Report approved by the Mixed Representative Commission of the National Congress to evaluate the Provisional Measure (MP) 1,154/2023 may cause several damages to the environmental governance system in the country, including paralyzing the implementation of the Forest Code. The amendments proposed by the Congress members to the Provisional Measure will negatively affect rural producers, bringing serious harm to the country’s image and international reputation, just when Brazil begins to regain its leading role in the climate and forest agendas.
The impact on the Forest Code would stem from the transfer of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MMA) to the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services, which does not have the qualified technical staff or information technology to absorb the CAR – a database of almost 7 million rural properties, including spatial information related to land use on each of these properties. The Brazilian Forestry Service is coordinating this mechanism, which allows data analysis and regularization of environmental liabilities, and is crucial for the implementation of the Forest Code and for the environmental regularization of rural production in the country.
Agribusiness cannot be at the mercy of constant administrative and operational changes, which generate inefficiency and insecurity. The new international legislations on trade and deforestation claim for celerity and efficiency in the implementation of the forest law, under the risk of undesirable trade restrictions. To convert our comparative advantages into competitive advantages, we must invest in management and technology upgrades, and in more effective public policies. The maintenance of the National Rural Environmental Registry System in the Brazilian Forest Service is an essential part of this strategy.
It is equally serious the transfer of the National Policy on Water Resources and the National Water and Basic Sanitation Agency from the MMA to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development. This move reflects a limited perspective on the issue of water security, as if it were a matter linked only to infrastructure. Water is a major socio-environmental asset, and its management should not be exclusively focused on ensuring its availability for human or industrial consumption. It is also a core element for policies related to environmental conservation and the fight against climate change. The MMA, therefore, is the portfolio that best meets the transversality required for the subject matter.
The Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture hopes that the Congress members, when examining the report in the National Congress, are sensitive to the warnings and technical arguments raised by several sectors of society and rectify these points until the final approval of the Provisional Measure 1,154.
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The Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture is a movement comprised of more than 350 organizations, including agribusiness entities, companies, civil society organizations, the financial sector, and the academia.