In 2021, the State of Tocantins in Brazil approved a law that put the environment, household farms, and territories belonging to Indigenous and Quilombola communities at risk by weakening environmental oversight. This also increased the risk of negative environmental impacts, such as indiscriminate aerial pesticide application and deforestation. Coalizão Vozes do Tocantins, a coalition of community organizations represented by Instituto Sociedade, População e Natureza (ISPN), which would later submit an amicus brief to the Tocantins State Court, and the Tocantins Public Prosecutor questioned several articles of the law that the court would later rule as unconstitutional and partially strike down. The State of Tocantins, rather than accepting the ruling, appealed the lower court's decision to the Supreme Federal Court, the highest court in Brazil.  

In 2024, the Supreme Federal Court upheld the lower court's decision and declared State Law No. 3.804/2021 unconstitutional. With this ruling, the Supreme Federal Court affirmed the arguments presented in 2022 by the Tocantins Public Prosecutor in what is known as a Direct Action of Unconstitutionality.  

The ruling that the law was unconstitutional strengthens legal protections for the environment, household farms, and Indigenous and Quilombola communities, as it reverses attempts to expedite environmental licenses for activities that could potentially pollute or degrade the environment, such as aerial fumigation and deforestation of large areas, in defiance of federal regulations. This would have increased the risks of negative socio-environmental impacts, including pesticides contaminating the air, soil, and water and affecting human health.  

In Brazil, Fundación Avina is the focal point for the Voices for Just Climate Action alliance, whose goal is to amplify local voices, like Coalizão Vozes do Tocantins, in the global climate agenda. In this process, Fundación Avina helped strengthen local capacities for advocacy concerning climate solutions, contributing financial resources and bringing together social capital.   

The ruling of the highest court in Brazil not only curbs environ- mental damage, it also proves that the judicial branch plays a key role in halting abuses and protecting the environment when governments try to adopt measures that threaten the public interest and the common good.