Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office v. Nilma Félix (Deforestation and climate damage in the PAE Antimary)

On September 15, 2021, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a Civil Public Action (CPA) against Nilma Félix for deforesting an area of 135.80 hectares in 2018, in Boca do Acre, Amazonas. The MPF alleges that the defendant's occupation of the land was unlawful 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 actions brought 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 77,583.75 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). 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. The defendant was declared in default. On September 20, 2024, the court ordered the defendant to (i) recompose the degraded area; (ii) pay compensation for material damages relating to interim and residual environmental damage, in an amount to be determined in the liquidation phase of the judgment; (iii) pay compensation for climate damage caused by deforestation, in the amount of R$2,133,553.12 and (iv) to pay compensation for collective moral damages of R$2,000.00 per hectare deforested. The ruling recognized the existence of climate damage, unlawful conduct, and a causal link, even though the defendant was not responsible for the deforestation but benefited from the damage caused by a third party. To calculate the value of the climate damage, US$ 5.00 per ton of CO2e was adopted, per Ordinance 176/2023. The sentence became final and the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office requested that it be enforced.