NGOs and private sector respond to proposed extension of CAR deadline in Brazil

 

The Rural Environmental Registry (CAR, in Portuguese), an instrument that supports the regularization of rural properties, that among other things will subsidize the recovery process of degraded areas, may have its deadline extended once more. The registration deadline has already been extended before by a provisional executive order. 

 

The new deadline may be extended until May 2018. The Bill (PLS 287/2015) that changes the Forest Code (Law 12.651/2012) is currently in the Environmental Commission in the Senate (CMA, in Portuguese). If it is approved here and there is no request for a vote, the Bill will then pass to the Lower House of Congress. 

 

The Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forest and Agriculture, a multi-sectoral alliance comprised of over 150 companies, research centres and civil society organizations whose objective is to advance a low-carbon economy, was one of the key opponents of the deadline extension. According to an official statement released by the Coalition’s Working Group on the Forest Code, such a measure weakens the Forest Code’s implementation agenda and disrespects rural producers who have already registered in accordance with the existing Law. Furthermore, the deadline extension would benefit only a small group of properties, since almost 100% of the existing registrable properties according to IBGE (The Brazilian Institute on Statistics and Geography) have already been registered in the system. According to their statement, the government’s priority should be to increase the support for prompt registration of smallholder farmers, rural settlements and quilombolas, assure that the CAR validation process by the states continues to progress and to foster the implementation of the Environmental Regularization Programs (PRA, in Portuguese). The note concludes that these actions would bring more credibility to the Forest Code and would signal to the markets that the agricultural commodities production complies with the law and that Brazil is committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. 

 

Read the Brazil Coalition on Climate, Forest and Agriculture statement (in Portuguese).