What is the Forest Code?

The Forest Code is a set of laws that regulate land use in Brazil

Forest Code

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The Brazilian Forest Code regulates how land can be exploited, establishing where native vegetation must be maintained and where different types of rural production can take place. The areas covered by the Code are divided into two types of preservation areas: the Legal Reserve and the Permanent Preservation Area (APP).

The Legal Reserve is the area of ​​a rural property that, covered by natural vegetation, can be explored with sustainable forest management, within the limits established by law for the biome in which the property is located. The Permanent Preservation Areas, in turn, are untouchable natural areas, with strict limits on exploration. According to the Ministry of the Environment, they have the environmental function of preserving water resources, the landscape, geological stability and biodiversity, facilitating the gene flow of fauna and flora, protecting the soil and ensuring the well-being of human populations .

History of the Forest Code

The first Brazilian Forest Code appeared in 1934, in the midst of the strong coffee expansion that was taking place at the time. The forests suffered from the advance of plantations, being pushed further and further away from the cities, which made it difficult and expensive to transport firewood and mineral coal – energy inputs of great importance at the time.

Decree 23.793/1934 aimed to face the negative social and political effects caused by the increase in the price and possible lack of firewood and charcoal, as well as to guarantee the continuity of their supply. For this, the Brazilian Forest Code obliged landowners to maintain the so-called “fourth part” (25%) of the area of ​​their properties with the original forest cover, consolidating a kind of forest reserve.

An initial outline of environmental preservation was also present in the law, which introduced the concept of protective forests to ensure the health of rivers, lakes and risk areas (steep slopes and dunes). This concept gave rise to Permanent Preservation Areas, also located in rural properties.

Firewood started to have less importance in the economy with the arrival of new energy sources. At the same time, environmental awareness was constantly growing. It was in this context that the 1965 Forest Code, Law 4,771/65, responsible for updating the previous law, was approved.

The concepts of Legal Reserve and Permanent Preservation Areas are established in the 1965 legislation. In order to preserve the biomes, the “fourth part” of rural properties became the Legal Reserve. In the Amazon, in the 1965 code, half of all rural properties were to be set aside for these purposes. In the rest of the country, the percentage was 20%.

In 1986, Law 7511/86 prohibited the deforestation of native areas. In addition, the boundaries of the Permanent Preservation Areas were expanded from the original 5 meters to 30 meters, and for rivers 200 meters wide or larger, the limit is now equivalent to the width of the river.

In 1989, Law 7,803/89 determined that the replacement of forests in legal reserves should be done primarily with native species. The limits of the Permanent Preservation Areas on the banks of the rivers were changed once again, with the creation of protected areas around springs, plateau edges or in areas above 1800 meters in altitude.

As of 1996, the Brazilian Forest Code was amended by numerous Provisional Measures. It is noteworthy that, in this period, the Code brought positive changes through the Environmental Crimes Law, which highlighted that several administrative infractions contained therein would become crimes. Furthermore, this law allowed the imposition of heavy fines by the environmental inspection bodies.

Since 1990, there has been continuous pressure to make the 1964 Forest Code more flexible by entities representing large rural landowners. The discussions led to the proposal for reform of the Forest Code, which went through the Chamber of Deputies for 12 years and generated controversy among ruralists, environmentalists and scientists. The new Forest Code, officially called Law 12.651/12, entered into force in May 2012, but many of its provisions still depend on regularization and the creation of instruments for them to be effective.

The new Forest Code

Known as the new Forest Code, Law 12,651 of May 25, 2012 “establishes norms on the protection of native vegetation in general, including Permanent Preservation Areas (APP), Legal Reserve (RL) and Restricted Use (UR) ; forest exploitation, supply of forest raw material, control of the origin of forest products, control and prevention of forest fires, and the provision of economic and financial instruments to achieve its objectives”.

Main changes to the new Forest Code

The new Forest Code brings numerous changes compared to the old Code. A study carried out by the specialist in Environmental Management Alexandre Ferreira Brandão da Costa analyzes the main changes to the new Forest Code. As the main positive points of Law 12.651/2012, the author points out:

  1. The creation of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR) that ensures effective control of land use in Brazil, enabling efficient territorial management through the registration and maintenance of environmental information on rural properties and possessions, replacing the notary offices and reducing bureaucracy in the process;
  2. The creation of the Environmental Reserve Quota (CRA), the first economic instrument to encourage forest conservation in Brazil. An instrument of financial benefit to the producer who has an area of ​​native vegetation greater than that required by law, in addition to the creation of a financial incentive program for the recovery of deforested areas;
  3. Permanence of the Legal Reserve preservation requirements: in forest areas in the Legal Amazon, the percentage is 80%, in the cerrado it was 35%, and 20% in all biomes in other regions of the country;
  4. Economic use of the property, where the producer can recover part of the Legal Reserve area with commercial forest species, interspersed with native species, avoiding monoculture. Furthermore, it can also economically explore the Legal Reserve area, provided that it is sustainable, enabling the expansion of the producer's income in specific situations;

The study also lists some negative points regarding the changes in the Brazilian Forest Code:

  1. Permanence of the consolidation of illegal occupations and deforestation in APPs that occurred until July 2008, stabilizing an open and explicit amnesty for environmental crimes, including recent ones. In addition, the law does not oblige the former offender to repair the environmental damage that occurred. Another evidently controversial amnesty is the total waiver of legal reserve restoration for any properties with up to four fiscal modules throughout Brazil;
  2. Damage to Water Reserves by predicting the reduction of permanent preservation areas to 15 meters in rivers up to 10 meters wide, affecting more than 50% of our country's water network, which may result in new deforestation, in addition to the legalization of old deforestation in risk areas;
  3. Adoption of fallow as a production technique for medium and large producers, allowing new deforestation in the hypothesis of the existence of abandoned areas in the property and consolidation of use (with deforestation) of areas in an advanced stage of regeneration;
  4. Inclusion of soccer stadiums and other facilities necessary to carry out sports competitions as a public utility activity for the purpose of occupying APPs, allowing the installation of such equipment over areas of springs, mangroves, riverbanks and lakes;
  5. Inclusion of planting of vegetable products as an occasional and low-impact activity for the occupation of APP;
  6. Removal of CONAMA's competence to define activities of public utility, social interest and low impact;
  7. New definition of the top of a hill that reduces by more than 90% what is considered APP, in addition to the waiver of APP on the margins of natural reservoirs with an area of ​​less than 1 hectare;
  8. Waiver of proof of absence of alternative location and compensation of the deforested area in APP (in cases of public utility, social interest and low impact);
  9. Exemption from Legal Reserve registration through rural environmental registration with a descriptive memorial containing only one mooring point, therefore without geo-referencing the boundaries of the entire property;
  10. Unlimited extension by act of the chief executive of the deadline for suspending the application of sanctions (fines and embargoes) for illegal deforestation;
  11. Maintaining the date of July 2008 as a time frame for the amnesty of illegal occupations in APP recognized as an environmental crime since 1998;
  12. Lack of clarity and stricter specific rule for the case of illegal deforestation after July 2008, in addition to the inexistence of specific rules for family farming, generally applying flexibilization to all rural properties;
  13. Dispensing with consistent evidence to prove deforestation in accordance with the previous law for the purpose of consolidating occupation.

Why is the project controversial?

The controversy involved in the approval of the new Forest Code is due to the opposing positions of ruralists, on the one hand, and environmentalists and scientists, on the other. The ruralists say that the project stifles production and that the text should include areas that, even though protected by the old law, are already consolidated as productive. Environmentalists and scientists, on the other hand, maintain that the project is amnesty for deforestation and makes room for more unnecessary felling, since there would be enough arable land in the country.

Despite having brought positive points and economic incentives to those who respect the conditions imposed by the law, the new Forest Code is seen by scientists and environmentalists as a setback to the achievements previously obtained. This is because, by reducing the protection of certain areas, it legalizes the occurrence of acts against the environment and allows other crimes to be committed. Thus, scholars do not know what the consequences of this law will be for the environment, but they claim that it could be disastrous and difficult to be repaired.



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