The Brazilian Senate has voted to approve tie controversial changes to the Forest Code laws, which are backed by the country's agricultural sector. The new legislation will reform the country's Forest Code, which limits how much forest can be cleared on private lands, will reverse Brazil's recent progress in slowing deforestation in the world's largest rainforests, and undermine protection for the forest, making it hard for Brazil to meet its pledges to reduce carbon emissions from deforestation, which globally accounts for almost a fifth of the world's total annual greenhouse gas output.

The changes to the forest law will provide an amnesty for illegal deforestation which occurred before 2008, stop illegally deforested areas being fully restored and allow non-native species to be planted.

Brazilian government data shows that 79 million hectares of forest in Brazil - an area the size of the UK and France combined - could be left unprotected and 29 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide could be released into the atmosphere or not captured in restored forests as a result of the changes.

The new code still maintains some pre-existing forest cover requirements, which range from 20 percent in the drier cerrado to 80 percent in the Amazon rainforest, but landowners are now allowed to count compulsory forest cover along rivers and hillsides as part of their legal reserve. The revision also reduces the required margin along waterways from 30 meters (100 feet) to 15 meters (50 feet). Those landowners - provided their properties are less than 400 hectares (988 acres) - won't be required to replant forest to bring their land up to the legal requirement. Larger properties will have 20 years to come into compliance or can offset deforestation by renting or buying a nearby parcel of forest.
The changes to the forest law will provide an amnesty for illegal deforestation which occurred before 2008, stop illegally deforested areas being fully restored and allow non-native species to be planted.

WWF international director-general Jim Leape said: "It will be a tragedy for Brazil and for the world if it now turns its back on more than a decade of achievement to return to the dark days of catastrophic deforestation."
Paulo Adario, Amazon campaign director at Greenpeace Brazil, said: "The approved text is a disaster for the Amazon and all Brazilian forests. The new Forest Code invites the rapid advance of deforestation and it has already caused damage in the Amazon."

The revision is not yet law however. It still needs to be approved by lower house of Congress - where it is expected to pass easily - and President Dilma Rousseff who promised before the elections not to grant amnesty for past deforestation or let rainforest destruction rise. Rousseff however is likely to ignore its commitment and to approve the measure next year, putting Brazil in an awkward position as host of Rio+20, a major environmental conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June.