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Comment by simonsarris | Hacker News Reader

Both parties are unhappy for opposite sides of the same reason. Too restrictive says one side, not restrictive enough says the other.

Which means that it's the right amount of compromise! Good on the government here.

The focus on past offenders is fixing (replanting), not punishment, which bothers environmentalists. I don't care. I'd rather see progress than "justice" (revenge).

From here I imagine Brazil's biggest environmental benefits will come from increased and efficient mechanization, not flat policies. This policy seems to be as good as we're going to get in a world where a lot of involved parties want everything.

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Great comment, I share a lot from your viewpoint.

The thing that bothers me most, though, is how bad Brazil's government is at enforcing its law. We're kind of OK at legislating (even though our constitution remain mostly unchanged since '88), but suck at enforcing. That's one reason why there's still a lot of corruption going on in higher spheres.

> further action on the part of Brazil's government will also be essential so it will be interesting to see just how strictly this update to the forest code is enforced

Perhaps Brazil should get foreign governments to pay for all enforcement, as it seems foreigners are the ones benefitting from Amazon forest protections.

Converting a huge river system to agriculture and farming for food is what makes other great powers rise around them, viz China around the Yellow and Yangzi, India around the Ganges, the US around the Mississippi, Russia around the Volga, and in the past Egypt and Mesopotamia. Brazil's paying a lot in forgone development by not chopping down the trees, and should at least be asking the foreigners who benefit for cash in return for enforcement.

Carbon credits.

I'm not sure if our government would come up with a compelling argument to get money from other countries. We have a history of succumbing to foreign financial pressure too easily (reflex from our weak economy), and our government does almost everything to keep a good relation with about every country out there.

We're the good neighbor that gets abused now and then for being too soft.

> our constitution remain mostly unchanged since '88

There have been 73 amendements to the constitution over 28 years. Experts on the subject usually point out that it actually changes too much and too often.

Indeed, but the point being that Brazil is at best OK at legislating still holds. A complete rewrite is long due.

It changes too often because the original text is way outdated, so legislators keep patching it up since that's a lot easier than rewriting it from ground up.

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