Check out our team's highlights from last week below:
1) The recognition of the Maranón River as a subject of Rights by the Peruvian Court
In recent years, the discussion on the Rights of Nature has been gaining momentum around the world, and recently the Peruvian Court has become another example with the declaration by the Mixed Court of Nauta of the Marañón River as a subject of rights. Since 2021, the legal battle has been marked by the struggle of the Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana Federation, formed by a group of indigenous Kukama women, against the Peruvian state and authorities, demanding the protection of the Marañón River in the face of constant oil spills from the Norperuano Pipeline, operated by the Petroperú company.
The recognition of the Maranón River as a subject of rights represents a significant step forward in the fight for environmental protection and the rights of indigenous communities. This is because, as well as guaranteeing the Maranón River the right to exist, flow and remain free from contamination, it has also recognized its cultural and spiritual significance for the indigenous communities living on its banks, imposing a duty on the authorities to protect the rights of the Kukama people as representatives, guardians and defenders of the Marañón River and its tributaries.
Source: Jornal Amanhecer; Garn.ong
2) Federal government, states and municipalities draw up climate change adaptation plan
Since the beginning of July last year, there has been a steady decline in historical temperature records, and between March 15 and 18, 2024, a heat wave significantly affected south-central Brazil. In the cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, for example, record temperatures and thermal sensations were recorded. High temperatures are a consequence of climate change.
Last Tuesday and Wednesday (19 and 20/3), the federal government held a workshop with representatives of states and municipalities to articulate coordination and cooperation in adapting to climate change, in which Minister Marina Silva highlighted the need to involve the Federative Entities in tackling climate change, with an emphasis on local policies. Thus, the Climate Plan, created in 2009 to implement the National Climate Change Policy, will undergo a review, including the participation of society, and will include the formulation of mitigation and adaptation axes, each with national strategies and sectoral plans, to be implemented in all federal units to have their climate action plans according to the specificities of each region.
Source: MMA
3) House approves bill to make deforestation in Brazilian biomes more flexible
On Tuesday (19), the Chamber of Deputies' Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) approved Bill 364/2019, which aims to allow deforestation of non-forest native vegetation in all Brazilian biomes. The Bill, which amends the Forest Code, considers that predominantly non-forest forms of native vegetation will be considered consolidated rural areas and can be exploited, thus including general fields, highland fields, native fields, as well as any type of "non-forest" vegetation throughout Brazil.
This legislative change opens the way for the destruction of biodiversity and the devastation of all non-forest vegetation in the country. It constitutes a real environmental step backwards by freeing up widespread deforestation, affecting 50% of the native grasslands in the Pantanal, 32% in the Pampas, 7% in the Cerrado and almost 15 million hectares in the Amazon, which will now be classified as consolidated rural areas to be used for grazing.
Source: socioambiental.org; G1; wwf.org
4) Agribusiness, pesticides and water: ADI 5.553 on the agenda for judgment
On March 22, the world celebrated Water Day, and the discourse related to its protection gained ground at the national level. However, while in theory we advocate protecting and guaranteeing access to water for present and future generations, Brazilian practice goes in the opposite direction. This is because the agribusiness sector, which consumes 90% of the planet's water, is expected to expand by 50% by 2050, boosting consumption and directly contributing to pollution and environmental degradation through deforestation and the intense use of pesticides.
With regard to the latter - agrochemicals - SOS Pantanal (NGO) recently pointed out the existence of the fungicide carbendazim, used in monoculture production and currently banned in Brazil due to its carcinogenic potential, in the waters of the Santo Antônio River, a crucial tributary to the Pantanal basin, located in Mato Grosso do Sul. These results point to the risk of water contamination from the use of agrochemicals, since the dispersion of active chemicals is interconnected between air, land and water, causing damage to human health as well as to biodiversity as a whole.
And within this scenario of the expansion of agribusiness and the use of pesticides, in mid-2020, the Socialism and Freedom Party (PSOL) filed Direct Action for Unconstitutionality No. 5,553 questioning the validity of rules that establish tax benefits for pesticides on the grounds that the benefit encourages the use of controlled substances that sometimes cause damage to human health and the environment. This past week, the ADI returned to the Plenary of the Federal Supreme Court for judgment, and so far, Edson Fachin voted to uphold the ADI, followed by Justice Carmen Lúcia, while Justice Gilmar Mendes, accompanied by Justices Cristiano Zanin, Dias Toffoli and Alexandre Moraes, presented a dissenting thesis stating that pesticides are essential for production in Brazil, since if they were not used, production would fall by 50% and it would be necessary to double the area currently cultivated. The trial is scheduled to be analyzed in the virtual plenary between March 22 and April 3 of this year.
Source: G1.globo; Conjur
5) Brazilian indigenous peoples and activists call for Cerrado to be included in EU regulation
The Cerrado, a region with an extraordinary variety of plants and animals, as well as being home to springs that feed river basins throughout Brazil, was the subject of a request for inclusion in EU regulations by the President of the Federation of Indigenous Peoples and Organizations of Mato Grosso (FEPOIMT), Xunakalo, along with other activists. Xunakalo visited Brussels last week to ask MEPs to amend the European law banning the import of products resulting from deforestation, due to come into force at the end of this year, to also include protection for the Cerrado.
The law passed in April by the European Parliament requires that a series of products imported by the bloc's countries, such as cocoa, coffee, soy, palm oil, timber, beef or rubber, must now prove that they have not generated deforestation in order to enter European territory. Therefore, the definition of forest adopted in the law does not include the Cerrado, a biome that covers parts of Brazil, Paraguay and Bolivia, and from where, however, a large part of European imports of soya, for example, originate. The leaders therefore stress the importance of explicitly including the Cerrado in these regulations, as an instrument to guarantee the reduction of deforestation in Brazil.
Source: UOL; gauchazh
Daniele de Oliveira Lazzeres
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