The coup is also preserved at the cost of the devastation of the Amazon.

Among the many measures taken by the illegitimate Temer government that involve environmental devastation, aggression, and suppression of the rights of indigenous communities and traditional populations, the decree to extinguish RENCA is certainly the one that causes the greatest rejection from society.

It's worth remembering that this National Copper and Associated Minerals Reserve was a measure adopted in 1984 by the Figueiredo government, with the aim of ensuring that this mineral-rich area did not fall within the reach of international exploitation. In other words, it had little or nothing to do with environmental concerns or with indigenous and other traditional peoples who lived and still live in the region. We are talking about the period of the military dictatorship, an era characterized by little or no respect for human rights, and even less for forest preservation.

In the slightly more than 30 years since the dictatorship and the reconstruction of democracy, environmental concerns and the defense of the rights of minorities and traditional populations have, thankfully, become part of the political agenda, despite aberrations like those of Temer. Therefore, there is an understanding, almost common sense, that opening that region to the exploration of copper, gold, diamonds, iron, and niobium, among other minerals, will represent increased deforestation, irreparable loss of biodiversity, and negative impacts, especially regarding social and cultural aspects for native peoples and the entire region.

With the unconvincing argument of attracting investment to the country, the initiative was strangely adopted based on agreements with companies interested in exploring the region, especially Canadian mining companies. No consultation with indigenous peoples and traditional communities was carried out, as mandated by Article 231 of the 1988 Federal Constitution and Convention 169 of the International Labour Organization (ILO). The government is catering to the interests of large mining companies that have been requesting the extinction of that reserve for years and is yielding to pressure from the parliamentary bloc linked to the extractive companies that finance their campaigns.

By opening the region to the mining sector, there will be no way to guarantee the protection of the forest, conservation units, and much less the indigenous lands. One only needs to observe the trail of destruction that Brazilian and foreign mining companies have left in the Amazon in recent decades: deforestation, pollution, compromised water resources due to high water consumption for mining and its contamination with chemical substances, increased violence, drugs and prostitution, intensification of land conflicts, oppression and aggression against the cultures and ways of life of indigenous and traditional communities.

With strong public reaction both nationally and internationally, the government made two retreating moves. First, it altered an item in the decree, assuring, in a second version, that forest preservation areas and indigenous reserves would not be affected. Then, it announced a 120-day extension of the measure to open a dialogue. Lacking any moral authority and devoid of any semblance of seriousness and legitimacy, no one believes in the government's democratic sensibilities. Its many actions are there to prove it: reduction of Units of

Conservation and forest parks, elimination of indigenous areas, weakening of environmental licensing procedures, and authorization for the sale of Brazilian lands to foreigners. In addition to total permissiveness and complicity with the growing violence in the countryside. Held hostage by the rural lobby and always ready to surrender to international capital, it is, so to speak, a government of environmental devastation and attacks on the rights of indigenous communities and traditional populations, such as quilombolas, caiçaras, and riverside dwellers.

This, which is certainly one of the hardest blows to the Amazon, also had the remarkable agility to mobilize broad sectors of society. In just over 24 hours, Avaaz collected more than 600 online signatures against this measure. Socio-environmental defense movements across the country, the Public Prosecutor's Office, the artistic world, and parliamentarians from the Environmentalist Front in the Chamber of Deputies took the lead in the fight through denunciations, demonstrations, and questioning the legality of this act which, through an obscure decree, extinguishes the Renca reserve. This is yet another attack by the Michel Temer government on the environment, within a set of policies with no connection to the public interest, aimed solely at his personal objectives and the attempt to remain in office, handing over Brazilian assets in the process.

While it's true that there's a glimmer of hope until the end of the year, with the 120-day extension proposed by the government, it's also true that initiatives to combat this measure cannot become complacent. Whether in the legislative, legal, or popular mobilization fields, we cannot let up for a single moment. Not coincidentally, regarding the extinction of RENCA, right now, for example, we have three Provisional Measures (789, 790, and 791) currently being processed in the Chamber of Deputies that amend the Mining Code in Brazil, granting mining companies greater autonomy over their actions and less control from the public authorities, which generates considerable uncertainty regarding the environmental preservation of these areas.

As President of the Committee for the Defense of the Environment and Sustainable Development, I presented a set of amendments to the texts of these Provisional Measures sent by the government. Among them, I highlight the proposal to establish the National Council for Mineral Policy, which will define, through public consultation, an ecological zoning as an important measure for environmental preservation, biological balance, and the defense of the culture and lives of traditional peoples. We are also forwarding other legislative measures to demand explanations from the government regarding mineral and environmental policy and to prevent the pursuit of profit from overriding the preservation of nature and the environment.

Monitoring and control actions to ensure that the Ministry of Mines and Energy and the Ministry of the Environment are held accountable for acting with due rigor in the protection of the environment and traditional populations are also initiatives that we are pursuing. Public hearings, as many as necessary, to discuss the future of ReNCA and the guarantee of forest preservation go hand in hand with the PDC (Constitutional Decree Project) of our authorship that is being processed in the Chamber arguing the unconstitutionality of the then decree.