Marina Silva bets on dialogue to reverse environmental losses

The Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, said, this Thursday (25th), in Brasília, that the federal government will continue to dialogue to prevent the removal of assignments from the portfolio, voted on by the National Congress that Wednesday. fair (24).

“In the case of the time frame (of indigenous lands) and the changes that the rapporteur is proposing in the matter, the final vote has not yet been taken in the plenary of the House. So, we will continue dialogue until the moment of the final decision, which is for the plenary. We still have until Tuesday (30) to continue the dialogues and, obviously, the government’s internal dialogue is taking place”, he explained.

On Wednesday night (24), the members of the Mixed Commission approved the report by Deputy Isnaldo Bulhões Jr (MDB-AL) on the provisional measure that defined the structure of President Lula’s new government. The report removes several attributions from the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change. The National Water Agency (ANA), for example, will be linked to the Ministry of Integration and Regional Development. The Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), an electronic registry that is mandatory for all rural properties and possessions, will be linked to the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services.

The report also removes the National Information System on Basic Sanitation (Sinisa), the National Information System on Solid Waste Management (Sinir) and the National Water Resources Management System (Singreh) from the ministry’s competence. The Ministry of Cities will be responsible for the three systems.

The minister classified the moment as difficult for the government. “A part of Congress, which is the majority, wants to impose the management model of the Bolsonaro government on the elected government of President Lula”, she stressed.

Marina Silva said she respects the autonomy of the powers of the Republic, but that the provisional measure sent at the beginning of the year is the right of the current federal government.

Sovereignty

“Congress is sovereign. We respect the autonomy of the powers, but the federal government has the legal and constitutional right to organize itself [dentro da] way that the Executive understands that it is the best way to carry out its management”, he stressed.

She regretted the changes to the original text. “There is a set of actions being subtracted from the original form, as President Lula did with the provisional measure, recovering lost competences and preserving the competences of recently created ministries, as is the case of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples”, she observed.

The report voted on Wednesday night (24) removed from the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples (MPI) its main attribution, that of demarcating original peoples’ lands, returning it to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

In a note this Thursday, the MPI stated that the indigenous peoples and all those who care for the protection of the environment in Brazil “suffered yet another hard blow” with the “dismantling” of attributions of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and the Ministry of the Environment from approval of the provisional measure. The ministry led by Sonia Guajajara considers May 24, 2023, the day for the institutionalization of the “indigenous genocide and Brazilian ecocide”: “this will be the path of the country’s indigenous and environmental policy after the approval of the MP 1154/23 report that restructures the ministries, the urgent requirement of PL 490/07 that releases the exploitation of indigenous territories and MP 1150/2022 that allows the increase in the devastation of the Atlantic Forest”.

Biodiversity conservation

Marina Silva’s statements were given during the inauguration of the president of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), Mauro Pires, a career official at the body, this Thursday.

Pires was chosen through a search committee, recreated in February by the current federal government and composed of five specialists in environmental conservation to choose a technical name to lead the body. The minister chose the name of Mauro Pires from a triple list.

The institute’s new president, Mauro Pires, stated that the bodies of the National Environmental System will continue their work in a stronger manner. “It is not a difficulty like this that will prevent us from working to consolidate the protected areas. The conservation units are the heritage of the Brazilian people. So, we have to work so that the conservation of biodiversity continues with the same effort”, he specified.

In his inauguration speech at ICMBio, Mauro Pires highlighted that Marina Silva’s presence at the head of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change has changed Brazil’s environmental and climate governance and that the time of denial of science is over.

The inauguration took place in the conservation unit of the Brasília National Park. The ceremony was attended by the president of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), Joenia Wapichana, and representatives of the Deputy Delegation of the European Commission, France, Germany, Norway, Italy and representatives of civil society and academics.

* Article updated at 4:55 pm to include the position of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples.