Brazil's new president, Jair Bolsonaro, has issued an administrative decree that shifts responsibility for indigenous land demarcation from the government's indigenous affairs office to the ministry of agriculture. The decree also shifts authority over regulation of quilombola territory from the government's agrarian reform institute to the ministry.

On November 6, a federal court in Brazil upheld a decision by a state court that forced the world's largest alumina refinery to run at half capacity. Norsk Hydro, the owner of the refinery, was ordered to slash output by half after admitting to making unlicensed emissions of untreated water during heavy rains in February. The court also upheld a ban on the company's use of a second waste deposit area near the plant. For the full story, see https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-hydro/brazil-court-upholds-par….

On August 3, a Brazilian court ruled that new products containing the herbicide glyphosate could not be registered in the county and that existing regulations would be suspended pending a decision by Anvisa, a health authority, on the herbicide's safety. Agriculture Minister Blairo Maggi expressed concerns over the potential ban, as the herbicide is used on roughly 95% of soy, corn, and cotton harvested in the country and there is no readily available substitute for it. The Solicitor General's office intends to appeal the court's decision.

On August 9, Brazil's Environment Ministry announced that the country has cut its greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation in 2017 to levels below its 2020 emission goals under the 2009 Copenhagen Accord. More specifically, the country reduced deforestation emissions by 610 million tons of carbon dioxide in the Amazon rainforest and 170 million tons of carbon dioxide in the Cerrado savanna compared to its targets of 564 million tons and 104 million tons, respectively. Brazil has set goals for further steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions for 2025 and 2030 under the Paris Agreement.

At the end of May, five transnational grain trading companies, along with dozens of their supplying farmers, were issued fines totaling 105.7 million Brazilian reais (US $29 million) by IBAMA, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources. The fines are part of “Operation Soy Sauce” carried out since April by IBAMA and federal prosecutors in the Matopiba region in Brazil’s Cerrado savannah.

While Brazil’s reported CO2 emissions are compliant with UN guidelines, scientists suggest that these guidelines ignore significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions, namely carbon-emitting forestry practices. For example, the UN doesn’t require Brazil or other developing countries to count “non-anthropogenic” emission sources, which includes wildlife CO2 releases. In Brazil, however, the majority of fires are intentionally set by humans in an attempt to clear land.

The Eighth World Water Forum, which took place in Brazil from March 18-22, comprised several parallel processes that affirmed the respective roles of judges, local and regional authorities, parliamentarians, and young people in the governance of water resources. The "Political Process" included a ministerial program, a local and regional authorities program, a mock "water court" involving judges and prosecutors, and a parliamentarians’ process.

Brazil’s Supreme Court reaffirmed the Quilombo people’s rights over their territories, ending a lengthy multi-generational fight for their land entitlement. Historically, Quilombo communities faced tremendous difficulties to secure land titles, and were forced to compete with powerful agribusiness interests in developing and using the land. The Quilombos’ rights to traditional lands are guaranteed under the 1988 Brazilian constitution; following the Supreme Court decision, the Cachoeira Porteira Quilombo community received an official land entitlement.

Annually, Norway makes payments to Brazil as part of a long-term program to curb loss of the Amazon rainforest to slow global warming. The main causes of forest loss are logging and making way for farms. Last year, Norway paid around $40 million to Brazil, a reduction of about 60% in the period from 2009 to 2016: the more deforestation, the less Brazil gets paid. Officials say that initial figures are showing that deforestation is slowing which would result in an increase in payment.

Though deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is at an all-time low, development that didn’t occur in the Amazon shifted over to the Cerrado, a highly biodiverse tropical savannah and the second-largest ecoregion in Brazil. According to INPE (Brazil’s national space agency), data shows that between 2013 and 2015 close to 4.7 million acres of the Cerrado were destroyed.