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Minister Cármen Lúcia, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), determined that President Jair Bolsonaro and Environment Minister Ricardo Salles provide information on annual data on deforestation and the measures adopted by the government in the area.
The minister’s decision was taken in an action presented by the Sustainability Network. The party points out the government’s omission in the environmental preservation policy and asks the Supreme Court to determine concrete measures to control deforestation.
Bolsonaro and Salles will have five days to send the data. The minister also requested information from the Attorney General’s Office (AGU) and the Attorney General’s Office (PGR).
Carmen Lúcia pointed out that she will be able to analyze the case regardless of whether the Court is in recess at the end of the year.
Since the beginning of the mandate, the Bolsonaro government has been criticized by entities linked to the environment, from Brazil and abroad, for the policies adopted for environmental preservation, considered insufficient.
In the Amazon, the deforested area between August 2019 and July 2020 was 11,088 km², an increase of 9.5% compared to the previous period. The deforested area is the largest since 2008.
The year 2020 represented a great loss in the Pantanal as well. The biome had its worst year in terms of fires since the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) began monitoring in 1998. The fire consumed more than 20% of the entire Pantanal, destroying the equivalent of more than 10 times the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo together.
The statements and actions of Minister Salles raised doubts among entities and experts about the effectiveness of the government’s strategy in environmental preservation. At the inter-ministerial meeting on April 22, which was made public through a judicial decision, Salles suggested to Bolsonaro and his fellow ministers that the government should take advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to “pass the cattle” in terms of changes in environmental rules. In Salles’ justification, the press would be busy with news about the coronavirus and would not notice changes in environmental legislation.
