On March 30, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) began a process that could make history: the judgment of the Green Agenda, which is a set of seven environmental and climate actions that were combined in order to attract the attention of the press and society to the material.
ADPF 760 (Action against the Noncompliance with a Constitutional Fundamental Right) is awaiting judgment. It requires the resumption of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon; ADO 54 (Direct Action of Unconstitutionality by Omission). This accuses the government of omission in the fight against deforestation. There is also ADPF 651, which is against the exclusion of civil society on the board of the National Fund for the Environment.
Justice Cármen Lúcia, rapporteur of six of the seven analyzed cases, ordered that the federal government submits, within 60 days, a plan to combat deforestation that is equivalent to the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm) and
declared an “unconstitutional state of affairs in environmental matters in Brazil.” The justice granted ADPF 760 and ADO 54.
Cármen Lúcia accused the Bolsonaro government, on March 31, of promoting a “silent and invisible extermination of the inspection and control bodies of the environment.”
1. Resumption of the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Amazon (PPCDAm)
The plan involved three main areas: territorial land planning; environmental monitoring and control; and the promotion of sustainable production activities. After its implementation, deforestation went down from 27,000 km² in 2004 to 4,500 km² in 2004. The action was filed in 2020 by the political parties of PSB, Rede, PDT, PV, PT, PSOL and PCdoB.
2. Evaluation of the need of Operation Verde Brasil 2 and the use of the Armed Forces
The petition by the PV claims that the operation and the use of the Armed Forces as a priority to act against environmental crimes in the Amazon took away the autonomy of Ibama (the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), which was scrapped by the Bolsonaro government.
3. Action against the decree that excludes civil society from the council of the National Fund for the Environment (FNMA)
The exclusion took place in February 2020. The FNMA is responsible for the promotion of the development of sustainable activities in the country, with the distribution of funds raised in the forest concessions. The action is by the Sustainability Network.
4. Action accuses the government of omission and requests that deforestation is fought effectively
The complaint was filed in 2019 by the Sustainability Network, with the accusation of omission in the fight against deforestation in the Amazon by the Federal Government. The text suggests a set of actions to address the issue, such as the full execution of the budget of the environmental agencies, the preparation of an actual contingency plan for the loss of the forest and the hiring of new inspection teams.
5. Reactivation of the Amazon Fund
The Amazon Fund was created in 2008 in order to finance projects to reduce deforestation and for its inspection. However, it has been frozen since April 2019 due to the Bolsonaro government. A 2020 action by the PSB, PSOL, PT and the Sustainability Network requests the release of the frozen resources and the resumption of the Fund.
6. Resolution regarding standards of air quality
An action filed in May 2019, by the Office of the Federal Attorney General (PGR), questions Conama Resolution 491/2018. According to reports from the Institute of Health and Sustainability, which is one of the civil society entities that participated in the process, during years of discussion, numerous contributions, information and research were presented to the forum but the Resolution did not include in its wording the most important aspects linked to the safeguarding of the health of the environment and of Brazilians.
7. Challenge of the provisional measure (MP) that releases licensing to medium-risk companies
Published in 2021, the MP changed the legislation for environmental licensing and established the automatic concession (without any human analysis) of operating permits and licenses for all medium-risk companies. In April 2021, the PSB also questioned the weaknesses of the MP.
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