Brazilian Environment Minister Edson Duarte has criticized the planned merger of the Ministry of the Environment with the Ministry of Agriculture. He was "surprised and worried," wrote Duarte in a statement.
The deputy and confidant of newly elected President Jair Bolsonaro, Onyx Lorenzoni, had previously confirmed that the areas of agriculture and the environment should be bundled in one ministry - "as planned from the beginning". Before the runoff election for president, the right-wing populist Bolsonaro had signaled willingness to talk at this point in his election program.
The two ministries are of national and international relevance and have their own concerns, which would only slightly overlap, wrote Duarte. "The new ministry would suffer from operational difficulties that could damage both concerns."
Nor did he rule out economic damage: the merger could entail "retaliatory measures in trade from the importing countries", which would harm the agricultural industry in particular.
"Responsibility for the future of humanity"
Critics fear that environmental protection with the merger will be sacrificed to the interests of the powerful agricultural lobbies. The deforestation of the rainforest in Brazil could progress faster to create new crops and grazing land for agriculture.
Greenpeace and the former Minister of the Environment had condemned the proposed merger. Brazil has the world's largest biodiversity and with the Amazon Rainforest the largest forest in the world, wrote Greenpeace.
Environment Minister Duarte said in his statement: "We have a great responsibility for the future of humankind and it would be reckless to undermine the Ministry of the Environment at a time when concern over the climate crisis is on the rise that Brazil retains its ecological leadership. "