Brasilia — Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed into law a contentious measure aimed at simplifying environmental licensing procedures, while simultaneously gutting much of the pro-agribusiness content in what critics had labeled a “green light for destruction” bill.
The legislation, originally crafted with heavy input from Brazil’s powerful rural caucus, promised sweeping deregulation to accelerate infrastructure, mining, and agricultural projects. Lula’s pen, however, stripped out 63 provisions that environmentalists said would have dismantled decades of safeguards, particularly in areas critical to the Amazon and Indigenous territories.
The vetoes preserve legal oversight for projects with significant ecological impact, ensuring that environmental licensing remains more than a bureaucratic rubber stamp. Lula framed the decision as necessary to “guarantee legal clarity” and uphold protections for Indigenous and Quilombola communities, whose lands face constant encroachment from agribusiness and illegal logging interests.
While rural lobbies accused the president of undermining economic growth, conservation groups hailed the move as a vital check on corporate overreach. The pro-development camp had hoped the bill would open vast swathes of land for industrial exploitation under the guise of cutting “red tape.” Lula’s refusal to hand them carte blanche represents a political rebuke to Brazil’s entrenched agribusiness oligarchy.
The government has signaled it will submit a new bill under constitutional urgency to fill what it calls “regulatory gaps” left by the vetoes, raising concerns among activists that another battle over environmental oversight looms on the horizon.
Amid mounting alarm from campaigners, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the so-called “devastation bill” into law on August 8, curtailing decades-long environmental licensing safeguards, even as he vetoed 63 of its most contentious provisions. Provisions allowing projects with “medium” environmental impact to self-certify via online forms and clauses disenfranchising Indigenous and Quilombola communities from decision-making were among those axed. Yet Lula preserved fast-track mechanisms for federal strategic projects—raising the specter of oil exploration in the Amazon—prompting rights groups to warn that a fragile compromise now hinges on mobilized civil society to ensure congressional resistance to any rollback, according to The Guardian.
According to Reuters, Lula’s office emphasized that the vetoed provisions risked generating legal uncertainty and weakening environmental protections, underscoring the administration’s intent to balance streamlined licensing with the preservation of Brazil’s biodiversity and the rights of its most vulnerable communities.
