(New York, November 26, 2025) — A successful vote by Brazilian legislators to override presidential vetoes of portions of a new environmental licensing law will endanger Indigenous and quilombola communities (Afro-Brazilian communities descended from enslaved people), accelerate deforestation, and undercut Brazil’s climate commitments, Climate Rights International said today.

Congress will hold a joint session this week to decide whether to reinstate provisions of the General Environmental Licensing Law—dubbed the “Devastation Law by opponents—that were vetoed by President Luis Inácio Lula da Silva earlier this year. Among the vetoed provisions were several that would weaken safeguards for Indigenous and quilombola communities. Overriding the vetoes would also impact other forest-based communities, many of which are already under threat due to land grabbing and expansion of cattle ranching and industrial agriculture, according to a recent Climate Rights International report. Indigenous, quilombola, and other forest-dependent communities play a central role in safeguarding Brazil’s forests and slowing down deforestation.

“It’s absurd that the first thing the Brazilian Congress does after the country hosted COP30 is to consider undermining Brazil’s ability to meet its own climate commitments,” said Sarah Sax, researcher at Climate Rights International. “Overriding these vetoes will accelerate the destruction of forests and undermine the rights of the communities that protect them.”

The vetoed provisions include language limiting the involvement of federal agencies responsible for protecting Indigenous and quilombola rights in environmental licensing processes unless those lands are fully demarcated or titled, effectively excluding many of these communities, whose legal finalization remains incomplete.

The “ruralista” block in Congress, many of whom are supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro are the main political force behind the law and the effort to overturn Lula’s vetoes. They have campaigned for years to reduce the rights of Indigenous, quilombola and traditional communities.

Brazil has long failed to finalize the legal status of many Indigenous territories and the majority of quilombola lands. By some estimates, roughly 26 percent of Indigenous territories in the Amazon and 90 percent of quilombola territories nationwide are still awaiting formal land recognition, meaning vast numbers of Indigenous and quilombola  communities  would be excluded from government support and protection during the environmental licensing process if Congress overrides Lula’s vetoes.

Currently, federal agencies review licensing documents, issue technical opinions on the potential social and territorial impacts of proposed projects that impact any Indigenous or quilombola lands and communities and help determine whether consultation with affected communities is required under Brazilian law and international standards.

“If Congress overturns these vetoes, many of the communities most affected by large infrastructure or extractive projects would be rendered invisible in the licensing process,” said Sax.

When he issued his vetoes,  President Lula correctly warned that the vetoed provisions would violate Brazil’s obligation to guarantee free, prior, and informed consultation under Convention 169 of the International Labor Organization—a safeguard meant to protect Indigenous peoples, quilombolas, and traditional communities from the kinds of harms the law would facilitate.

Even if Congress is unable to override the vetoes, the new law already poses serious risks. The law will allow, many activities that previously triggered a full environmental impact assessment to obtain licenses through simplified procedures, single-phase licenses, self-licensing, or whenever the licensing authority decides the project is not “potentially causing significant environmental degradation.”

This would be especially harmful for traditional and local communities who already face significant barriers to participation in environmental licensing procedures.

A recent report by Climate Rights International documented how settlements designed to protect both traditional communities and forests are under siege from many of the agricultural activities that would now face simplified environmental licensing procedures. Many such communities also face long-delayed land regularization and lack formal recognition of their lands.

“Our research shows that traditional and local communities are already struggling to hold the line against some of the most powerful drivers of Amazon destruction, often without support or basic legal security,” Sax said. “Weakening licensing now doesn’t just place them at greater risk—it undermines one of Brazil’s most important defenses against deforestation.”

Mandatory environmental impact assessments are crucial to traditional and local communities, as they often trigger public hearings in which community members can push back against projects that would harm them or their lands and livelihoods. For example, residents of PAE Lago Grande, a 250,000-hectare settlement on the Amazon river in Pará, have used public hearings to contest mining projects that would increase deforestation and pollute important waterways in and around their communities. In Belém, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) for a new regional landfill triggered a public consultation that drew hundreds of quilombola and ribeirinho residents, who used the hearing to challenge omissions in the EIA and demand proper prior consultation. The process forced state authorities to revise socioenvironmental studies before any licenses could be granted.

Another provision that passed without a veto exempts many agricultural and livestock activities from environmental licensing requirements altogether, including all crop cultivation and extensive and semi-intensive cattle ranching, among others. This means that large portions of the cattle industry, which frequently overlaps with the land of Indigenous, quilombola, and traditional communities, will be able to expand without any environmental licensing at all, despite the fact that cattle ranching is the largest driver of deforestation in Brazil. This risks undermining the country’s emissions-reduction goals, as almost half of Brazil’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the land, and forest sector and preserving and restoring forests is one of the key paths that Brazil is relying upon to meet its international climate commitments.

“Indigenous, quilombola, and traditional communities across the Brazilian Amazon are protecting the forest for the entire country and planet,” Sax said. “Instead of exposing them to greater danger, Congress should be delivering the land rights, protections, and support they need to thrive.”