Highlights of the Year:

A provisional measure originally issued during the Bolsonaro administration and revived by Congress in 2023 posed the most significant threat to the Atlantic Forest Law since its inception. Not inherently in its original text, but through a parliamentary amendment that, if approved, would have allowed the clearing of untouched areas of the Atlantic Forest, as well as areas in advanced stages of regeneration.

MP1150 became a focal point for our public policy team throughout the year. We discussed it in hearings with the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Marina Silva, and her team, as well as with Brazil's Vice President, Geraldo Alckmin.  We provided technical notes and institutional positions to the measure's rapporteur, Senator Efrain Filho, and to the President of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco, highlighting the harmful impacts of the proposed text. We worked tirelessly in the halls of the National Congress to ensure that Brazil's most devastated biome did not lose its special protection. 

After deliberations, the detrimental amendment to the Atlantic Forest - which was unanimously removed from the text by the Senate, then reintroduced in the Chamber of Deputies, and ultimately vetoed by President Lula - the measure finally became law, excluding the section allowing new deforestation but still delaying the full implementation of the Forest Code.

Recap the story.

Our engagement at the federal level included significant collaboration with the Mixed Parliamentary Front for Environmentalism in the National Congress, from its formation to its actions throughout the year. See all of the Front's actions in this report.

We also influenced the creation of the Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development in the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate and drafted technical notes in defense of the National Solid Waste Policy and concerning native vegetation in the Altitude Fields. Additionally, we advocated for the approval of Constitutional Amendment Proposal No. 06/2022, known as the Water PEC.