How Brazil's 'devastation bill' puts Amazon at risk of deforestation

Just weeks after Brazil hosted the COP30 climate summit, Congress has reaffirmed changes to the environmental licensing process that could accelerate deforestation in the world's largest tropical rainforest.

Dubbed the "devastation bill" by critics, the law dismantles environmental protections that have forestalled developing ecologically sensitive areas and required companies to avoid or compensate for the impact of development projects on nature.

Lawmakers passed a measure on Dec. 3 establishing a fast-track special licensing process for projects deemed strategic by the government.

Last month, they struck down 56 of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's 63 vetoes that aimed to keep environmental oversight in the legislation.

Lula has 15 working days from Dec. 3 to sign the latest form of the rules on licensing of strategic projects into law, making the changes complete. He could also veto them, pushing it back to Congress.

Environment Minister Marina Silva told the public news agency Agência Brasil in late November the government is "seriously considering" filing a lawsuit at the Supreme Court against the changes.

Environmental groups, such as the Brazilian Climate Observatory and the Brazilian Association of Members of the Environmental Prosecution Office, have also said they will go to the Supreme Court in an attempt to reverse the changes.

Here's what you need to know:

How does the law change Brazil's environmental licensing process?

The legislation includes a fast-track special licensing process for projects deemed "strategic" by the government. Those may now be appraised within a one-year deadline.

Suely Araújo, public policy coordinator at the Brazilian Climate Observatory, told Context that this provision "establishes political priorities within the environmental licensing and flips logic, allowing the most impactful projects to go through the quickest processes."

The new law also establishes a "self-licensing process" that allows companies to obtain permits for medium-impact projects by filling out an online form and declaring their commitments to meet environmental requirements.

The changes also lift licensing requirements for projects affecting Indigenous and "quilombola," or Afro-descendant, territories that are not fully recognised, as well as in thousands of natural reserves.

Who backs the bill, and who opposes it?

The law was passed with support from the powerful agribusiness-aligned caucus and has been praised by the mining sector.

Lula faced environmentalists' criticism for his public silence as the bill advanced in Congress, while his energy, transportation and agriculture ministers showed support for it.

Silva, the environment minister, opposed the changes during the debate in Congress and said in late November that previous licensing rules "had avoided hundreds of thousands of tragedies throughout decades."

In a technical note published this week, the Climate Observatory said that the new rules allow authorities to "stamp out projects as 'strategic' to justify the accelerated licensing of high impact projects," such as large hydropower dams and oil drilling.

Which projects could benefit from the new rules?

The law may help unlock controversial projects, such as state-run oil firm Petrobras' bid to extract oil near the mouth of the Amazon river, which environmentalists say could unleash an oil rush in the region.

In October, environmental agency Ibama gave the company a go-ahead to conduct exploratory research by drilling in the environmentally sensitive deep waters off the shore of Amapa state.

It could also speed up the repaving of an 885-km (550-mile) road across one of the best preserved tracts of the Brazilian rainforest and the Ferrogrão railway, which international traders want built to transport grains through the forest for export.

These projects, all backed by Lula, have faced licensing and legal hurdles for years.

If they are now given the go-ahead, they would open up untouched areas in the Amazon and drive deforestation, according to analyses from environmental groups, such as Instituto Socioambiental and the BR-319 Observatory.

What could this mean for the Amazon and climate change?

Developing parts of the rainforest and other ecologically sensitive areas in Brazil threatens to accelerate deforestation, endanger minority communities and undermine the fight against climate change, experts said.

Brazil was the world's sixth largest carbon emitter in 2024, according to a report from the European Union's Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research.

Most emissions are due to clearing natural vegetation, including forests, to make way for farms, as well as methane emissions from a 240 million-strong cattle herd, according to Brazil's Climate Observatory SEEG system.

Scientists say deforestation and degradation are compounding the effects of climate change and turning vast swaths of the Amazon into drier, degraded ecosystems.

This story was updated on Friday December 12, 2025 at 16:41 GMT, to reflect the latest developments.

(Reporting by Andre Cabette Fabio; Editing by Anastasia Moloney, Ellen Wulfhorst and Ayla Jean Yackley.)