Indignant with the statement by the Minister of the Environment, Copaíba, an affiliate and representative for the Southeast region in the Coordination Council of the NGO Network of the Atlantic Forest (RMA), makes public and supports the Note issued today by the RMA itself:

The Brazilian population is still stunned by the content of the video of the ministerial meeting held last April 22, full of regrettable episodes, with pronouncements incompatible with what is required as a minimum moral standard of those who hold public office. In this scenario, the NETWORK OF ORGANIZATIONS DOES NOT
ATLANTIC FOREST GOVERNMENT - RMA, which brings together 148 affiliated civil entities that work for the protection of the Atlantic Forest, highlights the reprehensible nature of the unscrupulous pronouncement of the Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, at that meeting.

Assuming that the federal public administration needs to take advantage of the opportunity, created with the state of emergency resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which starts to occupy the greatest attention of the media, to promote deregulation in the environmental sector, Minister Ricardo Salles puts it in a position that is incompatible with the legal obligations of whoever assumes the direction of the environment portfolio.

The mission of the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) is to formulate and implement national environmental public policies in an articulated and agreed manner with public actors and society for sustainable development. The MMA's vision of the future is to be recognized by society and by the group of public actors for its excellence, credibility and efficiency in protecting the environment. Salles breaks with the basic elements that
guide the very mission of MMA. His pronouncement has repercussions in the national and international press, denigrating the image of MMA, whose credibility and efficiency in protecting the environment has dropped rapidly, vertiginously and frighteningly since Ricardo Salles took over his command.

The RMA, which since mid-April has been warning society and authorities about the harmful initiatives of Minister Ricardo Salles, especially against the Atlantic Forest Law (nº 11.428/2006), repudiates the Minister's statements at the ministerial meeting, however it notes that it does not cause surprise or strangeness, since they depart from a citizen
convicted in the first instance for administrative improbity and who has taken great pains to deconstruct the entire National Environmental Policy in Brazil.

His initiative to give amnesty to deforesters in the Atlantic Forest with the edition of MMA Despacho nº 4.410/2020, subsidized by OPINION nº 00115/2019/DECOR/CGU/AGU, is reported by him as an example to be followed by the other ministers of the Bolsonaro Government. He also emphasizes the need for caution, and must seek the legitimacy of these obscure acts in opinions, because according to him, "if it's just a pen and cane". The RMA had warned society
and competent authorities, through a Joint Note with the National Council of the Atlantic Forest Biosphere Reserve (CN-RBMA) issued on our website on 04/20/2020, that Order 4.410/2020 violates the principle of legality and will bring significant damage to the efforts to recover the Atlantic Forest, granting undue amnesty to those who, in an irregular and predatory way, contributed to the compromise of a rich and threatened
national heritage. Ricardo Salles makes it clear in his speeches to government colleagues and to the President of the Republic that the protection of the Atlantic Forest is not a priority, on the contrary, reducing its protection instruments is seen as an example of success.

Clever, Ricardo Salles advises that the public administration should take advantage of the “window of opportunity” opened up by the global health crisis, and that changes should be made through administrative acts to escape the scrutiny of the legislative power. Certainly, still unhappy with the defeat suffered with the ill-fated Provisional Measure 910/2019 (the land-grabbing MP). The constitutional principles of morality and publicity appear as obstacles to the
Minister of the Environment, and he, trying to show service to the boss, shows the way to circumvent them. The lack of decorum, transparency and administrative morality that Ricardo Salles demonstrates with his performance against the MMA, now reinforced by his reprehensible and unscrupulous speech, denote complete moral and legal incompatibility for him to continue at the helm of the Ministry of the Environment of a detaining country. of megabiodiversity.
The lack of moral conditions to occupy this position was already clear since his inauguration, however, in view of the publicity of his latest statements, the RMA argues that his permanence in the position becomes unsustainable, and the constituted powers must act for his immediate dismissal.

Brasília/DF, May 23, 2020.

Network of Non-Governmental Organizations of the Atlantic Forest-RMA

John of God Medeiros
General coordinator

Adriano Wild
Institutional Coordinator

memo