In June 2026, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) filed a public civil action with a request for urgent relief, against the State of Amazonas to challenge the validity of State Decree 52.216/2025, which authorizes the reduction of the minimum Legal Reserve percentage from 80% to up to 50% in certain areas of the Legal Amazon. 

According to the MPF, the decree is incompatible with the international commitments undertaken by Brazil, especially the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. By favoring increased deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions, and biodiversity loss, the MPF argues that the flexibility brought about by the regulation violates the duty of progress and the prohibition of environmental regression. It argues that several federal technical bodies and scientific institutions – such as INPE, IBAMA, ICMBio, INPA, and MMA – have concluded that the regulation compromises the fulfillment of Brazilian goals, such as those foreseen in Brazil's NDC, in addition to bringing the Amazon closer to its tipping point and fragmenting habitats of endangered species. Based on the principle of conventionality control, the MPF defends the invalidity of the flexibility introduced by the Decree, since international treaties bind all federative entities and prevent the issuance of internal regulations incompatible with their obligations. States cannot invoke its domestic law to disregard international commitments, especially those aimed at protecting the human right to the environment. 

In the form of a preliminary injunction, the MPF requests the immediate suspension of the decree's effectiveness, preventing further reductions in Legal Reserve areas and suspending administrative procedures based on the regulation. On the merits, the request seeks a declaration of unconstitutionality and absolute nullity, with retroactive effects, as well as the reinstatement of the minimum 80% Legal Reserve percentage and the invalidation of any reductions granted based on the decree.

Ministério Público Federal vs. Estado do Amazonas (Legal Reserve in the Amazon)

<p>This entry was provided by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. Please see the terms of use for citation and licensing of third party data.</p>

Ministério Público Federal vs. Estado do Amazonas (Legal Reserve in the Amazon) - complaint

Filed

The Climate Litigation Database

Find climate change litigation data and indicators for {text}.

{text} litigation

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law provides Climate Litigation Database, a comprehensive database of US and Global climate change caselaw

Quickly and easily search through the complete text of thousands of climate change law and policy documents from every country.

Search the Climate Litigation Database

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

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

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.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

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

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

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

Zoning and spatial planning are both methods for guiding the distribution of people and activities in a space, and are regulatory restriction.

A target to reduce the prevalence of a greenhouse gas over a specific time frame

A commitment to balance GHG emissions with removal by a certain point in time, effectively reducing the net emissions to zero

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

The release of heat-trapping gases, primarily from human activities such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture and industry.

A long-lived, colourless gas, chiefly emitted from fossil fuel combustion, deforestation and cement production.

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.

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

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.

Ministério Público Federal vs. Estado do Amazonas (Legal Reserve in the Amazon) - complaint

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Greenhouse gas

Adaptation/resilience

Finance