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Entities on both sides protest against merger announced by President-elect Jair Bolsonaro and speak of backtracking

President-elect Jair Bolsonaro announced this Tuesday (30) the possible merger of the Ministry of the Environment with that of Agriculture, as well as the creation of the Ministry of Economy, which should unite the current portfolios of Finance, Planning and Industry and Foreign Trade . The extinction of an autonomous ministry focused on environmental issues, however, worries both activists in the area and members of agribusiness, as the issue has a great impact on international trade negotiations.

Some issues that concern environmental specialists are the lack of balance between the strengths of environmental advocates and public policies in the area and those of agricultural advances and deforestation, and the potential increase in rural violence and greenhouse gas emissions. Entrepreneurs in the agribusiness sector, in turn, fear for the image that Brazil will transmit in international trade.

The Climate Observatory, a coalition of Brazilian civil society organizations that discuss climate change, said in a note that the decision "anticipates the beginning of the dismantling of environmental governance in Brazil. It submits the regulatory agency to the regulated sector. It ignores that the environmental heritage unique to Brazil is an asset, not a liability, which also requires a single regulatory structure."

The executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, Carlos Rittl, warned in an interview with the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper: "If Brazil loses forest, it will lose market. This is not the environmentalists talking about." agribusiness that talk about the importance of sustainability and the Paris Agreement at the negotiation tables of international trade agreements.

Former environment minister Marina Silva, candidate defeated in these elections, also draws attention to the impact of such a decision on foreign trade. "[The merger] will give consumers abroad the idea that the entire Brazilian agribusiness, despite having increased its production for productivity gains, survives thanks to the destruction of forests, especially in the Amazon, attracting the fury of non-tariff barriers in prejudice to all," he declared on his official Facebook page.

In a statement, the Coalition Brazil Climate, Forests and Agriculture, a group that brings together representatives of agribusiness, environmental protection entities, academia and the financial sector, stated that the union of the ministries could "put a necessary balance of forces in check which needs to be respected in the context of public policies". They are also concerned about the submission of a regulatory body (the Ministry of the Environment) to a regulated sector.

As for the agribusiness sector, the fear of exporters is that Brazilian products will be banned because of environmental issues, such as deforestation in the Amazon, which will now become a problem for the new Ministry of Agriculture. This could cause Brazil to lose important markets, such as Europe and even the United States (where environmental activism is very strong, although the current administration is not very concerned with international environmental agreements).

This concern with foreign trade is reinforced by academia. In the view of economist Carlos Eduardo Frickmann Young, from the Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development Group of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (GEMA-UFRJ), in an interview on the website O Eco, "the transformation of the Ministry of the Environment into a secretariat signals a conception of the structure of the old State and divorced from the current world, where climate change and the notion of sustainability are guidelines not only for public policies, but for the market."

He draws special attention to the European market, where the cost of a climate control measure is very high, as these are countries that perceive the climate problem with great relevance. "How are they going to want to deal with a country that is doing just the opposite?" he asks. The economist's fear is that Brazil will be limited to secondary markets, such as Africa or Russia, countries where the climate issue is not it would serve as a market barrier factor.

Young recalls that the American case is particular: "While the US federal administration is not concerned about this, no company will want an activist demonstration outside its store in New York because that product being sold was associated with the loss. biodiversity, the increase in climate change or the disappearance of indigenous peoples".

“It is the worst possible scenario for the environmental area,” declared Paulo Artaxo, a climatologist at USP, in an interview to Folha de S.Paulo. He warns of the risk of ruralists becoming confident with impunity, which should only worsen the Brazilian image in terms of foreign trade. The group of ruralists calling for a looser environmental policy is coming out victorious over agribusiness export sectors, which fear the closing of markets.

Artaxo believes that the possible expansion of deforestation could intensify land disputes and lead to an increase in violence in the countryside. In addition to the risk that this tension poses to Brazil's image in foreign trade, turning air pollution and deforestation into a problem for the Ministry of Agriculture will make the Brazilian exported product very fragile to negative campaigns.

Economist Carlos Young says that Brazilian exporters will have to invest heavily in environmental certification and in advertising campaigns so that their product is able to get rid of its deforesting reputation. This will have a high cost, which may not outweigh the benefits of the expansion of low-productivity cattle ranching, the main one favored by the expansion of deforestation.

• Deforestation in the Amazon is unnecessary, harms the development of Brazil's economy, society and image abroad

The members of Coalizão Brasil also made themselves available to the elected government to offer more details about the risks involved in this merger, "as well as to present the numerous opportunities that the country has to enjoy a low-carbon economy."

The Ministry of the Environment itself received the decision with "surprise and concern". In an official statement published on Wednesday (31), the current minister of the Environment, Edson Duarte, says that "the two bodies are of immense national and international relevance and have their own agendas, which only overlap in a small fraction of their competences. "

He highlights the breadth of the portfolio of actions of the current ministry, which ranges from combating deforestation and forest fires to encouraging renewable energies, licensing sectors that have no involvement with agricultural activity, such as oil, and combating air pollution. These are broad and complex issues, which demand a "own and strengthened structure", according to the minister.

The preservation and defense of the environment is a duty of the Public Power, enshrined in article 225 of the Federal Constitution, which justifies the existence of a ministry dedicated to the subject. The current minister reinforces the chorus of warnings: "The new ministry that would emerge with the merger of MMA and MAPA would have operational difficulties that could result in damage to both agendas. The national economy would suffer, especially agribusiness, in the face of possible retaliation trade by importing countries."

The Ministry of the Environment (MMA) was created in 1992, during the Collor government, and is responsible for formulating and implementing national environmental public policies. The ministry is composed of three municipalities and an agency:

• Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), responsible for licensing major works and inspecting environmental infractions;
• Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), responsible for managing federal Conservation Units and for the conservation of threatened species;
• Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden Research Institute (IBJB), responsible for coordinating the Brazilian Flora Species List and for assessing the risk of extinction of these species;
• National Water Agency (ANA), dedicated to enforcing the objectives and guidelines of the Brazilian Water Law.

It is not yet known what the fate of each autarchy will be in the new ministerial composition.