Brazil. Last Thursday, March 31, the Chamber of Deputies approved Provisional Measure 1151/22 (MP), which changes the rules of the law for managing public forests by concession, allowing the exploration of other non-timber activities and the use and commercialization of carbon credits.
According to the rapporteur "We will not preserve the environment with a speech that is far from practical conditions. The carbon credits market will guarantee the preservation of the forest".
That is, other non-timber forest products and services may be subject to the concession, including forest restoration in the management unit, with agroforestry systems that combine native and exotic species of economic and ecological interest.
According to the MP, the areas recorded in the property registration with the objective of maintaining a wood stock, may be computed as a legal reserve for the purposes of use as payments or incentives for environmental services, including for the purposes of national and international markets for emission reductions and greenhouse gases certificates, such as carbon credits.
Environmental licensing will be waived in conservation and restoration concessions and maintained for the exploitation of native forests, now according to the rules of the Forestry Code (only, and without mentioning the environmental impact study, EIA). The deadline for the concessionaire to solve problems pointed out by audit increases from six months to 12 months.
Among many other changes and innovations:
- flexibilities related to the absolute reserve (currently, a minimum area of 5% of the total granted)
- unification of neighboring areas
- repression of invasions in the areas granted and subject to the forest concession
- Brazilian Forestry Service and new Pluriannual Plan for Forest Concession (four years)
- reduction of requirements related to the estimation of human and financial resources for environmental monitoring and inspection by the bodies of the National Environmental System
- civil liability insurance and contractual performance guarantee
- transfer of resources from the National Fund on Climate Change through private banks and fintechs, for projects to recover degraded areas or reduce greenhouse gases
- public-private partnership for public forest concessions
Click on the image below to follow the progress of the MP. (Status March 31, 2023: Awaiting submission to the Federal Senate). And here for an article by Agência Câmara de Notícias.
