How is the project, approved in Congress, which reduces forest protection in the Amazon by 37%

Flona was created in 2006 to protect areas close to BR-163, as a form of environmental compensation for the construction of the highway. Since then, reducing the limits of the conservation unit has been a demand from the agribusiness sector, which defends the construction of Ferrogrão.

The railway will be 933 kilometers long and should connect the grain-producing region of the Center-West, in Sinop, in Mato Grosso, to the Port of Miritituba, located on the right bank of the Tapajós River, in Itaituba, in Pará.

The project had already been approved by the Chamber of Deputies in May, during a sequence of votes called “agro week”. Defended by agribusiness and criticized by environmentalists, the proposal now goes to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) for sanction.

Before approval in the Senate, Flona do Jamanxim, located in the municipality of Novo Progresso, had preservation rules that were stricter than those applied to Environmental Protection Areas.

In a statement, the Ministry of the Environment stated that it was against the proposal and classified the forest as essential to contain the advance of deforestation along BR-163.

“The proposal could intensify pressures related to deforestation, the grabbing of public lands, illegal logging and the loss of native vegetation in the Amazon,” says the statement.

What changes in practice? The Jamanxim National Forest has an area of 1.302 million hectares, according to data from the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio). The approved project reduces this territory to 814 thousand hectares, a decrease of 37.39%, and transforms the area taken from Flona into an APA.

For the Ministry of the Environment, “changes of this magnitude must be supported by robust technical studies, broad social participation and respect for the principle of prohibiting socio-environmental regression, in accordance with the Constitution and the jurisprudence of the Federal Supreme Court”.

Among the main points of the approved project are:

Land regularization of occupations prior to 2006, as long as the area has no record of illegal deforestation; and Agrarian Reform (Incra), in other areas of the Legal Amazon; The cancellation of domain titles in the case of illegal deforestation. Before the project was approved, environmentalists warned that the change could increase the opening of illegal branches and deforestation in the vicinity of the future railway.

Included in the New Growth Acceleration Program (PAC), Ferrogrão is considered fundamental to facilitate the flow of agricultural production in the Center-West and a priority for rural producers in the Center-West and North regions.

Political historyThe reduction of the area of the Jamanxim National Forest began to be discussed in 2017, when then president Michel Temer (MDB) presented a provisional measure for this purpose.

The text was changed during the process in the Chamber and ended up not being sanctioned by the Palácio do Planalto, after pressure from environmentalists and international entities. At the time, model Gisele Bündchen participated in the mobilization and asked for the proposal to be vetoed.

Subsequently, the Temer government presented a new bill, which remained stalled for almost a decade in the Chamber. The discussion was resumed in May this year, during the so-called “agro week”, when the text ended up being approved by the deputies.

Also in May, following a lawsuit filed by Psol, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) recognized the constitutionality of the provisional measure that altered the Jamanxim preserved area.

In the Senate, the project was included as an extra-agenda item this Wednesday, was processed quickly and was approved in less than ten minutes.

On Monday (13), the rapporteur of the proposal, senator Jader Barbalho (MDB-PA), had presented an urgent request that allowed the vote to be accelerated.

According to the parliamentarian, the change seeks to resolve historical land conflicts in the region.

"The recategorization of part of the territory makes it possible to discipline consolidated occupations and recognize pre-existing productive activities. This is a measure that makes environmental protection and territorial planning compatible with adequate legal security", he explained during the session.

Data from this year's Satellite Monitoring Project for Deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon Forest (Prodes), from the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe), show that the areas affected by Flona's and Jamanxim APA's proposed changes have accumulated a significant history of devastation over the last few decades.

The territory has almost 100 thousand hectares deforested since 2006. In Flona do Jamanxim alone, the total exceeds 33 thousand hectares in the same period.

The conservation unit was already considered the most deforested in the Amazon and is a frequent target of loggers and miners. Over the years, Ibama operations have destroyed rafts used in illegal gold mining in the region.

Even so, the advance of the irregular occupation continued. According to ICMBio data released in 2024, the most recent available, since the creation of Flona, ??an area equivalent to 115 thousand football fields has been illegally converted into pasture.

The institute also reported that there were around 300 rural properties in the region and approximately 100 thousand cabs