UN Rapporteur warns that the environmental regression in Brazil is very serious

The UN Special Rapporteur on toxic substances and human rights, Marcos Orellana, warned that environmental degradation in Brazil is extremely serious and accused the president of that country, Jair Bolsonaro, of using the pandemic and the war in Europe to justify his policies. aggressive and harmful to the future of the planet.

On the eve of the start, this Tuesday, of the first conference of the parties to the Escazú agreement, Orellana stressed that this regression is especially worrying because “It does not only affect the Amazon and the territory of Brazil, but due to its implications for climate change, (also) the entire humanity.”

The situation in Brazil is particularly serious due to the policies that encourage the invasion of indigenous territories in search of mineral resource extraction without respect for environmental protection safeguards: deforestation, illegal mining, the use of mercury, all these issues are tremendously worrying in Brazil and talk about this regression.

An especially dramatic situation “because Brazil was one of the countries that were at the forefront in Latin America in the constitutional protection of the environment and indigenous peoplesOrellana lamented.

“A second element is in the science of climate change denial and the importance of climate action to face the serious emergency that the planet is experiencing.”, stressed the person in charge.

Pandemic and war as an excuse

Orellana, an expert in international law and in the law related to human rights and the environment, also denounced the strategy of disinformation and lies orchestrated by the Brazilian president, whom he accused of using the pandemic and the current Russian invasion of Ukraine as an excuse to advance a political agenda based on greed and denial of the climate emergency.

“The administration of President Bolsonaro, in an attempt to justify regressive measures in terms of environmental protection and indigenous rights, argued at the time that they were necessary to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.“, he claimed.

“And now we see that the same administration tries to justify the extraction of minerals, the opening to hydrocarbon activities, to the hydroelectric industry in indigenous territories, in violation of the rights established in the Brazilian constitution on the basis of alleged shortcomings in the fertilizer market.”, he insisted.

In this regard, he stressed that “scientific evidence, however, indicates otherwise” and warned that there is a “disinformation campaign that seek to justify these regressive measures with evidence that does not exist.”