational rules hinders investments, job creation and, consequently, the sustainable development in Brazil”.

Greenpeace position

According to Greenpeace’s public policies coordinator in Brazil and executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, Marcio Astrini, Salles’ remarks sound like a call to a “task force” to destroy the environment.

“We saw a Minister of State talking to cronies, calling to seize the moment of the pandemic, in which everyone is worried about life, to build a task force to destroy the environment,” he said.

Astrini says that from Salles’ words, it is clear that he knew that what he was doing was wrong. So much so that Salles made a point of emphasizing the need to have the AGU’s legal backing.

“He knew that to avoid legal issues he had to commission the AGU to provide legal opinions. This is per se absurd” said Astrini.

Source: O Globo