Proposed Revision of Brazil’s Forest Code Could Sacrifice Emissions Target, Study Says

RIO DE JANEIRO—A proposed law that would give amnesty and suspend fines for some landowners who illegally cut vegetation would make it impossible for Brazil to meets its greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets by 2020, according to a network of 35 Brazil-based environmental groups.

The network, known as the Climate Observatory (OC), said in a study that the proposed revision of the country’s 1965 Forest Code would increase deforestation, and hence emissions, by allowing cutting of trees along the banks of smaller rivers and by small landowners in the Amazon, Andre Ferretti, the group’s general coordinator, told BNA Dec. 2. ...