Brazil’s urban ecosystems threatened by law

Abstract

Brazil’s federal Law 12,651/2012 (popularly known as the “Forest Code”) requires “Permanent Preservation Areas”, known as “APPs,” which are strips of protected vegetation along the edges of watercourses. The widths of the strips vary, depending on the width of the watercourse, and the law applies to both rural and urban aquatic ecosystems. However, a recently approved law (14,285/2021) undermines the Forest Code by giving municipalities (counties) the attribution of defining the widths of the APPs. This even opens the possibility of eliminating urban APPs altogether if doing so is in the interest of the local administration. Reduction or elimination of APPs would result in numerous negative effects in aquatic ecosystems, which is problematic because ecosystems in cities harbor biodiversity. Therefore, a first needed step is revocation of Law 14,285/2021. Greater attention should be given to the conservation of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems in urban areas.