For the first time, the Supreme Court of Brazil has allowed the state to confiscate land from owners who have been found guilty of illegal logging and intentional arson. Now offenders cannot legalize their land plots or count on amnesty—even if the logging or fires happened many years ago.
An additional measure is compensation: those found guilty must cover the costs of restoring the forests and eliminating the consequences of the fires.
This decision directly targets the protection of the Amazon and other unique ecosystems of the country, where illegal logging has often been carried out so that the land could later be legalized. It is supported by leading environmental organizations in Brazil and is a response to decades of systematic violations in land use.
