NGOs warn of serious risks of collapse of national ecosystems and the devastating impact on the livelihoods of indigenous peoples
Civil society organizations see the decision of the to overturn 56 of the 63 vetoes of the has (Law No. 15,190/2025), called by environmentalists the “PL of Devastation”.
The Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) says, in a statement, that Congress’ decision puts the lives of millions of people at risk.
“We need to be more efficient with environmental licensing, but never at the cost of insecurity and current and future risks for the population. Did the illustrious senators not understand the message that nature is giving us? in Belém, makes it clear that we have exceeded limits. We have to rethink our relationship with our rivers and forests. And it is not with a rushed and dysfunctional PL that we will be more harmonious with the environment in which we live”, says André Guimarães, executive director of IPAM.
The institute understands that the new law dismantles the State’s ability to prevent and control damage to the environment and tramples on the rights of indigenous peoples, who will not be consulted on projects that could generate impacts on their territories.
The note also speaks of Congress’ disrespect for the Brazilian people, which increases the possibility of a hostile and unstable world in the future due to the climate crisis. The law could increase deforestation and accelerate the so-called “points of no return” in all Brazilian biomes. National ecosystems are at risk of collapse.
The Arayara International Institute says that Congress negotiates lives, weakens socio-environmental protection and makes it impossible to meet the climate goals assumed by Brazil at COP30.
“Congress turned its back on the country, opened the gate and let the herd pass. It didn’t listen to the protests of civil society, vulnerable populations, it disregarded studies by scientists and environmental entities. It threw the main advances in environmental legislation in the country’s history in the trash”, says an excerpt from the note.
Arayara understands that the law affects projects with medium polluting potential, such as mining tailings dams. The new legislation allows entrepreneurs to fill out just one online form to start building a project, disregarding technical analysis and the risk of new tragedies.
The institute says it is already mobilizing to combat Congress’s decision in the legal sphere. And that it will work together with the political party PSOL in proposing a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality (ADI).
The Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM-Brazil) states that the overturning of vetoes increases the vulnerability of territories and biomes already under pressure from the expansion of high-impact activities.
The entity says that Congress’ decision weakens fundamental safeguards that protect indigenous peoples, traditional communities, rivers, forests and ecosystems across the country.
The note also says that REPAM will monitor the developments of the decision, strengthen public advocacy and articulate, together with communities and partner organizations, paths of resistance in all Amazonian and Brazilian territories.
Conservation International (CI-Brazil) says that the decision puts nature and everyone who protects and depends on it at risk.
“The changes proposed by the legislation, previously vetoed, weaken the protection of ecosystems and put the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, quilombolas and traditional communities at serious risk, precisely those who keep the forest standing. Brazil loses water, food and climate security, as well as risking its economic base at a time when Nature-Based Solutions are decisive in facing the climate and biodiversity crises simultaneously”, says Mauricio Bianco, vice-president of CI-Brasil.
The Climate Observatory (OC), a network that brings together 161 members from the socio-environmental area, states that organizations will go to court against the new law. The understanding is that it is “unconstitutional, exposes the health and safety of Brazilians to risk, leads to the widespread destruction of our ecosystems and violates the country’s climate goals”.
“The provisions that returned with the overturn of the vetoes conflict with the rights of indigenous people and quilombolas, give a blank check to subnational entities to do whatever they want with licensing, restrict the field of application of environmental licensing and reduce the responsibility of financial institutions, among other absurdities”, says Suely Araújo, Public Policy coordinator at OC.
For Greenpeace Brazil’s public policy specialist, Gabriela Nepomuceno, the new law will favor the expulsion and forced displacement of indigenous peoples and traditional communities, as well as facilitate the issuance of licenses for oil blocks.
“Enterprises considered ‘strategic’, such as oil drilling in could be approved within an unenforceable deadline, compromising quality and safety and potentially causing irreparable socio-environmental damage”, he says.
*With information from Agência Brasil
