Environment Minister Marina Silva said on Thursday that the federal government is considering an appeal to the Supreme Federal Court (STF) after Congress overturned almost all of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s objections to the General Environmental Authorization Law. According to her opinion, the parliamentary decision dismantles the pillars of protection and opens loopholes that could lead to the advancement of deforestation and weaken environmental inspection throughout the country.
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– With this filibuster, and especially the device that stipulates that each state and municipality can make its own legislation, we will now have a lawless land, a no-man’s land. The federal government itself, facing the abolition of one of the main tools for protecting the environment and people, is considering bringing her to justice, Marina said in an interview with GloboNews.
The minister’s response increased criticism from environmental institutes and associations regarding the cancellation of the veto. Among the points reincorporated into the text were self-licensing, the flexibility to protect the Atlantic Forest, and the restriction of consultations with indigenous peoples to only areas where demarcation had been approved. For experts, the set of changes could jeopardize climate targets that Brazil adopted at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30), in Belém.
Congress dropped all of Lula’s objections to the new environmental licensing project, except for the provisions on special environmental licensing, which are subject to analysis under a temporary measure. More than 260 representatives and 50 senators voted in favor of the ouster, a higher number than necessary to prevent a presidential veto.
Among the key changes are the expansion of the Licensing and Compliance (LAC), which now also applies to projects with moderate contamination potential and the regulation of informal activities; Remove the authority of conservation unit administrative bodies to veto projects affecting these areas; and relax licensing requirements for deforestation in the Atlantic Forest.
The new law also makes more flexible the participation of bodies such as Funai and the Ministry of Racial Equality, whose opinions will no longer be binding even when there is an impact on indigenous lands, quilombolas, cultural heritage or conservation units.
Parliamentarians opposed to the veto argued that the changes modernize and rationalize licensing, providing legal certainty to the productive sector. Deputies from the environmental base stated that the decision weakens monitoring bodies, allows projects to advance without proper analysis of impacts and contradicts recent decisions taken by the STF itself on land protection. The entire law, along with the previously vetoed sections, will now go to the publication stage.