El «Proyecto Devastal» promoverá la deforestación en el Amazonas brasileño

As Brazil gears up to host the upcoming climate summit, Cop30, forces of delay, authorization, and accelerated destruction are gaining power in the country. We are talking about a nation that hosts 60% of the world’s largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon, and the largest continuous floodplain, the Pantanal, among other essential biomes for life.

The Brazilian Senate approved the General Law of Environmental Licensing, which, in practice, will regulate most projects, from expanding hydroelectric plants, authorizing and paving already built roads for the production of meat and soy.

The text has already been dubbed the «Devastation Bill» by many before reaching the Senate, with the open disapproval of a large percentage of Brazilians who believe that this law will only serve to allow major deforesters to continue to bring an end to the Amazon, but under the guise of «whitewashing.»

Devastation Project: Free for Cleanup

Dozens of women who are victims of environmental disasters led a protest in Brasilia against what they call the «Devastation» draft law, which aims to facilitate environmental authorizations for entrepreneurs with «low or medium pollution potential.»

The women involved in the protest movement recently gathered at the National Theatre, where they went to Congress to express dissatisfaction with the progress of the project, which has just been approved by a large majority in the Senate.

According to the movement, the text approved by the senators allows deforestation to advance and increase the likelihood of new disasters, such as the breaks at the Brumadinho and Mariana dams, two of the largest environmental tragedies in Brazil, which resulted in nearly 300 deaths and caused massive environmental damage, with rivers contaminated by toxic waste and communities displaced.

If approved, according to the new law, it will be sufficient for those responsible to commit to complying with environmental requirements to start work. Elaine Pereira Neto, a resident of Mariana and a victim of the 2015 tragedy, believes it will create «much chaos.»

«If responsibility continues to depend on them (companies), they will not do it. Everything that is defined will not be replanted, refreshed, or anything done. In the aftermath of the Mariana Dam break, we know that nothing has improved to this day. What was affected remains the same, mud, pollution… everything,» said the 38-year-old woman. She also believes in the cost of deforestation.

«We are already experiencing the effects of climate change. All studies suggest that we are already in it. And this bill aims to relax environmental legislation, providing free rein through agribusiness, unlimited deforestation for large hydroelectric concessions and mining entrepreneurs. And this is for their benefit, which will continue to damage the lives of certain territories,» she said.

The project has been denounced by the Ministry of the Environment and several NGOs as a regression in environmental policies. Now, the text, which has been under discussion for two decades, must be debated and voted on in the Chamber of Deputies, with a conservative majority, including dozens of lawmakers linked to the agricultural sector. Efe / ecoticias.com