Brazil’s Prosecutor General: Bolsonaro government has taken “numerous measures to reduce deforestation”

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On the day that the Institute of Man and Environment of the Amazon (IMAZON) disclosed that the area deforested in August this year is the worst for the month in a decade, the Federal Prosecutor General (PGR) said that the government has adopted “numerous measures to reduce deforestation as much as possible.”

In an brief submitted to the Federal Supreme Court (STF), Prosecutor General Augusto Aras stated that “the existence of specific initiatives by public authorities to minimize or curb the impact of illegal deforestation practices” precludes the Judiciary from intervening in the matter.

The brief was appended to the records of a lawsuit brought in 2019 by the Rede Sustentabilidade party, asking the Court to declare an unconstitutional dereliction of duty by President Jair Bolsonaro and former Environment Minister Ricardo Salles with respect to fighting deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest.

In the complaint, the party claims that despite acknowledging the rise in deforestation rates, Bolsonaro discredits official data presented by the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) – and, instead of taking action to address the disaster, “ironizes the situation and attacks the data.”

When summoned by the rapporteur Justice Cármen Lúcia to state his position, Aras said that forcing the government to take action would be “to delve into operational and technical areas, alien to the judicial role.” According to him, it is not up to the Judiciary to issue a “verdict about the potential correctness or incorrectness, sufficiency or insufficiency” of the measures taken by the government.

On Monday, IMAZON disclosed that the area deforested in August is equivalent to 5 times the size of the city of Belo Horizonte (MG) and 7% more than the area registered in the same month last year. Other striking data concern total deforestation between January and August – 48% higher than registered in the same period in 2020.

The lawsuit has been fully briefed and should soon be ready for trial. The rapporteur chose the simplified proceeding, i.e., she will take the case directly to the full court for consideration, without deciding individually. When the Justice releases the case, it will be up to Supreme Court Chief Justice Luiz Fux to schedule a date on the calendar.