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Locating the analysis in the context of the various shifts in Brazil’s development trajectory since 2003, this article problematises the dynamics underpinning processes of environmental governance. Adopting a critical institutionalist approach, the article analyses how evolving claims of sovereignty over natural resources are used to legitimise contested policy agendas for environmental governance of the Amazon region within Brazil’s coalition politics, and how bricolage processes (innovation, adaptation, and legitimisation) shape these agendas and their outcomes. In a context of territorial fragmentation and ideological differences between an expanding network of actors (federal, state, municipal and non-state) involved in the institutional bricolage of environmental policy-making, the analysis demonstrates that the coalition dynamics of each administration determines the extent to which environmental policies are implemented within Brazil as well as the social-environmental outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship links authoritarian populism to environmental governance and changing forms of neoliberalism, yet the central role of the contradiction between territory demarcated for (neo)extractivism and territory demarcated for conservation and protection is heavily understated. This article analyzes the rise of posttruth politics in Brazil as an effort to legitimate unmitigated extractive capitalist growth through a renewed obfuscation of this inherent ecological contradiction. We first demonstrate the concealment of the contradiction through Latin America's "post-neoliberal" period, based in a neoextractivist economic model. Following, we argue that posttruth politics represents a specific attempt to supersede the previous neoliberal consensus in the face of shrinking commodity returns. Designed to downplay, deny, and remove existing public environmental concerns, we view the posttruth of authoritarian populism as a necessarily spatial project, beyond accounts of cultural or institutional politics alone. The article thus furthers understandings of posttruth by centralizing its role in obscuring the extractivism–conservation contradiction in Brazil and beyond, and as such aligns with a critical effort to mobilize alternatives to the untenable reprimarization of Latin American societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a systematic review of the scientific production on climate adaptation in Brazil, using quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The analysis of adaptation categories indicated a good balance between social (38 %) and institutional (33 %) adaptation actions, with a lesser share of physical/infrastructure adaptation (25 %). Assessed impacts tend to focus on higher temperature or heat events (21 %), mainly with regard to human health, along with droughts or water resources issues (20 %), particularly agricultural production. The studied biomes or environments showed a predominance of the most populous areas, such as urban (27 %) and coastal (17 %), indicating the need to target climate adaptation actions at the various Brazilian natural biomes, which, together, are addressed in only 30 % of the papers analysed (all six biomes combined). Indexes development and documentary analysis were predominant methodologies. The dialogue between science and society must be improved, especially with public management, in the production, execution and dissemination of climate adaptation actions. Nature-based solutions were listed as emerging solutions for addresing climate change impacts, acting both for mitigation and adaptation. Popular participation was pointed out by several authors as fundamental in the joint construction of these actions, as well as the provision of information on access to climate finance, which may be of interest to both public and the private sectors. • A review of the scientific production in climate adaptation in Brazil was performed. • Indexes development and documentary analysis were the predominant methodologies. • Only 30 % of papers evaluated the various natural biomes in Brazil, such as the Amazon. • Engineering fields need better integration with the human aspects of climate change. • Popular participation and the dialogue between science and society must be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the interplay between different environmental governance discourses to assess to what extent each discourse finds ground for implementation. This study sheds light on the constituencies for broader transformational changes in global forest governance and, more emphatically, explores how different discourses built around forest and environmental governance employ different mechanisms (discursively and through policy instruments) within the operation of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) debate. The focus of the analysis is the case of the jurisdictional REDD+ program in the state of Acre, in Brazil's Western Amazon. The underlying assumption in this research rests in the belief that REDD+ operation is linked to coupled social-political and economic contexts, which tend to follow social contingencies, and historical dependencies. Through documental analysis and the assessment of local stakeholders´ narratives, the research highlights the overall dominance of discourses built on to concepts of efficiency in contrast to a minor presence of discourses of social justice. In more broader terms, this study suggests that path dependencies place barriers which condition the extent to which transformations are rendered possible (or desirable) through program design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Collectivus. Revista de Ciencias Sociales is the property of Universidad del Atlantico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Amazônia, Organizações e Sustentabilidade (AOS) is the property of Amazon, Organizations & Sustainability - AOS / Amazônia, Organizações e Sustentabilidade (AOS) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Jurídica (0103-3506) is the property of Revista Juridica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This investigation focuses on the design and formulation of the Brazilian Amazon Fund—perhaps the boldest REDD+ oriented initiative to date. Study draws its hypothesis from the understanding that the Amazon Fund operated until recently based on a nuanced integration of two current trends in environmental governance: (i) institutionalization of ecological modernization theories and (ii) establishment of multilevel, multi‐stakeholder governance. To visualize such integration, this work deploys discourse analysis and text‐mining techniques to the Amazon Fund's policy documents. Overall findings suggest the ecological modernization agenda is predominant within the Amazon Fund. The following discussion articulates with environmental studies' critical scholarship to debate the dominance of ecological modernism as it is claimed to inherently narrow the scope of perspectives, knowledge, and values integrated into sustainability policies. Whereas the opposite should occur, considering multi‐stakeholder environmental governance mechanisms propose to incorporate a plurality of legitimate perspectives and knowledge basis. In these terms, innovative approaches that envision "win‐win" solutions for environmental policy may eventually rest in endorsing alternative framings about nature and society that move away from the constrained paradigms of efficiency within ecological modernization theories and discourse. The relevance of this work lays in the debate that acknowledges the importance of driving environmental governance mechanisms in tropical developing countries to new viable alternatives. In broader terms, the importance of this debate emerges in the proposal of changes that move government, business, and civil society away from usual policies (and interests) underpinning policies for land use and the forest sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Institutional change is an essential element to understand environmental governance. • Institutional change analysis based on the Bricolage concept may be more suited to the real-world dynamics. • Bricolage process shapes interaction between bureaucratic and socially built institutions. • The governance of the protected areas reveals the need for institutional flexibility and creativity. Institutional Bricolage can be a useful concept to understand how institutional change has occurred in natural resource governance. As an adaptive process, agents involved in governance blend rules, traditions, norms, symbolisms, and authority relationships, modifying old arrangements and inventing new ones. In this paper, we use the concept of Institutional Bricolage to analyze how institutional change has occurred during the implementation of marine extractive reserves in Brazil. We present examples of institutional adjustments, when formal or bureaucratic institutions interact with those socially built, in process of aggregation, alteration and/or articulation. We also discuss the influence of power, political and party dynamics on shared governance, and bring reflections on the governance of protected areas through the lens of Critical Institutionalism. Our findings reveal the importance of more flexible institutional designs, exploring questions that may guide a new research agenda on community conservation that is more coherent with local realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Forestry Review is the property of Commonwealth Forestry Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In contemporary discourse, the need to address urgent environmental issues with a social perspective is widely acknowledged. While theories on policy integration have primarily focused on the national scale, limited attention has been given to the merging of environmental and human rights considerations in global supply chain sustainability governance. Drawing on policy integration theories, we develop an analytical framework for studying Human Rights and Environmental Integration (HREI) within global supply chain governance, specifically examining the deforestation-land tenure nexus in soy supply chains from Brazil to Europe. Our empirical analysis focuses on key policy instruments, including the Soy Moratorium, the Working Group on the Cerrado, the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS), and the EU Regulation on deforestation-free products (EUDR). Drawing from extensive fieldwork in Brazil, we assess the integration of land tenure in these policy instruments, revealing a general weakness in this aspect. Nonetheless, grassroots organizations have played a crucial role in advocating for enhanced HREI, urging the inclusion of land tenure rights in instruments addressing deforestation. Our research highlights that, although global supply chain instruments may not entirely compensate for the deficiencies of domestic policies, they should, at the very least, strive to comprehensively address complex sustainability problems and prevent actions that could worsen existing issues or give rise to new sustainability problems. In conclusion, our study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the opportunities and structural constraints associated with integrated approaches to interconnected human rights and environmental issues. • We study human rights and environmental integration in the sustainability governance of global supply chains. • We develop and apply an analytical framework to study policy integration in transnational contexts. • The article analyses the close inter-linkages between deforestation and land tenure in Brazil. • We show how hybrid, public and private policy instruments have insufficiently accounted for this nexus in Brazil's soy sector. • The study discusses reasons behind weak policy integration and bottom-up attempts to push for integrated approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2004, annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen nearly 80 percent, even as agricultural production in the region has increased. Understanding this land use transition requires a theorization of the relationships among environmental governance, agricultural intensification, and state building. Drawing on key informant interviews, municipal-level case studies, and an organizational ethnography of an international environmental organization, I argue that declines in deforestation engineered by new governance arrangements are part of a project of economic development and state building through environmental regulation. This project is implemented by a complex of government, nongovernmental, and corporate actors. I describe the emergence of this complex and the land sparing logic that animates it. Land sparing policy inverts previous logics of state territorialization and environmental conservation with the aim of shifting the Amazonian economy from an extensive mode of extraction to an intensive mode of production. Two municipal case studies follow variation in land sparing policy implementation. The cases identify determinants of land sparing policy effectiveness and collateral effects, including tendencies toward agro-industrial consolidation at the expense of smallholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Capacity development is a development approach and a methodology with origins in colonization that has yet to be decolonized. The underlying assumption for the most part is that there are deficiencies in the abilities of the group in question, and does not question the possibility that the system or structure may be dysfunctional. The ongoing design and implementation of international protected area management systems in general, and the one described in this paper, continue to be based on a foundational assumption of a lack of community capacity for governance of the resources on which they depend, the “deficit” model. Emerging from the context of a community in Trindade, Brazil, the goal of the present project was to support members of a community-based organization in capacity development endeavors for needs they identified. Although the implementation of a series of courses is not a novel approach to capacity development, the commitment to critical pedagogy, the clarity of capacity development of what and for whom that was based on an assumption of capacity, defining the capacities needed and the purpose, and being guided by theory, were perhaps the more novel approaches used in this action research project. The goal of capacity development as attempted in the present research project was not to develop skills so that people may fit into an unjust structure or for ease of social control, but to support the enhancement of skills and knowledge to challenge the existing state of affairs. Instead of the insistence on Indigenous Peoples becoming willing partners in flawed governance systems, much work is needed to continue to address these significant flaws and failings, and to critically challenge the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates to what extent have municipalities participated in the national policies that have addressed deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon under the Action Plan for Prevention and Control Plan of Deforestation in the Legal Amazon (Plano de Prevenção e Controle do Desmatamento na Amazônia Legal – ppcdam). The study found that even though the design of the federal strategy relegated to municipalities the role of mere “locus” or territory for policy enforcement, in some situations local governments have assumed a leading role and empowered themselves as actors and agents in the fight against deforestation, as a response to the Brazilian federal “priority municipalities list” strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past ten years, efforts have been made in the Paraty region of Brazil towards more active state governance of coastal resources through the implementation and enforcement of various types of protected areas. Trindade is one of the communities making efforts to advocate for themselves as the key stakeholders in a negotiation process for a no-take protected area management plan. As is happening across South America, there has been a shift in policy in Brazil towards participatory environmental governance practices. The objective of this paper is to analyze the quality of community participation in a resource governance process, the perceptions of participating and non-participating community members, and the actual influence of community participants on the protected area management plan under review (in 2012/2013). The research was conducted as interdisciplinary action research. Data were collected through a qualitative approach, using mixed methods of narratives, interviews, focus groups, participant observation and workshops. The negotiation process and community participation in this negotiation process was studied through observation of meetings. Analysis of the negotiation process revealed the importance that community participants place on their rights as Caiçaras, and four further key themes emerged; communication disconnect, opportunity and capacity to participate, representation and decision-making, and conflict. Meaningful participation in natural resources management has not yet been achieved in the process reviewed. The process described is the initial phase of a long-term relationship between community members and government authorities, and changes need to be made so that the desired outcomes for natural resources management are more likely to be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to recent reports on deforestation control, Brazil's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are successful. This is attributed to a combination of command-and-control style of public regulation and civil society pressure. Looking beyond decreasing deforestation rates reveals a different picture for the future of GHG optimized land use in Brazil. Command-andcontrol regulation seems to work as long as prohibitive measures against deforestation are concerned. However, as soon as tailormade policies for complex issues such as land-use planning are required, the outcomes are ambiguous. Comparing the origins, the actors and the perspectives of three different cases of resource governance in Southern Amazonia, we show that the major challenges of regulation attempts are the lack of transparency and the appropriation of state agencies by powerful groups. Due to institutional weakness, the various regulation efforts fail to consider the system links needed for effective implementation. To conclude, we provide suggestions to possibly overcome the problems through innovative forms of governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] Deforestation by small sugarcane suppliers is a challenge for biofuel governance. [•] This is driven by a lack of accountability over parts of the suppliers’ lands. [•] It is also exacerbated by suppliers’ perceptions of sugarcane as a risky crop. [•] To ameliorate this problem, regulations and certifications must address both issues. [•] Biofuel companies should leverage the resources of governmental authorities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Journal of Latin American & Caribbean Anthropology is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Agribusiness expansion and intensification in Brazil have prompted an abrupt change in land use and occupation in the Amazonian agricultural frontier since the 1980s. Considering the increasing suppression of native vegetation, riparian areas represent an important tool for protecting ecosystem services and biodiversity. Although the effects of land tenure and land use on large-scale deforestation in the Amazon have been widely assessed, their roles on riparian deforestation remains poorly explored. Here we assessed two municipalities – Querência (QRC) and São José do Xingu (SJX) – located in an agricultural frontier of the Brazilian Amazon to explore the relationship of illegal deforestation in riparian areas and different types of land use and property-sizes, as well as the impact of the Native Vegetation Protection Law (NVPL, Federal Law 12,651/2012) on environmental compliance. Therefore, we developed a robust geodatabase using hydrographic, land use and land tenure data. Riparian areas protected as Permanent Preservation Areas (PPAs) were delimited and their land cover mapped for 2012 and 2018 using high spatial resolution satellite images and unsupervised K-means classification method. We also applied landscape metrics to analyze riparian PPA structure and dynamics. Our results indicated that NVPL was followed by a downward trend in the riparian vegetation deficits in all land use types and property-sizes, but it did not stop new clearings. Although riparian PPAs in minifundios (≤ 80 ha) and agrarian reform settlements tended to concentrate higher relative deforestation amounts, large-sized farms were responsible for most of the absolute extent of riparian deforestation in both years, accounting for 76–78% in QRC and 93% in SJX. They were also the main drivers of new clearings, for which account for 71% in QRC and 86% in SJX. The impact of land use on riparian deforestation was not homogeneous among properties, possibly reflecting different levels of technological investment and management techniques. In the so-called consolidated areas, in which the riparian PPA minimum width was reduced by NVPL, decreases in deforestation between 2012 and 2018 were lower. In these areas, vegetation coverage did not exceed 23% in any of the study areas. In the riparian PPAs that was not under consolidated areas, the vegetation coverage was of at least 85% of the area. Local environmental governance may also have affected the riparian deforestation dynamics, in which stricter monitoring and law enforcement lead to lower deforestation extents. Finally, landscape metrics revealed the importance of managing riparian areas at the landscape level, as local improvements did not necessarily result in connectivity gains. • NVPL was followed by a reduction in riparian vegetation deficits. • Decreases in riparian vegetation deficits were lower in the consolidated areas. • Large-size farms accounted for the largest extents of riparian deforestation. • The degree of environmental compliance was not uniform within the different land use types. • Local increases of riparian vegetation may not improve connectivity at the landscape level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of compounding health, environmental, and climatic crises, Brazil may witness two of its most important environmental policy instruments, environmental licensing and impact assessment, be severely weakened. On May 13, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies passed a new General Law of Environmental Licensing, ignoring the concerns of civil society, scientists, and other relevant parties. If approved by the Senate and ratified by President Bolsonaro, this law will further undermine Brazil's increasingly fragile environmental protection and public participation in decision-making. Here, we review the bill's main provisions, highlighting potential far-reaching implications for environmental protection and governance, public participation in decision-making, and human rights in Brazil and beyond. Scientists can play an important role in debunking misinformation and advising Senators and the public opinion on the bill's dangerous effects. • A General Law of Environmental Licensing is a roll-back in Brazil's environmental legislation. • Bill 2159/2021 was approved by Chamber of Deputies without civil society dialogue. • The Bill's provisions affect each stage of licensing and impact assessment process. • The proposed bill weakens the territorial rights of Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities. • National and international adverse consequences of this bill are far-reaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The conventional understanding of environmental governance implicitly assumes a priori presence of citizen rationality that underpins constitution of civil society vis-à-vis state. This assumption tends to overlook the economic and ecological consequences of social interactions through which people with diverse forms of rationality gradually produce distinction between state and society and shape environmental governance as an embedded process. This paper presents a case study of spontaneous settlers called posseiros in the south-east of the state of Pará in the Brazilian Amazon and examines ways that their social interactions lead to the so-called emancipation movements for municipal making on the agrarian frontier and open civic places in which environmental governance is negotiated. It pays particular attention to the role of religion, especially the Pentecostal Church of Assembly of God in relation to the traditional Catholic Church, in influencing the posseiros' ecological rationality and the articulation of emancipation movements and argues that the focus on religion sheds new light on the linkage between the environment, livelihoods and local governance. The paper concludes by discussing pragmatic implications of the case study for promoting sustainable rural development. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Revista de Sociologia e Política is the property of Revista de Sociologia e Politica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article describes and analyzes discourses regarding environmental governance held among key actors in a region of expanding high-input, high-output agriculture. Q-method, an intensive (small n) and quantitative technique in which n tests are measured by m individuals, was used to determine four empirically significant social perspectives: critical environmentalism, agri-environmentalism, private environmentalism, and statist environmentalism. The article highlights major differences and agreements among social perspectives, in addition to the arguments used to justify claims. These findings help fill a knowledge gap in the literature on governance debates between farmers and environmentalists; moreover, the findings contribute to a concern in the literature regarding the role of discourses in producing policy solutions to environmental governance problems. The article also supports continued use of Q-method in human geography, suggesting the value of Q as a research ends and means, particularly when research subjects include landed elites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Due to its recent economic success, Brazil is considered an emerging country, but is it an emerging power concerning global environmental governance? This article argues that although Brazil has a sui generis profile, it can only be considered an emerging power in some environmental regimes, such as global climate change. Thus, international relations theory needs more analytical instruments to assess the impact of emerging powers in global environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Payments for environmental services (PES) have a mixed record on achieving their social and environmental goals. • Soy industry actors are considering using PES to end soy-driven deforestation the Brazilian Cerrado. • We find that a PES would have a lower likely effectiveness and cost-effectiveness than an MEM, but higher legitimacy among Brazilian soy actors. • Both approaches have equity drawbacks – MEM disadvantages soy farmers with forested land and PES unfairly privileges these soy farmers. • Mixing an MEM with a PES for only the most vulnerable actors would be a better solution to end deforestation in the Cerrado. Over the past decade public and private actors have been developing a variety of new policy approaches for addressing agriculturally-driven deforestation linked to international supply chains. While payments for environmental services (PES) have been advocated in many contexts as an efficient and pro-poor environmental policy to incentivize conservation, they have been the subject of intense scrutiny and criticism for leading to mixed and sometimes adverse environmental and social outcomes. It remains unclear whether such an approach is an improvement over existing approaches to govern sustainability in supply chains and especially as a mechanism for reducing ecosystem conversion. Here we conduct an ex-ante analysis to examine the potential outcomes of using a standalone PES scheme versus existing standalone market exclusion mechanisms (MEM) to govern commodity supply chains. The analysis develops a theoretical framework to examine the potential effectiveness, cost-effectiveness, equity, and legitimacy of the two approaches and then applies this framework using qualitative analysis of secondary and interview data. Using this theory-driven evaluation approach we examine the case of the Brazilian Cerrado, where a PES mechanism is currently being proposed to achieve zero-deforestation targets in soy supply chains. We find that both standalone approaches suffer from different strengths and challenges and would be better used in combination. We conclude that a mixture of strict market exclusion with positive incentives and enabling programs that are targeted at the poorest farmers would be more effective, cost-effective, equitable, and legitimate. However, in the future such supply chain focused soy deforestation control efforts in the Cerrado must be complemented by broader jurisdictional approaches to addressing deforestation and sustainable development that include all land use actors, not just soy farmers. These more inclusive and balanced initiatives can help ensure that avoiding deforestation goes hand in hand with supporting sustainable livelihoods for a wider range of actors in the Cerrado. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental laws are necessary to governance and a sustainable use of nature resource. Brazil federal environmental laws have been improved in the last 50 years, with significant advances in legal provisions and monitoring systems. However, the recent dismantling of legal environmental framework by the Bolsonaro administration has led to increase of human pressure on biodiversity and ecosystems. The purpose of this article is to present some environmental impacts in Brazil due to the dismantling of environmental laws. To address this, some examples we gathered and established a timeline of Brazilian environmental laws to allow a perspective of temporal dismantling. Among the environmental impacts related to the dismantling of environmental policies are the increase in deforestation in the Amazon, the release of pesticides, and the lack of actions to minimize the effects of oil spill. In conclusion, the current Brazilian federal govern is dismantling environment laws, and the consequent lack of environmental governance in the country, will result in severe negative impacts to the biodiversity and human well-being. • Countries with mega-diversity harbours a large natural capital. • Despite this importance, we are assisting a tentative to weakness the environmental laws in Brazil. • The dismantling has local, regional and worldwide consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Deforestation increased (1994-2004) in Suiá-Miçu Basin as a result of the low-cost of clearing, tax incentives, and increases in soybean prices • Deforestation decreased (2004-2009) in Suiá-Miçu Basin as a result of 'Y Ikatu Xingu Campaign, legal sanctions and the "soybean moratorium". • The 'Y Ikatu Xingu Campaign is a multi-scale and multi-level institutional arrangement that foster stakeholders to riparian forest restoration. • Kĩsêdjê indigenous people have a fundamental role in monitoring the common-pool resources in the Suiá-Miçu River Basin (Mato Grosso, Brazil). During the early 2000s, indigenous and non-indigenous peoples inhabiting the headwaters of the Xingu River (Mato Grosso state, Brazil) engaged in a collective decision to undertake the 'Y Ikatu Xingu Campaign, a social phenomenon and forum for the restoration and protection of Xingu's headwaters and riparian forests–a common-pool resources shared by indigenous, farmers, and urban populations in the region. These areas have been significantly deforested over the last 50 years due to public policies and land privatization aiming at economic development, agricultural and agribusiness expansion in Central and Amazonian Brazil. These political and economic drivers contributed to the conversion of five million hectares of Seasonal Evergreen Forests and Cerrados (Brazilian savanna) into agricultural land. In order to reverse the damaging trends of the future of the Xingu River and promote common benefits to indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, the Campaign fostered the creation of the Xingu Seed Network to promote exchange and commercialization of native seeds demanded by farmers and landholders for planting and restoring permanent preservation areas, such as riparian forests, and vegetation associated with lakes and springs of the Suiá-Miçu River Basin. The aim of this study is to examine the role played by the 'Y Ikatu Campaign in the conservation of these common-pool resources – Xingu's headwaters, riparian forests and rivers–and in mobilizing heterogeneous social groups living in this region to engage in the protection of the watershed.. Our analysis focuses on socially and culturally diverse inhabitants (indigenous and farmers) of the Suiá-Miçu River Basin, who are searching for innovative technologies for the recovery of riparian areas, and for income generation for local communities. The Institutional Analysis and Development framework was adopted as an approach for understanding interactions of multiple social agents, governmental and non-governmental organizations, engaged in the process of restoration and protection of common resources. Spatial and temporal land-cover changes analysis of the Suiá-Miçu River Basin show an increase in deforestation during the past 40 years, primarily for soybean farming and pastures. We showed that indigenous people have a fundamental role in questioning and advancing the outcomes of restoration efforts, and monitoring environmental impact on water quality of rivers, as well as on conditions of forests and other ecosystems surrounding indigenous lands. We discuss the perspectives of Kĩsêdjê indigenous inhabitants of the environmental governance related to restoration efforts and monitoring, and their concerns with a dynamic scenario of agribusiness expansion in the Xingu River Headwaters region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• We investigated certification and auditing of soy in western Bahía, in the most dynamic agricultural frontier in Brazil. • We draw on 72 semi-structured interviews and a systematic analysis of public audit reports from RTRS-certified farms. • Certification and auditing have not successfully protected the access of local communities to land and water. • Shortcomings are explained by the business-dominated nature of RTRS, auditing practices and domestic contextual factors. The massive expansion of soy production in Brazil has contributed to a loss of access for local communities to land and water, particularly in highly dynamic frontier regions in the Cerrado. Soy certification standards like the Roundtable on Responsible Soy (RTRS) contain principles that are supposed to prevent such problems. In this paper, we examine the extent to which certification and auditing have served to protect local communities' access to land and water in western Bahía state in the Cerrado's Matopiba region. We draw on findings from field research in Brazil and western Bahía, 72 semi-structured interviews with corporate, state and civil society actors, and a systematic analysis of audit reports from RTRS-certified farms in Bahía. We find that auditing practices are not effective in protecting the rights and access of local communities to land and water due to three inter-related sets of factors: 1) the business-dominated nature of the drafting and content of the RTRS standard, 2) the structural limitations and everyday practices of auditing, and 3) domestic and local contextual factors in Brazil and western Bahía. This study aims to contribute to a re-thinking and re-assessment of certification and auditing practices and suggests that new approaches are required to govern global commodity chains in a more environmentally just way. We advocate for a locally embedded and community-sensitive perspective in research on certification and auditing, to complement previous research in the fields of critical political economy and sustainability governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The global production network framework is a helpful heuristic device to understand how environmental governance emerges within forest landscape restoration practices. • Forest landscape restoration in Brazil responds to a multi-scalar governance network connecting disparate actors through constructed demands. • While community organisations have influenced the nature and structure of the restoration network in the Amazon, they are subservient to the governance exerted by ultimate buyers of ecosystem services. • Although some restoration drivers are vulnerable to domestic political change, the dispersed nature of network governance should be strategically pursued as it enhances network resilience. Over the last few decades, numerous initiatives have advanced forest landscape restoration in the Amazon, and in 2015 the Brazilian government set an ambitious, still-valid, target to restore 4.8 million hectares of degraded Amazonian land by 2030. This has contributed to an emergent global restoration network that connects multiple stakeholders and processes for funding, implementing and monitoring restoration actions in such a way that prepares various ecosystem services for market integration. The network arose in tandem with the evolution of an institutional framework that includes regulatory requirements within Brazil, global commitments linked to climate change mitigation, corporate sustainability strategies, and the growth of crowd-sourcing activism. This paper presents restoration activities as embedded within a Global Production Network (GPN) for an ecosystem service, which we use as a heuristic device to inform our understanding of emergent environmental governance structures. The resulting multi-scalar, networked mode of environmental governance is presented as a web-like structure co-created by institutional evolution, actor-specific strategies, and interactions between firms and non-firm actors. The article pays particular attention to a case study of how the restoration network manifests territorially in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon. Despite the strong North-South orientation of dominant funding relationships, network governance is also seen to be relational. This is evident from the dissemination of ideas, supply models and seeding techniques from Upper Xingu to other regions of Brazil. These insights could be applied to improve landscape restoration outcomes, and indeed the provisioning of ecosystem services more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]