Case Name: ADPF 746 (Fires in the Pantanal and the Amazon Rainforest)

Summary

This is a Claim of Non-Compliance with a Fundamental Precept (ADPF), with a request for preliminary injunction, filed by the Workers' Party (PT) due to the omission of the Federal Executive Branch regarding its duties of protection, prevention, precaution, inspection, conservation, surveillance, and sustainability of the environment and, in particular, regarding its actions against fires that affected the Pantanal and the Amazon Rainforest, highlighting that this scenario affects climate change. It emphasizes the economic and social impacts generated, especially for the native communities of the Pantanal, as well as the impacts of the fires on the health of animals and the population, further aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It affirms that there are risks for future generations, considering that the environmental effects, especially on the climate, are gradual. Furthermore, it points to violations of human dignity and the rights to health, life, and an ecologically balanced environment, in addition to a lack of commitment to addressing the climate issue. It highlights that quilombola, riverside, and indigenous populations are the most directly affected. Therefore, it alleges a structural failure in the environmental protection system. In preliminary proceedings, it requests (i) the adoption of operational efforts to combat wildfires in the Pantanal and the Amazon Rainforest, especially to restructure the National System for the Prevention and Combat of Forest Fires (PREVFOGO) and to implement an Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (PPCDAm), in addition to the creation of similar action plans for other Brazilian biomes, (ii) the establishment of an integrated public health and veterinary medical treatment project, (iv) the creation of a multidisciplinary commission to serve as an observatory of these measures, and (v) an explanation from the Ministry of the Environment regarding the budgetary execution of environmental protection programs in 2019 and 2020. On the merits, it requests recognition of the unconstitutionality of part of the current Federal Executive Branch's environmental policy, due to omissions in the face of incidents of biome devastation, confirming the preliminary requests.

In April 2024, the requests of ADPF 743, 746 and 857 (registered on this Platform under the names "ADPF 743 (Fires in the Pantanal and Amazon)", "ADPF 746 (Burning in the Pantanal and Amazon Rainforest)" and "ADPF 857 (Burning in the Pantanal)") were partially upheld, having been consolidated for joint judgment due to the similarity of their subject matter. The Court did not declare the state of affairs unconstitutional, but recognized the existence of structural flaws in the policy for protecting the Legal Amazon, imposing a series of measures to combat deforestation so that the Federal Government presents a plan for preventing and combating fires in the Pantanal and the Amazon, with the recovery of the operational capacity of PREVFOGO, discloses data related to the budget and budgetary execution of actions related to environmental protection by the States and the Union during the years 2019 and 2020, and informs, as do the state governments, the authorizations for vegetation suppression.

Afterwards, the judgment was published. It was highlighted...   The Federal Government is resuming environmental protection measures and emphasizes the importance of the Amazon and the Pantanal for maintaining climate balance. In his dissenting opinion, Justice Edson Fachin acknowledged the still unconstitutional state of affairs, a view shared by Justices Luiz Fux and Cármen Lúcia. Fachin stressed that climate jurisprudence exists internationally due to foreign cases. He argued that allowing the repeated violation of the right to an ecologically balanced environment without permitting the Supreme Court to act promptly to "prevent climate chaos and the compromise of Amazonian biodiversity is not consistent with international agreements and the democratic commitment expressed in the Constitutional Charter."

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Main norms mobilized

• Article 225 of the Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• Article 231 of the Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• Article 5th of the Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• National Environment Policy Act - PNMA (Federal Law 6.938/1981)
• Paris Agreement (Federal Decree 9.073/2017)

Case timeline

Case documents