🪪 License for destruction

LICENSING

Agro celebrates, environmentalists commiserate, as Senate passes major licensing overhaul

In April 2020, during the Covid pandemic, the environment minister of Brazil’s anti-environment former President Jair Bolsonaro uttered an expression which became so notorious that it shot straight into the personal vocabulary of conservationists around the country.

During a closed cabinet meeting, footage of which was leaked to the press a month later, then-Environment Minister Ricardo Salles urged the government to take advantage of the media attention on the deadly pandemic to push through a raft of rule changes loosening up Brazil’s environmental protections.

He described this culling of regulations as “running the cattle herd” through the Environment and Agriculture ministries — a particularly evocative image considering the livestock farming industry’s expansion into Brazil’s most preserved biomes.

Bolsonaro and Salles’s time in charge resulted in disaster for the environment in Brazil, with deforestation figures going through the roof and important protection agencies dismantled and sold for scrap. But with both men long out of office, an environmental licensing bill approved in the Senate this week provides a throwback to the previous government, being described as the “biggest running of the cattle herd of all.”

🔒 This was a free preview; the rest is behind our paywall

Don’t miss out! Upgrade to unlock full access. The process takes only seconds with Apple Pay or Stripe. Become a member.

Don’t take this newsletter for granted

We’re here for readers who want to truly understand Brazil and Latin America — a region too often ignored or misrepresented by the international media.

Since 2017, our reporting has been powered by paid subscribers. They’re the reason we can keep a full-time team of 10 journalists across Brazil and Argentina, delivering sharp, independent coverage every day.

If you value our work, subscribing is the best way to keep it going — and growing.

Our annual plan goes for just USD 0.52 a day — but the value you'll get back from it is truly immeasurable. So… what’s stopping you from joining right now?

Get smarter on Brazil and Latin America

Already a paying subscriber? Sign In.

The full picture. The sharpest takes. All in your inbox, every day:

• • 🏆 Award-winning journalism, trusted worldwide
• • 📊 Exclusive charts and analyses
• • 🗃️ Archive access
• • 💬 Commenting