Flexibility for the recovery of native vegetation in Brazil

Washington, DC - The text already passed by the Brazilian House of Representatives establishes that the farmer will be able to recover the area without an authorization or a license from the government, as long as the purpose is to restore the native vegetation. The objective of Bill - PL 5634 is to encourage farmers to restore the vegetation around springs, lake shores, and waterways by using seeds from protected areas part of the National System of Conservation Units (SNUC), making it possible to expand the area of existing native vegetation on rural properties and real estate.
Heitor Soares, Agrarian Law specialist and Coordinator of the Agribusiness Technical Department at Nelson Wilians Advogados, explains that this is an important step to reduce the interference of public authorities and facilitate the recovery of native vegetation.

“It is necessary that the government makes an advance with respect to improving the effectiveness of public services so that the public apparatus itself is not a reason to prevent the development of any activity whatsoever, and stimulates the significant advance to environment restoration,” explains Soares.

The specialist says that the delay in the analysis of environmental license processes is a complaint from farmers. He recalls that the proposer deputy, Otto Alencar Filho (PSB/BA), expressed that “the authorizations and licenses currently required by environmental agencies for any intervention in these areas discourages voluntary initiatives from rural landowners and other parties interested in recovering the native vegetation”, which is why Bill 5634 needs to pass.

The ABC Plan, the main project for restoring hectares of degraded pasture, contains the Degraded Pasture Recovery (RPD) contract and classifies the pastures with the greatest need for attention, as Severe Degradation, Light Degradation, and Non-Degraded. Data from the Rural Environmental Register (CAR) assessed more than 5.5 million properties and identified a reduction in Severe Degradation from 34.3% to 25.2%. However, there is an increase in pasture areas classified as Lightly Degraded and Non-Degraded. The most significant increase occurred in Non-Degraded areas, of approximately 94.7%.
Today, in Brazil, the total pasture areas are approximately 170.7 and 171.6 million hectares. For Soares, “Passing the Bill is not only important for Brazilian Agribusiness, but for the entire planet”, he concludes.

[About Soares]
Heitor Soares is the coordinator of Nelson Wilians Advogados’ Department of Agrarian, Agribusiness, and Environmental Law. With a degree from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Goiás and graduated in Agrarian and Agribusiness Law, he is the vice-president of the Agrarian Law Commission of the Goiás Bar Association (OAB/GO).

[About Nelson Wilians Advogados]
Nelson Wilians Advogados is the largest law firm in Latin America and currently ranks as one of the largest law firms in Brazil in number of lawyers and physical structure. It has approximately 1,600 contracted lawyers and approximately 657,000 active cases under its responsibility. One of NWADV’s greatest assets is the recognition of being a firm that operates in all areas of business law and has a wide range of domestic and foreign clients from the most diverse branches of the economy. With operations in all states of the Federation with its own structure and international presence, it offers its clients quality services, whether in large-scale litigation or in strategic and/or advisory demands.