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The question of how to generate development while preserving the environment is central to the history of the Brazilian Amazon. Many decades of top-down state interventions conceived and executed under a developmentalist framework have resulted in a socioenvironmental crisis. In response, the Sustainable Oil Palm Production Program (SPOPP) was launched in 2010. It promised to break with developmentalist visions and articulate environmental and sustainability concerns. This paper uses assemblage thinking to examine how these contrasting, often impossible-to-balance, views manifest within SPOPP implementation. We describe how non-human actors (trees, diseases, previous policies and agroecological zoning technologies) interact with human actors. However, powerful actors, in the state and beyond, continue to garner support for their developmentalist interests and thwart or depoliticize environmental and social concerns, thus limiting change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using policy cycle model as a heuristic, this article studies Indian, Brazilian, and South African engagement with Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) by (a) comparing NAMA policy process and (b) identifying factors driving or limiting the framework’s domestic application. India largely remained uninterested in NAMAs, Brazil aligned its domestic climate policy and NAMAs, while South Africa had a more nuanced engagement when formulating NAMAs. Four factors influenced these countries’ NAMA engagements: the level and necessity of international support, the availability of domestic policy provisions to tackle climate change, the domestic institutional capacity to coordinate interministerial functioning, and the role of individuals in the institutional apparatus. As an international climate policy framework, studying NAMA engagement provides learnings for nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement for designing the instrument, ensuring clarity on support provisions for ratcheting up ambitions, and enhancing institutional capacity, to expedite transition from policy formulation to implementation and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the paradoxical behaviour of Brazil in relation to its national and international approaches to the regulations of access to genetic resources and benefits sharing with indigenous and other traditional communities. Brazil was one of the leaders in the international negotiations that led to the UN Nagoya Protocol but only ratified it 11 years later, after remarkable transformations of its internal biodiversity laws. We suggest that the seemingly contradictory behaviour has been shaped by the country's internal political and ideological changes. This transformation goes hand in hand with substantial changes in state–society relations, particularly with regard to the balance of coalitions' power between indigenous groups and industrial and agrarian elites. The article builds on the literature on state transformations and relies on the Advocacy Coalition Framework to show the importance of considering the impact of national-level politics on the fate of international agreements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to identify and comprehend the challenges and strengths behind public policies on integrating waste pickers (WPs) within waste management systems in Colombia and Brazil. In both, WPs started to come together and found organisations and external agents such as NGOs began to support organised groups of WPs. After 10 years of judicial court actions in Colombia, WPs organisations were finally recognised in legislation, while in Brazil, they were recognised in 2007 in one of the national policies through lobby. Today, there are almost 700 WPs organisations formalised in Colombia and 1700 in Brazil. Their public policies' main achievements and challenges are exposed to supply knowledge to other countries interested in this theme. A Roadmap for the organisation and formalisation of WPs within waste management systems was created. This constitutes a source of information for policymakers in other emerging economies to address this in their territories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can institutions foster greater environmental awareness in a developmental state? Can a policymaking process driven by “autonomous” bureaucrats include civil society and does this affect policy outcomes? With these questions in mind, I explore the politics behind hydroelectric dam construction in environmentally and culturally sensitive locations in Brazil. Using mixed methods to compare two distinct developmental periods, I find developmental policy makers are becoming more sensitive to the environmental and social costs of large dams instead of solely prioritizing economic objectives. Constitutional protections, indigenous rights, a licensing process with mandated public audiences, and an active public prosecutor are compelling the democratic developmental state to better engage civil society and the environment. Ultimately, the Brazilian state is building a more inclusive developmental model and my research demonstrates how democratic political institutions and environmental protections changed the policy-making process and created a preference for less damaging but less efficient run-of-the-river dams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article identifies equity outcomes associated with three biofuel systems in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Guatemala. Acknowledging that winners and losers are socially and politically generated, the article identifies some of the factors behind the distribution of winners and losers along different stages of three sugarcane–ethanol supply chains. Analyzing the outcomes for equity within each case study reveals an uneven distribution that, we argue, is related to the procedure and structure of the given sugarcane–ethanol system, and the recognition of the impacts on different actors within those structures. Increasing equity in sugarcane–ethanol systems will require greater openness in decision-making processes, in order that multiple voices are taken into account in the promotion, production, and consumption of biofuels—particularly those of smaller and less powerful actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present study investigates the prospects for a large-scale implementation of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes in the Brazilian Pantanal wetland. Despite increasing environmental threats associated with development pressures and the growing interest of public and private organizations, no PES schemes are currently in place in the Pantanal. Through an exploratory scenario analysis, this article determines the prospects for PES in the area. The findings suggest that a large-scale implementation is unlikely, as this would require much higher levels of environmental awareness among local decision makers and low substitution rates of ecosystem services by technology. Furthermore, strong socioeconomic inequality between inhabitants of the Pantanal lowlands and wealthy farmers of the neighboring uplands means that potential suppliers of ecosystem services would face very high opportunity costs to participate in PES schemes. The research findings are also relevant to other environmentally sensitive regions experiencing rapid economic growth and weak environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From June 20 to 22, 2012, 45,000 participants from governments, the private sector, nongovernmental organizations, and major groups met in Rio De Janeiro for the “Rio+20” United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. The outcome document titled “The Future We Want” alludes to a grand vision for addressing global challenges in the framework of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. But the 53-page long document only reiterates promises made elsewhere. It fails to lay out a coherent roadmap forward, much less to define binding targets with specific deadlines. The declaration, however, does reflect a changing political reality in international negotiations. Developing countries are playing a much more assertive role in pushing poverty eradication as the overarching priority than at any time before. Rio+20 furthermore presents a snapshot of the divers interests and voices that shape the discourse on sustainable development, 20 years after the original 1992 Rio Conference launched the debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After substantial global investments into biofuel production from 2005 to 2008, challenges to a sustainable and robust biofuel industry have become more apparent than many proponents have anticipated. Across country and development contexts, conflicts arose as plans to scale up production clashed with local preferences or national policies, and Southern Africa has been no exception. This article analyzes recent difficulties with biofuels projects in Tanzania before the background of the more successful experiences of Brazil and South Africa. We identify areas of incompatibility between local expectations, government policy, and investor incentives. An assessment of different biofuels business models shows that some—such as contract farming—may not be appropriate for Tanzania’s situation and that policies are necessary that can address the needs of both local and regional stakeholders and provide adequate incentives for investors to pursue sustainable biofuels production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the achievements of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. The author mentions how the said conference provides a process which balances governmental regulations and free markets. Moreover, he cites how the said processes connects on the integration of sustainable development and trade rules.

Environmental journalism has recently made a comeback in Brazil after almost half a century of irrelevance, while the push for quick and wasteful economic development has overshadowed any competing political priorities. Its return to newspapers front pages and television prime time is confronting Brazilians with a reality they have long tried to ignore: the enormity of the deforestation problem in the Amazon region and of the depletion of crucial rivers throughout the country. No wonder environmental journalism was first greeted with suspicion when triggered by the 1992 Rio Conference on Environment and Development, as a foreign source of bad news undermining the local perception of Brazil as a bountiful and inexhaustible tropical paradise. A true national debate about conserving Brazil's natural resources is still lacking. As this article shows, environmental journalists need to look back to the rich tradition of environmental journalism in Brazil decades ago, exemplified by no one better than Euclydes da Cunha in his masterpiece Os Sertões published in 1897. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, environmental activism in Brazil has experienced a substantial tactical shift. Many activists have gained access to national political offices, the most prominent of whom is Marina Silva at the Ministry of the Environment. This research shows that protest groups of the 1980s paved the way for a professionalized form of environmental activism that relies on a firm-like organizational profile and expert staffing. Today, far away from confrontation, environmental activism in Brazil builds on cooperative relationships between political authorities and scientific elites. In this article, the authors argue that the transmutation of the profile of activism was largely stimulated by the availability of new resources and opportunities and the presence of national and transnational alliances available after Rio-92. The argument presented here draws on an analysis of the two biggest and most important environmental organizations in Brazil, namely, the SOS Atlantic Forest Foundation and the Socio- Environmental Institute (ISA). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the issue of water quality restoration in Guanabara Bay, a much polluted estuary, located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which serves as drainage basin for 11 million people. The theoretical basis for analyzing the problem is the systems approach, and the focus is on devising actions to achieve the modernization of the sanitation sector. In order to restore the bay's water quality, specific targets measured in terms of the level of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) need to be attained. The Guanabara Bay system contains five components: decision support tools, physical infrastructure, financing, governance, and administration. The article proposes a policy approach that seeks to attend to the environmental concerns associated with the restoration of the bay's water quality by advocating an effective governance structure able to provide sanitary services to all citizens that will also mitigate the bay's pollution problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently established carbon governance systems are quite different in Brazil, China, and India. Such divergence is surprising as emerging economies are primarily involved in carbon governance through the clean development mechanism (CDM). One would expect similar institutional and policy outcomes in the major host countries in response to the CDM, as this market instrument is initiated primarily by Western companies and regulated hierarchically by the internationally governed CDM Executive Board. However, from a closer look at the developing features of the CDM markets in Brazil, China, or India and an analysis of dominant actors and their interactions, institutional responses, and the effectiveness of the CDM within each market, there is evidence of a high variance, combined with a strong ownership by the respective governments. Such a variety of carbon governance is interesting from a theoretical point of view as it shows that a good understanding of environmental governance patterns is still lacking in developing and emerging economies. It is also of political importance as the findings may help to diffuse some of the criticism leveled at the CDM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the forces that drove policy in the past can inform expectations of the effectiveness of policy implementation today. Forest policies of countries with forested frontiers transition through stages of forest management, reflecting the orientation of governments toward economic development. The article follows Brazilian national forest policy from the early 20th century from colonization to protectionism, during which extrasectoral policies largely served to marginalize forest policy. More recently, profound changes in Brazil's governance structures, civil society's progressively important role in influencing policy, and recognition of the biophysical importance of forests have fostered an emerging vision of the Amazon as a region whose primary vocation is sustainable forest management. The sustainable management phase of forest policy development and the approval of Brazil's first Public Forest Management Law, given the current socioeconomic, political, and environmental context, present an unprecedented opportunity for increasing the relevance of forest policy in shaping land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite its argued theoretical benefits, forestry decentralization in practice can have detrimental effects on forest-dependent peoples, but little is understood about the specific paths by which decentralization affects livelihoods. This article, based on data from research in 2005 in Bolivia, Brazil, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, presents a working conceptual model for analyzing these interactions. The research found that vulnerability increased when decentralization was not combined with policies addressing structural inequities—that is, increased municipal government control over land and forests must be accompanied by policies increasing poor local people's access rights and security. At the same time, increased municipal government authority over forest management and monitoring can facilitate access to these and other assets needed for forest livelihoods, but this new responsibility must also be accompanied by improved controls over local authorities. The needed changes rarely come about without specific organized demands of local actors' associations and movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public opinion polls indicate that Brazilians think that urban sanitation is a major environmental problem. Many committed environmentalists agree. And indeed, the majority of Brazilians face unreliable or nonextent garbage collection, scare drinking water, open-air sewers, unpaved streets, and water ways and beaches that are polluted with domestic waste. Despite this situation, Brazilian environmental-movement organizations pay scant attention to sanitation. Most of them emphasize instead the preservation of natural resources and the prevention of industrial pollution. To account for this disjunction between public opinion about environmental problems and the agenda of environmental-movement organizations, we offer three explanations. One focuses on the political context in which the movement was born and on that in which it matured, one focuses on the range of resources movement organizations have at their disposal, and one focuses on the fit between urban sanitation and principles of environmentalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes how politics has affected assessments of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce's (CVRD) socioenvironmental impact and the claims that its privatization has benefited Amazonian socioenvironmental conditions. Concept of neoliberalism; Privatization of state-owned companies in Brazil; Iron exploration of CVRD in eastern Amazonia in the 1970s.

This article examines the participation of Brazilian communities in the environmental impact assessment process of five hydroelectric dam projects in Minas Gerais State in the context of privatization of Brazil's electric sector. It focuses on how support of church, university, and environmental activists enabled dam-affected rural populations and their leaders to effectively contest dam plans. Popular rural mobilization and critiques of environmental impacts reports in public hearings by affected people and their allies, reinforced by support from urban political leaders, provided leverage needed by state environmental technocrats to vigorously enforce environmental regulations. Divergent project outcomes included private sponsor withdrawal of three projects and a relatively equitable resettlement agreement of another project. Findings suggest that under certain conditions, prior institutional reforms can facilitate the empowerment of affected people, enabling them to influence environmental decision making and energy policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes Brazil's role in the negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Brazil has a large stake in the climate change issue because some of its national economic, social, and security interests are contingent on the growth of its energy sector and development of the Amazon region. Section one provides an overview of the ongoing climate change negotiations. Section two provides background on Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions, which stem primarily from deforestation of the Amazon. Section three describes Brazil's interests and negotiating positions with respect to three key issues: (a) emissions reduction responsibilities; (b) protocol mechanisms; and (c) land-use change and forestry. The concluding section will then assess Brazil's contributions in terms of both achieving an accord that will slow global warming and promoting Brazilian national interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outlines the development prospects for Brazil's Transamazon region and their expected environmental consequences. Information on the proposed hydroelectric power plant on Xingu River; Impact of the proposed paving of the Transamazon Highway; Discussion on public policy decisions and experiences.