O forest code represents a set of laws that regulate land use. The first forest code that Brazil instituted was in 1935 and this determined the preservation of ¾ of the native forest of a rural property, which was consistent with the economic and socio-spatial reality of the country at that time, when Brazil was a country of primary economy and the occupation of areas such as the Cerrado and the Amazon was still a lot restricted.
In 1965, the Forest Code was created, which has been in force until the present day and which defined the protection of the APP (Permanent Preservation Area) and the creation of a Legal Reserve of 50% in the Amazon and 20% in the rest of the parents. The Permanent Preservation Areas correspond to the banks of rivers, slopes, tops, springs, lakes and reservoirs, restingas and mangroves. The Legal Reserve defined the amount of native forest from the original cover that must be preserved.
The then president Fernando Henrique Cardoso created, in 1996, an MP (Provisional Measure) in order to increase the Legal Reserve in the Amazon to 80%, reducing the Legal Reserve in the Cerrado within the Legal Amazon to 35% and maintaining 20% for the other biomes. Shortly after, in 1999, debates began in the National Congress to modify the Forest Code through the creation of a Mixed Commission, formed by deputies and senators, but with strong influence of rural associations, such as the CNA (Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock of the Brazil).
It should be noted that every bill is created by the Chamber of Deputies. Once approved in the Chamber, the bill reaches the Senate. After acceptance by the senators, the bill reaches the Presidency of the Republic, which can sanction (approve) or veto (deny) the project or parts of the project. This is when the greatest political tensions occur, as the approval of projects and the creation of laws follow a system of political alliances: parties allied to the government and opposition parties fight a dispute for votes and interests in particular.
After nearly a decade of debate, it was only in 2008 that a new commission was created to bring together 11 bills to reformulate the Forest Code, with the full support of ruralists. The project's rapporteur was federal deputy Aldo Rebelo, currently Minister of Sports, who belongs to the political group allied to the presidency, and presented the final proposal in 2011. In May, the bill was approved by the Chamber of Deputies and, in December, by the Senate, with some modifications. In this case, when the bill undergoes modifications by the Senate, even if approved, it must return to the Chamber of Deputies, before reaching the Presidency of the Republic.
Finally, in April 2012, the final text was approved. In May, President Dilma vetoed 12 articles of the code, presenting 32 changes. An MP was edited and discussions were forwarded until the month of September, when Congress presented a new format for the project, which once again had sections vetoed by the president. Among vetoes, decrees and Provisional Measures, the new Forest Code has not yet managed to be established.
Among the most controversial changes proposed by the project and which were vetoed by the president, we can highlight:
- Permission for the urbanization of mangrove and sandbank areas, if it is found that their ecological functions are compromised;
- Exemption for smallholders from APP recomposition;
- Preservation of the area covered by gallery forests and riparian forests for a limit of up to 15 meters in relation to the river banks, regardless of the size of the properties;
- Granting credit and other benefits to farmers who deforested until July 2008, exempting these producers from fines, as long as they recover the vegetation that has been removed up to the date in question;
- Release of the APP recomposition for rural landowners who preserve 50% of the Legal Reserve on their property.
Changes to the forest code need to consider forests as an integral part of agricultural systems. It is necessary to develop a reflection towards the importance of maintaining native vegetation, because in certain segments related to agriculture, archaic thinking and that refer to the old sugarcane mills in the Northeastern Zona da Mata prevail to the present day, relativizing the role of forests, which are even evaluated as a barrier to economic growth in the region. parents.
Among the functions that forests play, some, in particular, are of fundamental importance for agricultural practices. The forest is responsible for the conservation of soils, since the absorption of water carried out by the roots of the plant helps in water infiltration, fixing the soil and increasing the volume of water in groundwater underground. At the same time, this process reduces the siltation of superficial courses. Vegetation, through the process of evapotranspiration, collaborates to transform the microclimate of a region, increasing the relative humidity of the air and interfering with the rainfall regime.
This means that a reduction in forested areas, in addition to causing impacts on the biodiversity, can also compromise agricultural production, putting pressure on natural resources until the your exhaustion. It also makes agriculture more expensive, forcing producers to dispense with greater amounts of investment in agricultural techniques for soil correction and irrigation, something much more viable for those producers who are involved in large scale production and commercialization, a phenomenon known worldwide as the agribusiness.
In addition, fishing, indigenous and riverine communities, as well as quilombolas, landless and small farmers in different modalities, should be favored in public policies that intend to modernize any type of legislation involving activities agricultural.
Nor can we fail to consider that, in an advanced and de facto mature democracy, established governance must always consult civil society, which is directly affected by public policies, regardless of their size - municipal, state or federal. Projects such as the Soccer World Cup, the Transposition of the Waters of the São Francisco River, the Belo Monte Plant and the Reform of the Forest Code need to have greater participation by civil organizations and clarification for the public in general.
Julio César Lázaro da Silva
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Master in Human Geography from Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/brasil/a-reforma-codigo-florestal-brasil.htm