Brazil is expected to announce a new federal program that will give fuel distributors targets to cut emissions and gradually increase biofuels volumes. President Michel Temer is expected to announce the program by way of presidential decree, with the law going into effect next year. The policy, RenovaBio, will assist Brazilian ethanol producers who have struggled to compete with cheap gasoline. The problem was exacerbated as the Brazilian government sought to hold down gasoline prices, forcing mills to produce more sugar instead of biofuels.

A federal court in Brazil suspended the operating license of Belo Monte hydroelectric dam on the grounds that the government has not completed basic sanitation work in the city of Altamira before filling the dam’s reservoir. This is not the first time the Belo Monte project has been stalled for legal issues. In January 2016 a federal judge in Altamira suspended the dam’s license for failure to build a safety net for local communities, especially the indigenous communities that were to be affected by the dam.

Last week, Ibama, Brazil’s federal environmental agency, launched Sinaflor, a database to track timber from the Amazon rainforest throughout the supply chain. The system requires individual trees to be electronically tagged and tracked as the timber moves from source to sale and allows regulators to crosscheck the database with satellite mapping. Any timber not in the system will be deemed illegal. The new system was developed as a result of the 2012 forest code, and addresses problems of fraud and human error that were points of criticism for the older system.

Last week a Brazilian judge issued a 180-day suspension to Belo Sun, the mining company that had planned an open-pit gold mine, which would be Brazil’s largest. The judge found that the company had improperly purchased the land from several owners and had yet to obtain an environmental permit. Further, the company is not permitted to develop the mine until pre-existing land rights issues in the area have been solved. The residents of the area are concerned about the environmental impact of the toxic waste impoundment dam that would accompany the mine.

Last month, the Brazilian government issued Ordinance 80, which moved the decision-making power for the recognition of indigenous territory boundaries away from the National Indian Foundation to the Ministry of Justice. Ordinance 80 is a redraft of Ordinance 68, which was previously annulled. The Ordinance promotes “careful analysis…of the whole demarcation procedure,” but promotes speedy action (demarcation of lands by the National Indian Foundation has sometimes taken decades).

A Brazilian federal judge agreed to hear an environmental criminal case brought against Samarco, a Brazilian mining company. In August of this year, the Fundao dam, which contained mining waste, broke, causing a large mudslide that killed 19 people and polluted a major river; it is perhaps Brazil’s largest environmental disaster. Prosecutors say the dam had been unsafe for several years, though Samarco denies knowledge of any risks to the dam’s integrity.

Ibama, Brazil's environmental regulator, rejected an environmental license request for a proposed hydroelectric dam in the Amazon on the Tapajos River. The dam had been opposed by conservation groups and indigenous tribes. Ibama's ruling determined that the backers of the dam had not provided adequate information to prove environmental and social viability. The dam, if approved, would have been one of Brazil's biggest dams with an installed capacity of approximately 6.1 gigawatts. It would have flooded 145 square miles of Amazon Rainforest, home to 12,000 Munduruku Indians.

Mining companies BHP Billiton and Vale SA, both involved in the 2015 Samarco iron ore mine disaster, intend to appeal a decision from the Brazilian Superior Court of Justice that suspended their financial settlement agreement. Though Samarco, BHP, and Vale had agreed to staggered payments over 15 years to cover cleanup and repair costs, the court ruled that the payment schedule was "insufficient" after federal prosecutors appealed the decision.

The Brazilian Ministry, the Brazilian Association of Vegetable Oils Industry, Brazil's National Association of Grain Exporters, the Soy Working Group, and Greenpeace signed an indefinite moratorium on rainforest clearing for soybean production. A 2006 agreement, prompted by a Greenpeace campaign, banned rainforest clearing for soybean production but required renewing annually.

On April 22, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Resources (IBAMA) suspended the license for the São Luiz do Tapajós dam construction. This would have been the largest in the Tapajós watershed in the Amazon and would have flooded an area the size of New York City, deforested 849 square miles, and displaced indigenous people. The decision followed a report by Brazil’s National Indian Foundation (FUNAI), which highlighted the negative impacts the dam would produce on local communities and recommended the demarcation of the nearby indigenous Munduruku territory.