There are 57 of 106 proposals being processed; Brazil has more than a thousand fires across the country
Half (54%) of the projects against forest fires being processed in Congress were presented by deputies and senators from centrist parties. Of the 106 proposals presented until Friday (September 27, 2024), 57 come from congressmen from this spectrum. The left is responsible for 42 and the right, 7.
The data comes from a survey carried out by Power360 based on the systems of the two Houses. The number disregards archived texts.
The count considered 10 parties as the center, which include the acronyms of center, center-left and center-right.
The party with the most projects, however, is left-wing: PT, with 16. Next come União Brasil (13), PDT (11) and MDB (11).
CONGRESS IMMOBILITY
Despite the number of projects, Congress did not take effective measures to combat the effects of the fires.
On the eve of municipal elections, congressmen have focused on organizing allies in their cities.
INCREASE IN PENALTIES
Almost half – 47 of the 106 projects (44%) – call for simply toughening the punishment against those who start fires.
Last week, the president of IbamaRodrigo Agostinho, stated that increasing the punishment It is just one measure of many that need to be taken.
“Brazilian legislation, unfortunately, is insufficient […] The increased penalty is part of a set of important measures so that we can actually tackle this in the medium and long term.”he declared, after speaking at a session in the Senate to debate the fires in Brazil.
In a meeting with the Three Powers at Palácio do Planalto, on September 17, the president of Congress, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), said it was necessary to seek a balance in the formatting of laws, so as not to have “legislative populism” and “measures that are disproportionate”.
According to Philip Antonioli, a criminal lawyer specializing in Economic Criminal Law and founding partner of the firm Campos & Antonioli Advogados Associados, there is a need to increase the sentence, but most importantly “it is the certainty of punishment” of criminals. He advocates a review of the Criminal Execution Law.
“What’s the point of the National Congress dedicating itself to producing new laws, focused on arresting more people, if we have 340,000 outstanding arrest warrants in the country? There are 340 thousand criminals, already covered by the law, who remain free and certainly commit new crimes”declared the lawyer.
Dinovan Dumas, specialist in economic criminal law at University of Coimbra, says that Congress should not focus only on worsening sentences, but on “deliberating projects that materialize more environmental education and culture actions, such as effective prevention mechanisms”.
“The accountability of companies for environmental crimes should be one of the central themes. Although Brazilian legislation already provides that legal entities may be held responsible, the proposals currently being processed make progress by determining the suspension of the economic activities of companies that cause severe environmental damage until they fully repair the damage.”he stated.
FOCUS IN BRAZIL
Brazil recorded 1,085 fires on Saturday (September 28), according to data from the BDQueimadasfrom Inpe (National Institute for Space Research). The country had recorded a drop in the number of alerts, which went from 1,374 to 934 outbreaks from Thursday (September 26th) to Friday (September 27th).
Pará is in 1st place in the ranking, with 251 recorded fires. Next are Bahia, with 196 outbreaks, and Minas Gerais, with 190.
As for biomes, the Cerrado continues to lead, with 516 records. With a propensity for fire expansion due to low humidity and high temperature, the area affected by flames in August grew by 177% when compared to the same period in 2023.
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