Lula gathers ministers and announces firefighting measures

Brasil de Fato

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Workers’ Party) met with the heads of the three branches of government and Supreme Court Justice Luiz Roberto Barroso, federal deputy Arthur Lira and senator Rodrigo Pacheco to discuss the national emergency due to the forest fires that had affected more than 18 million hectares by September 9, the equivalent of the entire state of Paraná, with the potential to impact more than 60% of the national territory.

Lula opened the meeting, which the press could watch, by calling on the federal entities and the others to make a shared effort to tackle the climate crisis.

“We want to share a solution to this climate problem. This meeting here is for us to take actions not foreseen until today,” said the President.

According to the Chief Executive, there are strong suspicions of criminal acts contributing to the proliferation of fires across the country, and he called for rigorous investigations. “We’re not fooling around,” he declared.

Pacheco, President of the Federal Senate, said that there is clear evidence of arson and advocated that the government send a message to the world that Brazil is prepared to deal with the situation.

“All of the federal government’s immediate efforts, with the collaboration of the Legislative Branch, in our opinion, should be aimed at containing the fire and investigating who is responsible in as many inquiries as necessary, to identify and punish these people,” he said, ruling out the need to pass legislation that increases penalties or establishes new criteria for punishing environmental crimes, as he considers that there is already a legal framework in this regard and that any measure to toughen penalties would be ‘legislative populism.’

Pacheco also defended Brazilian agribusiness, which experts have singled out as one of Brazil’s main villains of the environment. “We can’t be ashamed to say that we are the world’s largest soy producers,” said the senator.

Lira, the Speaker of the House, said that Brazil is living in an “uncomfortable situation” and rejected the possibility of modifying the Forest Code to toughen the consequences for people who deforest and arsonists.

The federal deputy acknowledged that a criminal organization of factions is behind some of the situations registered in the country, adding to Pacheco’s concerns about Brazil’s image regarding environmental policies.

The President of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ, in Portuguese), Herman Benjamin, called for tough measures to be taken against environmental crimes and suggested preventing rural credits from being accessed by arsonists and people who deforest. “If we don’t act, we’ll face much more serious problems, which will even impact Brazil’s exports,” he warned.    

The Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, defended progress in demarcating Indigenous Lands (TIs) as a way of strengthening environmental protection mechanisms and combating crimes.  

According to a report by the MapBiomas network, Indigenous Lands occupy 13% of Brazilian territory, covering 112 million hectares, and are home to 19% of Brazil’s native vegetation. These areas have the highest level of preservation, having lost only 1% of their native vegetation in the last 39 years.  

Panorama   

The Minister for the Environment and Climate Change (MMA, in Portuguese), Marina Silva, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the country’s current situation in relation to fires. According to her, this is the worst drought in South America’s history and one of the worst on the planet. Marina said that of the 27 states, only two are not in a drought situation, while nine are 100% in a drought.  

According to information from the MMA, 690 outbreaks of fire have been identified in recent days. Of these, 290 have been extinguished, 179 are controlled, and 106 remain active, which is difficult to fight.  

“We have 8 million square kilometers of highly dried organic matter in rapid combustion, and any spark of fire can generate a fire.” She stressed to the President and others the complexity of monitoring and fighting forest fires.  

“The dynamics of fire are different from the dynamics of deforestation. Deforestation doesn’t happen in an hour or two hours. I receive an alert from INPE [the National Institute for Space Research], and the teams go there and act fine. I have a few days to [combat] deforestation. Someone with a matchstick can start a fire in less than 20 minutes,” she explained.    

The minister also noted that the country does not have the technology to deal with such complexity. “The technological equipment we have so that I can get the satellite image and process this information takes at least 40 minutes, which means the fire has already spread. So the process of monitoring fires is very complex,” she said, also revealing President Lula’s idea to create the National Council on Climate Change to involve civil society and all the branches of government in drawing up policies and actions on the issue.  

Health   

The Minister of Health, Nísia Trindade, said that the ministry is in permanent contact with the municipal and state departments and is, therefore, monitoring the cases so that the ministry can guarantee the reinforcement of health teams in the most affected regions. According to her, there has not yet been a need to open beds to care for patients.    

“There are several problems that can be generated, ranging from respiratory problems that become more serious in people who already have respiratory problems, mainly asthma, bronchitis and emphysema, but also cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. All these problems are aggravated in this scenario.”  

President Lula asked the Ministry of Health to work with city halls and state governments to actively seek out people who have lung problems and may need specialized care, as well as children and pregnant women.    

In addition to the aforementioned authorities, the Secretary for Institutional Relations, Alexandre Padilha, the Federal Attorney General, Jorge Messias, and the Attorney General of the Republic, Paulo Gonet, were also present.  

Resources    

Lula also signed a Provisional Measure releasing a credit of R$ 514 million (over US$ 93 million) distributed among various government areas to help deal with the emergency. On Monday (16), STF Minister Flávio Dino authorized the government to issue extraordinary credits to fight the fires.  

Even if Congress does not approve the Provisional Measure within the statutory maximum of 120 days, the credit will not impact the fiscal rule limit, as happened with the so-called “war budget” during the COVID-19 pandemic. The magistrate also relaxed the rules for hiring temporary firefighters to reinforce the firefighting force.    

At the meeting, Barroso, President of the STF, said that he is following the budget recovery plans of environmental agencies, such as the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA, in Portuguese) and the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio).  

During the session, he announced that the National Council of Justice (CNJ, in Portuguese) approved a recommendation that all judges give “preference and special attention” to environmental crime investigations.  

He also criticized legislation that imposes penalties for these crimes too lightly and made suggestions. “About arson, I think we need to create a ban on the regularization of land ownership in areas that have been burned,” he said.    

Announcements   

The Chief of Staff, Rui Costa, was responsible for announcing the actions to be taken by the federal government. In addition to the exceptional credit for dealing with the fires, the minister announced the restructuring of civil defenses and fire departments in dialogue with the state governments. “We must discuss with the governors how to spread this to the municipalities. When it comes to fire, the more decentralized it is, the better,” he said.    

Costa also announced that the government will send another Provisional Measure to Congress to facilitate the release of resources from the Amazon Fund, simplifying the procedure for emergency cases. The government will also evaluate the creation of similar funds for other biomes.    

The minister also announced that a bill would be sent to Congress to propose revising the amounts of administrative sanctions according to the seriousness of the offense and the penalties for forest fires. Finally, Costa stressed that the situation room meetings on the climate emergency should continue until the end of the crisis.