Dilma vetoes amnesty for deforesters and 11 articles.

247 with Agência Brasil – The Minister of the Environment, Izabella Teixeira, announced in a press conference the changes that a Provisional Measure issued by the Presidential Palace suggests to the text of the Forest Code approved by the National Congress. The new guidelines of the Forest Code foresee the largely reconstituted text approved by the Senate, without amnesty for deforesters, with greater protection for small landowners and with the maintenance of the Permanent Preservation Area (APP) statutes.

Izabella Teixeira justified the partial veto as an act of respect for democracy and said it is based on the idea of ​​not allowing anything that would grant amnesty for deforestation and that it was done in the name of legal certainty. "We will conclude this process by giving more legal certainty to the producer," added Minister Mendes Ribeiro, of Agriculture. "It is possible to produce while protecting the environment. This is not the code of environmentalists, nor of rural landowners, but of those who have common sense," he concluded.

Regarding the risk that the changes proposed by the Planalto Palace might not be approved by the Chamber of Deputies, where they must go through again, the Minister of Agrarian Development downplayed it. "We are confident that the text will be approved because it represents the culmination of the debate that has taken place," said Pepe Vargas. Mendes Ribeiro also guaranteed that the increased stringency in environmental protection criteria will not harm production. "Productivity has been increasing without increasing the planted area, due to research. Our producers work creatively," said the Minister of Agriculture.

Congress

Brazil's Attorney General, Luis Inácio Adams, assessed that the government will have no difficulty in getting the provisional measure (MP) approved by the National Congress to amend and supplement the Brazilian Forest Code, which has suffered 12 vetoes and 32 changes.

Despite the defeats suffered by the government in the Chamber of Deputies, which approved a text that did not have the support of the Planalto Palace, Adams said that the vetoes and modifications announced today (25) have every chance of being fully upheld by the National Congress. According to him, the changes reflect the debate held in the National Congress and in civil society.

“We will take this matter to the parliamentarians and discuss the elements that led to the adoption of this provisional measure and these vetoes. This discussion gives us great confidence that the small producer will be served and environmental balance maintained. This project has every chance of being fully upheld in the National Congress,” said Adams.

Presidential vetoes can be overturned by the National Congress, provided they have the support of an absolute majority in both Houses – the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies – in a secret ballot.