Good morning! This week, how Congress plans to diminish Amazon rainforest protections. The new imbroglio at Petrobras. And how Brazil is failing poorer workers.
Congress has a plan to diminish the ‘Legal Amazon’
House Speaker Arthur Lira greenlit discussions over a bill that would essentially remove the state of Mato Grosso, a Brazilian agricultural powerhouse, from the area known as the “Legal Amazon.”
What is it? The “Legal Amazon” is larger than the actual rainforest within the Brazilian territory and spreads across half of Brazilian territory, taking in nine states. It is a political concept created during the military dictatorship for the purposes of policymaking.
- In the Legal Amazon, special environmental legislation applies. Landowners are required to conserve 80 percent of their property if it finds itself in an area of rainforest, and 35 percent if it is savanna (known as cerrado).
The bill. Producers in Mato Grosso struggle to comply with regulations, occupying almost 25,000 square kilometers of land under permanent protection. The solution found by Congressman Juarez Costa, a former mayor of Sinop (in Mato Grosso), was to exempt the state from adhering to Legal Amazon standards.
- “Greater production [from the fields] would provide massive socioeconomic...