Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office v. Syngenta Protection of Crops Ltda. and others (Environmental damage caused by pesticides containing atrazine) - Other

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On November 18th 2025 the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a Public Civil Action (environmental class action), with a request for a preliminary injunction of a precautionary and inhibitory nature, against Nortox SA, Syngenta Proteção de Cultivos Ltda., several other companies, and IBAMA, due to environmental damage resulting from soil and water pollution caused by pesticides. The pesticides in question contain the active ingredient atrazine and are produced, imported, or marketed by the defendant companies, whose environmental monitoring of residues must be adequately promoted by the environmental agency. The widespread use of atrazine in Brazilian agriculture and the controversies and serious environmental and health concerns that its use brings with it are highlighted. Atrazine is banned in 44 countries (including the entire European Union), and exposure to the substance is associated with a range of deleterious effects on human health. In addition to its intrinsic toxicity, it is noted that atrazine has high persistence in the environment (once applied, the substance does not degrade easily) and high mobility in the soil, being transported to rivers and groundwater. The playintiff cites technical reports from Embrapa documenting the results of using the product in the Dourados River Hydrographic Basin in Mato Grosso do Sul, an area of intense agricultural activity where crops such as soybeans, corn, and sugarcane occupy more than half of the territory. The scientific studies highlight that the presence of atrazine and its degradation products (metabolites) is not restricted to the area of its application and that there is a shortcoming in CONAMA Resolution 357/2005, as it does not establish maximum permitted values. Tha plaintiff states that technical assessments have confirmed the presence of atrazine and its derivatives in multiple water sources of various indigenous communities affected by agribusiness activities in the state. It explicitly states that the damage caused by the use of pesticides is not distributed neutrally and disproportionately affects rural workers, Afro-descendant populations, indigenous peoples, traditional communities, and vulnerable riverside populations, characterizing a pattern of environmental racism expressly repudiated in the Belém Declaration (2025) and incompatible with the duties of equality and non-discrimination in environmental and climate matters. It clarifies that the situation of chemical contamination must be interpreted in light of the commitments made by Brazil in the aforementioned declaration, which recognizes that historical and persistent patterns of discrimination, coupled with unequal access to decision-making processes, produce differentiated exposures to pollution, climate risks, and nature loss. It argues that Advisory Opinion (AO) 32/2025 of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, although focused on the climate emergency, provides a legal roadmap directly applicable to large-scale chemical environmental damage, establishing guidelines on due diligence and the regulation of business activities. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF), the conduct of the defendants and the state's omission in controlling and monitoring atrazine conflict with the duty of enhanced diligence, precaution, and corporate transparency established in AO 32/2025, which reinforces the need for accountability, the adoption of structural measures for full reparation, cessation and non-repetition, and correction of a structural pattern of disproportionate exposure of vulnerable groups to chemical contamination. Furthermore, the MPF highlights the aggravation of the damage due to the ineffectiveness of traditional water treatment methods, exposure to the product in the workplace, the finding of its use in the production of crops, and the risk assumed by the defendant companies in imposing a long-term contamination on society and the environment. In preliminary proceedings, the granting of provisional urgent relief is requested to order the defendant companies to (i) present a detailed work plan for the complete diagnosis of the contamination of the Dourados River Hydrographic Basin; (ii) have their assets frozen in the amount of R$ 300,000,000.00; and that IBAMA implement a pesticide residue monitoring program in the Dourados River. On the merits, the defendants are jointly and severally liable for (i) the implementation of a Degraded Area Recovery Plan to remediate/mitigate atrazine contamination in the soil and waters of the river bbasin, (ii) payment for collective moral damages and irreversible environmental damages, in the amount of R$ 300,000,000.00 and, specifically in relation to IBAMA, that the agency be obliged to immediately implement environmental monitoring programs for atrazine and initiate the procedure for reassessing its registration.

Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office v. Syngenta Protection of Crops Ltda. and others (Environmental damage caused by pesticides containing atrazine)

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

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Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

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Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

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The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Any compulsory, unrequited payment to the government levied on corporations or individuals. This can be for environmental reasons, such as introducing a Carbon tax to set a price that emitters must pay for the greenhouse gases they emit.

Terrestrial means "of the earth" and relates to the risks to ecological system that includes all living organisms and their interactions within land-based environments, such as forests, grasslands, and deserts.

Households employing domestic workers, for activities like cooking, cleaning and subsistence farming, for their own use.

Actions or measures to adapt terrestrial systems to climate change.

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A ban is a legal action that prevents the sale or supply of a product or service, or that recalls a product from the market. Examples are bans on SF6, greenwashing, fossil fuel advertisement or single-use plastics.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

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Actions to adapt human health, healthcare systems and well-being to climate change.

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Work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for all, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity.

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Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

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People who are less able to respond to the effects of climate change due to having limited financial or physical assets

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Conditions that enhance the feasibility of adaptation options. Enabling conditions include finance, technological innovation, strengthening policy instruments, institutional capacity, multi-level governance and changes in human behaviour and lifestyles.

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Climate change impacts our society by disrupting the natural, economic and social systems we depend on. Physical hazards and underlying vulnerabilities can lead to increased resource competition for food and water, which can heighten the risk of conflict.

People whose health, both mental and physical, makes them more vulnerable to the effects of climate change

woman and genders outside of the gender binary

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This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

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Social and cultural groups that share collective ancestral ties to the lands and natural resources where they live, occupy or from which they have been displaced

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Climate change can have a range of impacts on technological system. Extreme weather events can cause infrastructure failures like power outages or damage to roads and bridges, as well as the impacts from waste following natural disasters. Human activities also cause technological impacts, such as the risks posed by oil spillage and leaks.

Slow onset events evolve gradually from incremental changes over many years or from increased frequency or intensity of recurring events. As defined in the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010), slow onset events include risks and impacts from rising temperatures, desertification, biodiversity loss, land and forest degradation, glacial retreat, ocean acidification, sea level rise, and salinization.

People who have left their homes, whether through force, voluntarily, or a mixture of both

Activities that involve the cultivation of crops and raising of livestock for food, fibre, and other products essential for human life and industry.

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Social protection systems consist of policies that help people manage social risks in order to prevent poverty and maintain decent incomes and living standards

A company that is owned wholly or partially by the state, typically operating in key sectors.

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The processes through which enterprises can identify, prevent, mitigate and account for how they address their actual and potential adverse impacts. Due diligence is the idea that reasonable precautions should be taken to avoid causing harm to people, the environment, or society. It also involves identifying and mitigating risks before they occur.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

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