550 #ClimateEmergency #Amazon #Indigenous
"Can Lula still save the Amazon?"
by Joaquim Salles for Grist [Nov 21, 2024] [Audio available]
https://grist.org/global-indigenous-affairs-desk/can-lula-still-save-the-amazon-brazil/
Quotes:
"The power imbalance in Brazil's government keeps environmental protections and Indigenous rights under threat."
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"Between January and November of 2023, the [Lula] government issued 40 percent more infractions against illegal deforestation in the Amazon when compared to the same period in 2022, when Bolsonaro was still in office."
"Lula also reestablished the Amazon Fund, an international pool of money used to support conservation efforts in the rainforest. Just this week, at the G20 Summit, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $50 million to the fund."
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"And yet, despite the government’s actions, environmental protections and Indigenous rights are still under threat. Lula is governing alongside the most pro-agribusiness congress in Brazilian history, which renders his ability to protect Brazil’s forests and Indigenous peoples in the long term severely constrained."
"Brazil’s equivalent to the House of Representatives, is made up of politicians from 19 different parties../\..Weak party cohesion makes it easier for interest groups to step into the vacuum and act as this coordination device."
"Agribusiness has long been one of the most powerful interest groups in Brazilian politics, but its influence has grown steadily over the past decade as the electorate shifted to the right and the sector developed more sophisticated strategies to affect politics."
"Today, the agrarian caucus is larger than any single party in the Brazilian legislature. "This gives them immense leverage towards any president.”
"Much of the coordination around the legislative agenda takes place away from congress (in) a think tank founded in 2011 and financed largely by major agribusiness corporations, including some in the U.S. and the European Union."
Among IPA’s main backers are
* Brazilian beef giant #JBS,
* German pesticide producer #BASF, and the
* U.S.-based corporation #Cargill
"The agrarian caucus has tallied several../\.. new legislation (on) use of pesticides, which Human Rights Watch called a “serious threat to the environment and the right to health,” removes barriers for previously banned substances and reduces the regulatory oversight of the health and environment agencies../\..Lula attempted to veto parts of the bill, but was overruled by congress."
"Another recent victory for the agrarian caucus came as a major blow to #IndigenousRights. Agribusiness has (for) called marco temporal (“time frame,” in English), which posits that Indigenous groups can only claim their traditional lands if they were occupying it in 1988, the year the current Brazilian constitution was drafted.
It disregards the fact that many Indigenous groups were expelled from their native lands long before that date."
"The theory had been making its way through the Brazilian justice system for 16 years, until it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court last year. Blatantly flouting the court’s ruling, congress passed a bill codifying marco temporal into law. Lula tried to veto the bill, but he was overruled by the agrarian caucus again."
"The government has limited tools at its disposal to block anti-environmental legislation. In the past, the executive branch had greater control over discretionary spending and was able to use this to its advantage while negotiating with congress."
"Among projects which have a high likelihood of passing, like the #BrazilsForestCode, the key piece of legislation governing the use and management of forests. “It would make control much more difficult because illegal forms of deforestation would become legal,” said Araújo."
"The move could open almost 18 million hectares of forest to agricultural development. That is an area roughly the size of New York state, New Jersey, and Massachusetts combined."
"Another bill in the package removes protections for native grasslands, including large parts of the Cerrado and the Pantanal (the world’s largest tropical wetland). In theory this would affect 48 millions hectares of native vegetation"
"Yet another bill, which has already been approved in the Chamber of Deputies, overhauls the process of environmental licensing, essentially reducing it to a rubber stamp. "You might as well not have licensing legislation” said Araújo."
"Part of the reason many of these bills have a chance of passing is the Lula government’s limited leverage../\..During these negotiations, some environmentalists believe concerns over Brazil’s forests fall by the wayside."
"Araújo: “There are political agreements and negotiations that must be made. The bargaining chip cannot be environmental legislation.”
#StopBurningThings #StopEcoside
#ClimateBreakDown
@lesandrop
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Hacker News 
Since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, over half a trillion dollars in credit have been provided to the world’s largest 55 industrial livestock companies – an average of $76.9 billion per year – fuelling the expansion of global meat and dairy production.
