Brazil's plan to roll back environment laws draws fire: 'The danger is real'

Brazil's plan to roll back environment laws draws fire: 'The danger is real'

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/21/brazil-environment-laws-indigenous-people?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other 

Environmental and indigenous activists condemn plan they say would threaten indigenous territories and make compliance with Paris deal impossible   

Environmentalists and indigenous rights campaigners have attacked efforts by the Brazilian government to roll back laws protecting the environment and indigenous territories, warning the moves could have disastrous consequences and even threaten the country’s ability to meet its commitments under the Paris climate deal.

The two initiatives include a bill that critics say would dismantle environmental licensing laws and a draft government decree campaigners say threatens existing and future indigenous territories. Coming after a recently announced 29% jump in Amazon deforestation, they have caused widespread alarm.

The moves represent “the most worrying regressions of our recent history”, said Mauricio Guetta, a lawyer for Socio-Environmental Institute, a Brazilian non-governmental group.

“If approved, they will certainly make it impossible for Brazil to meet its commitments under the Paris agreement,” he said.

In ratifying the Paris agreement, Brazil committed to cut 37% of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and end illegal deforestation by 2030.

The bill to overhaul Brazil’s rigorous environmental licensing laws has been stalled for more than a decade. But an amended version is now being guided by Mauro Pereira, a congressman from President Michel Temer’s centrist Brazilian Democratic Movement party.

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 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/21/brazil-environment-laws-indigenous-people?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other