The Federal Supreme Court judged the extraordinary appeal no. 654.833, with general repercussion (ESTA 999 of the STF), fixing the understanding of the imprescriptibility of the claim of civil repair of environmental damage. The judgment, carried out in a virtual way, was finalized on 17 April 2020 and the judgment has not yet been published.
The action it has tasted for the recognition of general repercussion deals with environmental damage caused by timber in the exploitation of indigenous lands in the state of Acre around 1980. The above-mentioned extraordinary appeal was sought by the Under the claim that the facts are prior to the promulgation of CF / 88, in such a way that the five-year prescription period provided for in Law. 4.717 / 1965 - Law of Popular Action.
Understanding, which was already adopted by the Superior Court of Justice in a predominantly, becomes peaceful from the judgment in the Supreme, in such a way that the action focused on the calculation of civil liability for environmental damage will not be subject to prescription.
Understanding is not new. The Former Minister of STJ, Eliana Calmon, had already mentioned that "(...) the right to the application for environmental damage, within hermeneutical logicity, is also protected by the mantle of imprescriptibility, because it is Law inherent in life, fundamental and essential the affirmation of peoples, regardless of whether expressed or not in legal text ". (Superior Court of Justice (RESP 1120117 / AC, rel. Minister Eliana Calmon, second class, judged on 10/11/2009, DJE 19/11/2009).
It is further added that said understanding ends by honoring the fact that one of the peculiarities of environmental damage is the possibility of its effects project in the future and can exceed the limits between two or more generations. In this sense, in the words of Morato Leite, "The establishment of deadlines for the exercise of the reparative claim can make environmental repair, leaving the environment and future indefete generations" . (Leite, José Rubens Morato. Environmental damage: from the individual to the extractive collectiveEditora Magazine of the courts, 2010, p. 203).
The decision of the Federal Supreme Court is relevant by numerous reasons. Firstly, because it will increase the chances of environment damage to some measure mitigated or repaired, which is particularly important in the face of the growing degradation of environmental conditions already severely hampered by the current standard of development. Secondly, because it signals the alignment of legal understanding with the sustainability agendas that increasingly need to be implemented by the public power and entrepreneurs, especially with regard to the statement of globally recognized environmental guidelines.
