Virtual Petition
Brazil - Santa Catarina environmental disaster
On November 29, an article published in the newspaper Diário Catarinense drew connections between the catastrophe that has hit Santa Catarina and the questionable Environmental Code drafted by the state government of Santa Catarina.
This bill, which has been rushed through the Legislative Assembly and is expected to come up for a vote before the end of the year, would allow even more development in vulnerable areas of the state (on hillsides, riverbanks, springs, along reefs and sandbanks, in mangrove swamps). The bill is in the interest of economic and political groups, and is supported by small farmers who are justly concerned with the paucity of land available for planting. In heated testimony in public hearings that ended last week, technical experts, researchers, and environmentalists protested that if passed, the so-called Environmental Code would make social and environmental degradation and vulnerability even worse. Nothwithstanding, the Legislative Assembly has kept this problematic bill on its docket.
We are therefore making a public appeal to the Legislative Assembly to postpone the vote on this bill, and to sponsor a broader discussion of the content and consequences of this law, in order to reduce the vulnerability of our cities to natural disasters, and spare Santa Catarina more suffering.
If you support this appeal, sign the virtual petition that asks for a more thorough debate on the draft bill for a Santa Catarina Environmental Code, and forward it to your lists. The list of signatures will be sent to the Legislative Assembly. The petition is at