The Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture recognizes the improvements implemented in Provisional Measure (MP) 1,151/2022, which provides for the attractiveness of concessions in forest management units, during its course in the House of Representatives. The Movement considers that the amendments to the text, which led to the approval by the House on March 30th, improve the existing inspection systems, provide greater legal assurance to the concessionaires, promote greater flexibility in contracts and expand the allowed economic activities. Moreover, the final text is similar to Bill 5,518/2020, the proposal which brought the debate to the House of Representatives.
We understand that forest concessions represent a strategic tool for the country’s sustainable development, besides being a powerful mechanism for job and income generation. The issue has already been extensively debated by the National Congress over the last three years and, in this sense, the original Provisional Measure lacked improvement that would bring greater security and diversification to economic activities based on environmental services. The Provisional Measure approved in the House and sent to the Senate satisfactorily addresses the concerns raised on this issue by the Brazilian Coalition.
However, the final version approved included issues unrelated to the concession issue that need to be addressed. Articles 2 to 5, which make changes in other laws and deal, for instance, with the possibility of granting carbon credits in conservation units and the expansion of the legal reserve concept, which would include areas registered with the purpose of keeping a stock of wood and would allow these areas to be considered for payment for environmental services. These are topics, therefore, that deserve a deeper understanding in their discussion and should be the focus of specific legal norms.
The Brazilian Coalition calls on the Federal Senate to endorse the text with specific reference to concessions, paving the way for it to finally be possible to strengthen sustainable production models, generating green jobs and contributing to the end of deforestation.