BVRio joins a collective call for action to highlight the urgency of large-scale implementation of Brazil’s Forest Code
Multi-stakeholder groups convened in Brasília on Thursday (23 October) for the event “Pact for the Forest Code”, issuing a collective call for action urging organisations from the private sector, civil society and all spheres of government to take responsibility for the implementation of Brazil’s Native Vegetation Protection Law, enacted in 2012 and widely known as the Forest Code.
Representatives from around 30 institutions, including three federal ministries, the Supreme Federal Court, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Office of the Attorney General and state environment secretariats, expressed support for the legislation, which is seen as essential for reconciling agricultural production with sustainable development, protecting biodiversity, and ensuring legal certainty for small rural producers, while opening up new opportunities for green finance.
The Forest Code is considered one of the most comprehensive pieces of environmental legislation in the world. It regulates land use on private properties, establishing mandatory conservation areas and mechanisms for restoration and compensation that together cover almost all of Brazil’s rural territory. As such, its full implementation is key not only for the country’s climate and biodiversity goals but also for global climate stability.
Beyond expressions of support, participants raised a series of concerns, including bureaucratic hurdles in the environmental regularisation process, the need to integrate data systems, and the demand for technology and funding to accelerate the analysis of the Rural Environmental Registry (CAR), in addition to expanding spaces for dialogue across sectors of society in the law’s implementation process.
According to Beto Mesquita, Director of Sustainable Landscapes at Conservation International Brazil (CI-Brasil), the goal of the event was “to unite forces in understanding and applying the Native Vegetation Protection Law, so that we can achieve not only environmental but also economic, social and climate benefits, as well as legal and commercial security and prosperity. We are all protagonists, each with our own responsibilities for implementation.”
Carolle Alarcon, Executive Manager of the Brazilian Coalition on Climate, Forests and Agriculture (Coalizão Brasil), stressed the need to turn the law into effective practice, with scale and urgency. “Our intention is more than a symbolic commitment; it is a call for a concrete one, involving the responsibility of the productive sector, financial actors and society,” she said. “We have the technology, technical capacity and a society demanding results.”
Pathways for implementing the Forest Code
Participants reaffirmed that full implementation of the Forest Code is among Brazil’s most strategic agendas for sustainable development, emphasising the social function of land and the need for environmental responsibility. Thirteen years after its approval, the law has matured as a policy instrument, but still faces major effectiveness challenges, among them, the demand for data integration and automation to speed up CAR analyses.
“The Forest Code reflects a broad consensus, painstakingly built over years, demonstrating Brazil’s ability to balance scientific evidence with economic, agrarian and environmental needs across different sectors of society,” said Henrique Dolabella, Director of the Rural Environmental Registry at the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI).
Marcelo Elvira, Executive Secretary of the Forest Code Observatory, emphasised that dialogue is as important as implementation, “Without it, we will not get there. It is essential that we think together about how to move beyond the situation in which the Code, after 13 years, has been only partially implemented. We must achieve what it prescribes: reconciling native vegetation protection with sustainable production.”
Fernanda Rodrigues, National Executive Coordinator of the Forest Dialogue, noted that 70% of industrially planted trees in Brazil are certified by international bodies, reflecting the forestry sector’s leadership in sustainability practices. “For all productive sectors to advance, it is crucial to accelerate CAR analysis, operationalise Environmental Regularisation Programmes in all states, and move forward with the development of Environmental Reserve Quotas (CRAs), a mechanism that allows landowners who conserve native vegetation beyond the legal minimum to trade these conservation credits.”
For Giuliano Alves, Sustainability and Projects Manager at the Brazilian Agribusiness Association (Abag), “The Forest Code is a challenge that transcends agribusiness and can only be fully achieved through integrated governance, supported by technological innovation and strong political will. Only then will it cease to be a bureaucratic regulatory framework and become an effective sustainability instrument capable of positioning Brazil as a green leader in the COP era.”
Data and progress
Joana Chiavari, Research Director at the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI/PUC-Rio), presented indicators based on public data and analyses from initiatives such as PlanaFlor, a joint effort between CPI and the Forest Code Observatory. “Last year, the number of validated CAR analyses reached 485,000, representing just over 6% of the national database. It is still a small proportion given the scale of the challenge, but it shows that progress is possible,” she said. She noted that automation will allow analyses to gain both scale and technical consistency.
Drawing on PlanaFlor’s indicators, Roberta del Giudice, Director of Forests and Public Policy at BVRio, discussed the economic potential of forest conservation and restoration under the Forest Code. “The law could generate up to BRL 6.2 trillion (about USD 1.1 trillion). These figures demonstrate that conservation pays off, with Legal Reserve surpluses alone capable of generating BRL 4 trillion in ecosystem services,” she said.
Such figures resonate with international discussions on nature-based solutions, biodiversity credits and high-integrity land-use markets being advanced in the run-up to COP30 and COP16 (CBD), showing how national compliance frameworks like Brazil’s Forest Code can serve as models for aligning environmental regulation with private-sector investment and green finance mechanisms.
Key concerns and opportunities
Judicial representatives reminded that implementing the law requires interinstitutional coordination and political will, while spokespeople from the Legislative and state governments called for de-bureaucratisation and stronger teams to scale up environmental regularisation.
Federal authorities highlighted ongoing initiatives that support the Code’s implementation, such as policies for monitoring and controlling illegal deforestation, the reactivation of the Amazon Fund, and new laws passed in Congress, including those establishing a national carbon market and an integrated fire management policy.
Private sector and civil society participants stressed that the Forest Code should also be seen as a driver of jobs and income through the bioeconomy, payment for ecosystem services and forest restoration. They also warned against attempts to weaken the law and called for greater transparency in authorisations for vegetation clearance.
Less than three weeks before COP30, several speakers underlined the connection between the Forest Code and the global climate crisis. “There are parallels between these agendas: multilateralism, accelerated implementation, and bringing these issues closer to people,” said André Guimarães, the conference’s Special Envoy for Civil Society. Former minister Roberto Rodrigues, the conference’s Agricultural Envoy, added: “The Forest Code is the most modern environmental legislation in the world, and caring for the environment is good for us, rural producers. It means more exports, income, and better living conditions for all Brazilians. It is worth it.”
A full recording of the event is available on YouTube (in Portuguese)
