Environment: Brazil's green asset

What the program says

Brazil has the largest tropical forest and one of the cleanest energy mixes on the planet. This is a heritage that we have a duty to preserve for our children and, at the same time, an advantage that almost no country has. We treat the environment as a strategic asset, not as an obstacle to development: those who care for the standing forest and clean rivers protect nature and generate income by doing so. And clean rivers also depend on treated sewage: one of the greatest environmental agendas in our history was the Sanitation Legal Framework, approved under the Bolsonaro government, whose universalization we will carry forward, as already detailed in Brazil that Prospers. And we will consolidate the regulated carbon market with legal certainty, positioning Brazil as a global supplier of environmental assets, and boost the bioeconomy, with biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and new materials from biodiversity. Preserving must generate opportunity. We will create economic incentive mechanisms for preservation, expanding payment for environmental services and developing instruments capable of rewarding producers, communities and rural landowners who conserve native vegetation, recover degraded areas and protect water resources. Producers who preserve and comply with environmental legislation must be recognized as partners in conservation, not as suspects. We will guarantee the responsible and sustainable use of natural resources, with legal certainty and respect for the particularities of each region, and we will make technology, technical assistance, training and credit the instruments that turn conservation into development and income. Preserving has to pay off for those who preserve. Protection of biomes and the fight against environmental crime. Brazil will protect all its biomes, respecting the environmental, social and economic differences of each one. We will have the goal of ending illegal deforestation by 2029, resuming and seeing through the commitment we already made before the world under the Bolsonaro Government, and we will fight illegal fires, strengthening prevention, monitoring, enforcement and the fight against environmental crimes, with tools enhanced by artificial intelligence, real-time databases, satellite images and coordinated action by State agencies. We will integrate and improve the existing systems and databases, using land-tenure and environmental information and satellite monitoring to make enforcement more efficient and targeted. The focus will be on identifying and fighting land grabbing, the illegal occupation of public land and those responsible for illegal deforestation, without creating new obligations or unnecessary costs for rural producers who operate within the law. Those who produce in compliance with the law must be treated as partners in environmental protection, and not subjected to a presumption of irregularity. Fighting environmental crime means clearly separating those who produce legally from those who seize public property and destroy the environment for profit. The Amazon: sovereignty and opportunity. The Amazon holds a strategic position for Brazil and for the world, but it belongs, first and foremost, to Brazilians. Its protection will be conducted with sovereignty, State presence and opportunity for those who live in the region. We will strengthen environmental enforcement, prioritizing the areas under greatest pressure from deforestation and fires, using intelligence, satellites and coordinated action by federal agencies to identify critical areas more quickly. We will expand cooperation with neighboring countries against cross-border environmental crimes and step up the fight against criminal organizations involved in deforestation, illegal logging, illegal wildcat mining and irregular occupation of public land. The rigor of enforcement will be directed at those who run organized crime, not at those who live in the forest. The Amazon resident, the riverside dweller, the small producer, the forest-product gatherer, will not be treated as a criminal for drawing a living from the land. To them, the State owes guidance and support for the good use and preservation of natural resources, and not the persecution that today weighs on those who have the least. We will end the policy that criminalizes forest dwellers, replacing blind punishment with a path of guidance, regularization and opportunity. And, at the same time, we will expand income alternatives from the preserved forest, supporting sustainable production chains, responsible management, the bioeconomy and adding value to biodiversity products. Preserving the Amazon requires fighting crime, but it also requires giving its population a real path to development and a better life. For this to work, the State needs to be agile and integrated. We will eliminate overlaps between Ibama (the federal environmental agency), Funai (the federal indigenous affairs agency) and ICMBio (the federal conservation agency), making enforcement efficient, and require transparency about the funders and projects of NGOs that receive international funds and bring lawsuits against the federal government, because where there is foreign money driving decisions about Brazilian territory there are risks to the national interest, about which Brazilian citizens must be informed. [p. 57, 58, 59]

In plain language

• The text treats the environment as a strategic asset. It proposes carrying forward the universalization provided for in the Sanitation Legal Framework (detailed in Brazil that Prospers), consolidating the regulated carbon market and boosting the bioeconomy, with biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and new materials.
• It proposes expanding payment for environmental services and creating instruments to reward producers, communities and rural landowners who conserve native vegetation, recover degraded areas and protect water resources, with technology, technical assistance, training and credit.
• It sets the goal of ending illegal deforestation by 2029 and provides for fighting illegal fires with artificial intelligence, real-time data, satellite images and coordinated action by State agencies. Enforcement would target land grabbing, illegal occupation of public land and those responsible for illegal deforestation, without new obligations for producers who comply with the law.
• In the Amazon, it provides for enforcement prioritizing the areas under greatest pressure, cooperation with neighboring countries against cross-border crimes and the fight against criminal organizations linked to deforestation, illegal logging, illegal wildcat mining and irregular occupation of public land. For riverside dwellers, small producers and forest-product gatherers, it proposes guidance and regularization in place of punishment, as well as expanding income from the preserved forest.
• It proposes eliminating overlaps between Ibama, Funai and ICMBio and requiring transparency about the funders and projects of NGOs that receive international funds and bring lawsuits against the federal government.

What is not in the program

• It presents no interim targets, indicators or budget for ending illegal deforestation by 2029.
• It gives no amounts or funding source for payment for environmental services and the other incentives for preservation.
• It does not detail how the overlaps between Ibama, Funai and ICMBio would be eliminated.
• It does not name the legal instrument, the responsible agency or what information would be required from NGOs.
• It does not define criteria for separating residents who would receive guidance from those who would be targeted by enforcement.