Lula's environmental agenda under threat in Brazil's Congress
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Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks at a summit last month. Photo: Ton Molina/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Six months since taking office, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's major environmental and reform initiatives are in peril because of an uncooperative Congress.
Why it matters: Lula came to power in part by promising to reverse record levels of deforestation in the Amazon, which affect the entire world, and to protect Indigenous communities hurt by illegal mining and logging.
Driving the news: Brazil's Senate is discussing a bill already approved by the lower house that experts and activists say would make Indigenous land preservation harder by limiting tribes' claims over territories.
- The bill, if approved, would dismiss the 285 Indigenous land claims that have long been pending — and it would bar any new claims. Activists say that could make it easier for illegal miners, loggers and cattle ranchers to encroach on the territories.
- That "would open the floodgates to runaway deforestation and climate chaos," Christian Poirier, program director of Amazon Watch, an NGO, tells Axios Latino.
- Some Congress members who support the bill say they think Indigenous groups laying claim to their land only benefits "foreign NGOs."
Other Lula initiatives that Congress has either slowed or killed in the last month include a proposed reform that changes the bidding process for sanitation companies and that Lula says would increase water access and improve sewage infrastructure in more municipalities. Debates start in the Senate today.
The big picture: Lula, a leftist, came to power on New Year's Day after a slim victory over former President Jair Bolsonaro, an ultra-conservative.
- In Congress, Bolsonaro’s Partido Liberal has the largest voting bloc in the lower house and the second-largest in the Senate.
What they're saying: "I think from what we've seen so far there will continue to be a major governability challenge for Lula in the future," says Bruna Santos, director of the Wilson Center's Brazil Institute.
- "I don't foresee a good relationship with Congress or any big wins" without Lula working more closely with Congress and making concessions, she adds.
Yes, but: Lula has already fulfilled some campaign promises and had some foreign policy wins, including a promise from the White House for the U.S. to invest for the first time in the Amazon Fund, which raises money to fight deforestation.
- Lula's been lauded for creating the Indigenous ministry, although one of its central components — land preservation rights — is in jeopardy.
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