Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office v. Gilvan Souza and José dos Santos (Deforestation and climate damage in the Antimary PAE)

On May 21, 2024, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a Public Civil Action (CPA) against Gilvan Onofre Souza and José Milton Onofre dos Santos for deforesting an area of 1,849.60 hectares between 2017 and 2018 in Boca do Acre, Amazonas. The MPF alleges that the defendants' occupation of the land was illegal because it was part of an Agro-Extractivist Settlement Project (PAE), owned and managed by the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA) and occupied by traditional extractivist communities. This ACP was filed following a set of 22 lawsuits filed by the MPF as a result of the investigation carried out in Civil Inquiry No. 1.13.000.001719/2015-49 into illegal deforestation carried out inside the Antimary Agro-Extractivist Settlement Project (PAE), and is the result of the same CI. The lawsuit was filed following the termination without resolution of the merits of case 1022785-39.2021.4.01.3200, based on the identification of the individuals who had in fact deforested the same area that was the subject of the lawsuits. The lawsuit is based, among other things, on Brazilian environmental law, concerning the constitutional protection of the environment, the accusation of deforestation, propter rem civil liability for environmental damage, including climate damage, and collective moral damages. It also mentions the unauthorized emissions of Greenhouse Gases (GHG) caused by the illegal deforestation of the area, calculated at 1,088,203.70 tons of carbon dioxide and which are directly related to the Brazilian State's departure from its climate goals, out of step with national and international commitments assumed by Brazil in the National Policy on Climate Change - PNMC (Federal Law 12,187/2009) and in the Paris Agreement (promulgated by Federal Decree 9,073/2017). Urgent relief is requested under the terms specified in the initial petition. On the merits, it requests, among other things: (i) compensation for the damage caused by illegal deforestation; (ii) payment of compensation corresponding to intermediate and residual material environmental damage; (iv) payment of compensation corresponding to climate damage; and (v) payment of compensation corresponding to collective moral damage. On July 22, 2024, the court granted the injunction based on the in dubio pro natura principle. It ordered the removal of all cattle from the area subject to the action within 15 days; a ban on issuing Animal Transportation Guides (GTA) and invoices for the movement of livestock from or to the property; the suspension and prohibition of access to public financing and tax benefits linked to the rural property and rural financing on behalf of the defendants; the suspension by IPAAM and INCRA of the CARs for the contested area.