Survey shows that the Environment Minister used the pandemic to loosen environmental laws

In a ministerial meeting in April 2020, Ricardo Salles, said that the government should take advantage of the public eye being drawn to the pandemic to, in a rough translation, “slip by the cattle herd”, that is, to further weaken the legislation on environmental issues. Almost a year later, a study by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) points out that he succeeded: of the 57 infra-legal acts - which do not depend on congressional approval - responsible for weakening environmental preservation rules signed by the Bolsonaro government starting in 2019, 49% were enacted after the pandemic began, peaking in September 2020. Among the measures is the weakening of administrative rules, the resolution that releases mining activity in areas still awaiting final authorization, and the reclassification of pesticides to less harmful categories. As a source, spreadsheets from Ibama, ICMBio, and Inpe were used, in addition to publications in the Union Official Gazette.

Between March and August 2020, environmental fines suffered a 72% reduction, even with the increase in deforestation and fires recorded in the period. The drop is attributed by researchers to budget cuts in the environmental agencies Ibama and ICMBio, currently under threat of merger. “The reduction in environmental fines, combined with amnesty for illegally deforested areas in the Atlantic Forest, may make landowners feel empowered to continue deforesting,” says the survey, according to an article in the Metrópole newspaper.