Government files first lawsuit over climate damage to the Amazon
Brazil’s Office of the Attorney-General and biodiversity conservation institute ICMBio on Monday (Sep. 16) filed a lawsuit with the Federal Court of Pará state in a bid to collect financial compensation for climate damage.
The lawsuit seeks compensation of BRL 635 million for illegal cattle ranching in the Jamanxim National Forest, a conservation unit in the Amazon. It is the first climate damage lawsuit filed by the two authorities.
The social damage is said to include deforestation, illegal burning, the use of pesticides, the destruction of permanent preservation areas, and their prevented regeneration. In the document, the agencies also ask the court to vacate the area within 30 days.
During inspections, ICMBio agents caught approximately 3 thousand head of cattle in the deforested areas. The animals had not been registered with Pará’s agricultural surveillance agency. The irregular farms were fined and embargoed by the institute.
During the ceremony announcing the filing of the lawsuit, Attorney-General Jorge Messias guaranteed that the federal government will be strict in punishing environmental crimes. “The federal government will have no tolerance whatsoever towards environmental offenders. We will in no way tolerate any kind of environmental infraction, especially in conservation and preservation areas,” he declared.
The calculation of the damage was based on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions in the damaged area. A total of 1,139,075 tons of carbon are estimated to have been emitted in the 7,075 hectares damaged in the conservation unit.
