Analysis: Brazil’s Bolsonaro appears to be taking a tougher stance on protecting the environment. Critics say it’s just lip service

Under Bolsonaro’s tenure, Those who criticize Bolsonaro’s policies, he said, are considered “unpatriotic” in the eyes of the government, who say that “international criticism is (trying) to impede the country´s development.” Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment told CNN that the decree is “a normative improvement in the fight against illicit environmental activities.” It emphasized that the decree significantly increases fines, and defended environmental reconciliation hearings as helping to ensure “more efficiency” in collecting them.Since 2019, Bolsonaro has advocated for the practice of reconciliation hearings to speed up the fine process. Prior to the new decree, the environmental agency would have to wait to hear from the offender on whether they wanted to have a hearing to decide if take their case to court — or if they agreed to simply pay the fine. That process could take months — or even longer, and created a massive backlog. Now, offenders have been given a time limit of up to 20 days to decide, otherwise the judicial process will be carried out without the reconciliation hearing.But environmental defenders say the option for reconciliation should not exist at all. Experts believe it was created by the Bolsonaro government to give a voice to the offender and to slow down the judicial process. While environmental agencies remain understaffed, there has been some positive progress in the sector since last June, under the leadership of the newly appointed environmental minister Joaquim Leite, with environmental agencies slowly gaining back their independence. But Bolsonaro appears to be working against such initiatives, at least in his rhetoric among supporters. Just a few months ago, speaking at an agribusiness event in January, Bolsonaro criticized environmental fines — even lauding their reduction.”We stopped having big problems with the environmental issue, especially regarding the fine(s). Does it have to exist? Yes. But we talked and we reduced the fines in the field by more than 80%,” he said.