Brazil toughens environmental fines in reaction to a lawsuit
by FABIANO MAISONNAVE
Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro signed a decree Tuesday that creates stricter rules against environmental crimes in the Amazon rainforest, such as fraud in timber licensing. The new legislation also increases fines for people who provide false information to officials when they seek logging licenses and forest concessions. The initiative is being dismissed as useless by critics amid the explosion of deforestation in the Amazon.
