Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office v. José Barbosa de Araújo (Deforestation and climate damage in the PAE Antimary)

On September 9, 2021, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a Civil Public Action (CPA) against José Barbosa de Araújo for deforesting an area of 127.56 hectares between 2011 and 2020, in Boca do Acre, Amazonas. The MPF alleges that the defendant's 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 is part of 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) but against different defendants. 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 76,359.16 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 made 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). Among other requests: (i) reparation 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.