Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed the Christmas pardon decree – a decision that grants amnesty to convicts who meet certain legal requirements, such as having been sentenced to up to eight years and having served at least one-fifth of their sentence. The document also covers the reduction of penalties in some cases.

The decision does not apply to those convicted of violent crimes, for instance. In this year’s pardon, among the crimes not covered are those that threaten the democratic rule of law – as perpetrated by the people convicted of participating in the attempted coup of January 8, 2023.

Individuals convicted of abuse of authority, drug trafficking, and sexual crimes are also barred from clemency, in addition to those who have benefited from plea bargaining deals or members of criminal rings, and individuals serving sentences in maximum-security prisons.

For custodial sentences, pardons can also be granted to people with severe disabilities – such as blindness and quadriplegia – people with HIV in its terminal stages or with serious illnesses, women with high-risk pregnancies, and people with severe autism spectrum disorder. Individuals over 60, parents of children with serious illnesses or disabilities, and people indispensable to the care of dependents are also eligible.

For fines, the decision applies to convicts who do not have the financial means to pay them or when the amount is below the minimum threshold for tax enforcement by the National Treasury.

The measure is a legal and exclusive power of the Brazilian president under the Constitution and can be signed each year. Once the decree is published, convicts who meet the rules can go to court to claim their right to the benefit.

An important carbon sink with an enormous capacity to infiltrate water into the soil and ensure the replenishment of aquifers in Brazil’s semi-arid region, the caatinga is the country’s biome most threatened by desertification. The recovery of 10 million hectares of degraded land in the biome is one of the main goals of the Brazilian Action Plan to Combat Desertification and Mitigate the Effects of Drought, known as PAB-Brasil, launched Tuesday (Dec. 16) in Brasília.

Unveiled by the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change, the plan includes 175 initiatives focused on combating desertification and recovering degraded land in all Brazilian biomes by 2045.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Study reveals potential to restore 500,000 hectares of Caatinga.
• Brazilian biomes are better preserved in indigenous territories.

“By doing so, we want to leverage the entire socio-productive restoration process, ensuring the recovery of degraded soil and vegetation, water availability, healthy food production, job creation, and other ecosystem services,” said Alexandre Pires, director of the ministry’s Department for Combating Desertification.

According to the United Nations, environmental degradation caused by poor land use and drought intensified by climate change are the main causes of desertification – which is the loss of the land’s productive capacity. Arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid regions are the most threatened, but worldwide, 75 percent of the population could be affected in the coming decades.

In Brazil, according to a study released in June by the Superintendence for the Development of the Northeast (Sudene), desertification threatens the productive capacity of the soil in 18 percent of the Brazilian territory. Thirty-nine million people live in the caatinga region, which is mainly concentrated in the Northeast.

Brazilian biomes

In addition to the caatinga, the cerrado and Atlantic forest are already under threat and, according to a report presented at the launch of PAB-Brasil, areas susceptible to desertification have been identified in the pantanal for the first time.

In view of this, all indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and family farmers have been included in the registry for payment for environmental services – a public policy to promote sustainable development that compensates those who promote conservation and environmental improvement.

“Only together will we make progress in combating desertification and mitigating the effects of drought,” said Edel Moraes, the ministry’s national secretary for traditional peoples and communities and sustainable rural development.

Among the initiatives are the construction of an early warning system for desertification and drought, financial support for the development of state plans to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought, the creation of conservation units, and landscape connectivity through the restoration of native vegetation.

Brazil has been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the largest country in the world to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV – known as vertical transmission – as a public health problem. The nation’s Health Minister Alexandre Padilha made the announcement on CanalGov Friday (Dec. 15).

According to Minister Padilha, the board of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), together with representatives from the WHO, will visit Brazil this week to officially present the certification to the Brazilian government.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Brazil celebrates progress in tackling HIV/AIDS.

“This means that Brazil has managed to eliminate it thanks to [Brazil’s national health care network], the SUS, rapid testing at basic health care units, prenatal testing, and HIV-positive pregnant women taking medication through the SUS,” Minister Padilha stated.

He recalled that, a few decades ago, Brazil had philanthropic initiatives to maintain shelters for orphans with HIV who had lost their parents to AIDS.

“They took in babies who were born with HIV and whose parents had died. Fortunately, we no longer have that in our country, nor do we have HIV transmission from pregnant women to their babies,” he pointed out.

Brazil submitted a dossier to the world organization in July with data from the SUS in Brazil, he went on to note.

Natural resource production chains in the Amazon - such as cupuaçu and açaí fruits and pirarucu fish - will receive investments of BRL 96.6 million through the Forests and Communities: Living Amazon program, announced on Tuesday (Dec. 9) in Brasília.

The initiative by the National Supply Company (Conab) will be carried out with resources from the Amazon Fund and with support from the Ministries of the Environment and Climate Change and Agrarian Development and Family Farming.

Notícias relacionadas:

• Deforestación ilegal en Amazonas alcanza el 62%.
• Amazon Fund turns 17; new projects total BRL 210 million.

The program will be implemented over two years with the aim of expanding the supply of forest products to the consumer market, diversifying the regional menu through the National School Feeding Program (PNAE), and increasing the supply of foods originating from socio-biodiversity and family farming to the Food Acquisition Program (PAA).

“It is a legacy that we in the Brazilian government need to leave to the forest peoples. Socio-biodiversity products need to be promoted and deserve the visibility that other products important to Brazil’s economy have,” said Conab President João Edegar Pretto.

The initiative will cover 32 projects from cooperatives and associations in the Legal Amazon region, bringing together foresters, aquaculturists, extractivists, artisanal fishers, indigenous peoples, and quilombola communities.

Each proposal may receive investments of up to BRL 2.5 million for the acquisition of equipment and infrastructure aimed at boosting the commercialization of forest products in consumer markets.

The funds will be transferred to the program by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), which manages the Amazon Fund. According to BNDES’ socio-environmental director, Tereza Campello, the investment was made possible by a major effort to reduce deforestation and restructure the fund’s resources, allowing for investments that will total BRL 2.2 billion in 2025.

“This Conab initiative represents almost BRL 100 million for a strategic agenda that will reach our communities and also enable a platform where we will have all the socio-biodiversity data available in the Amazon in a professional and organized manner,” concluded Tereza Campello.