Case Name: Ministério Público Federal vs. Sebastião da Costa Mariano (Operation Smoke and Climate Damage)

Summary

This is a Public Civil Action (ACP) with a request for urgent relief, filed by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) against Sebastião da Costa Mariano, due to the illegal deforestation of an area of 903.22 hectares in the Municipality of Boca do Acre/AM, which occurred in 2021 and was verified as a result of Operation Smoke. Between 2021 and September 2024, in the same location, the defendant allegedly started fires in the vegetation with the aim of clearing and maintaining pastures for agriculture. The action expressly argues about the relationship between deforestation and climate change and about its extreme local and regional effects. It highlights that the main form of greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil is through deforestation, emphasizing the situation in the Amazon and Brazil's commitments to reducing deforestation in the biome. It points out that the illegal deforestation being combated resulted in the emission of 534,613.750272 tons of carbon dioxide, which imposes the duty to compensate for intermediate and residual climatic material damages. It uses the Amazon Fund's calculation basis to assign a value of US$ 5.00 for each ton of CO2 emitted, resulting in the quantification of compensation at R$ 15,236,491.88. It requests the granting of provisional anticipatory relief to, among other measures, remove the herd from the treated area, suspend access to financing, and suspend registration in the CAR (Rural Environmental Registry). As final requests, it requests (i) the defendant's conviction to repair the environmental damages through the recovery of the area; the conviction to pay compensation for intermediate and residual environmental material damages, for the social cost of the illegality, with the restitution of illegally obtained profits, in the amount of R$ 19,404,778.48; the obligation to pay for residual and intermediate climatic material damages, in the amount of R$ 15,236,491.88; the conviction to pay compensation corresponding to collective moral damages in the amount of R$ 9,702,389.24 and (ii) the reversion of the conviction amounts to the federal inspection bodies (IBAMA and ICMBio).

A judgment was issued dismissing the case without prejudice due to the existence of a connection between case no. 1043380-54.2024.4.01.3200 (the main case - filed within the scope of the 4th phase of the "Amazônia Protege" project of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office) and the present case (the contained case). Case no. 1043380-54.2024.4.01.3200 has a broader scope, including other defendants and covering a total deforested area of 2041.3 hectares, while the present case specifically addresses the deforestation of 903.22 hectares by the defendant Sebastião da Costa Mariano. The Federal Public Prosecutor's Office has already formally amended the initial petition in those proceedings to expressly include the facts and requests related to the deforestation by the defendant Sebastião da Costa Mariano. The case was definitively closed.

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Main norms mobilized

• Article 225 of the Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• Article 5th of the Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• Federal Constitution (CRFB/88)
• Forest Code (Federal Law 12.651/2012)
• National Environment Policy Act - PNMA (Federal Law 6.938/1981)
• National Policy on Climate Change Act - PNMC (Federal Law 12.187/2009)
• Paris Agreement (Federal Decree 9.073/2017)
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change - UNFCC (Federal Decree 2.652/1998)

Case timeline

Case documents