Brazil passes ‘devastation bill’ that drastically weakens environmental law

President has 15 days to approve or veto legislation that critics say will lead to vast deforestation and destruction of Indigenous communities

Metuktire, home to Brazil's most influential indigenous leader, Cacique Raoni Metutkire, has been the heart of a decades-long successful fight against deforestation in a region devastated by illegal mining and other crimes against the rainforest. File picture: Pablo Porciuncula/Getty

Brazilian lawmakers have passed a bill that drastically weakens the country’s environmental safeguards and is seen by many activists as the most significant setback for the country’s environmental legislation in the past 40 years.

The new law – widely referred to as the “devastation bill” and already approved by the senate in May — passed in congress in the early hours of Thursday by 267 votes to 116, despite opposition from more than 350 organisations and social movements.