Search

Urban segregation can happen in many dimensions. Its study reveals city inequalities to inform urban planning policies; access to green and leisure spaces can contribute to well-being and social mixing. Different studies underline different characteristics. However, studies in Latin America, especially north-east Brazil, explore few segregation dimensions. This paper investigates multi-dimensional socio-spatial patterns in a broader urban area of João Pessoa city, relating residential census information - as income, race/colour, literacy and types of dwellings -, space syntax street network centralities, and public leisure spaces access. Variables were correlated and characterized k-means groups for sectors and neighbourhoods. Results indicate spatial wealth patterns with more whites and literates living in more apartments in areas stemming from the city expansion to the coast beyond municipal boundaries. Impoverished areas concentrate further from the sea, with barely any access to large leisure areas, transitioned by the city centre and Bancários neighbourhoods. Income was related more to access to large leisure areas than city-scale street network centralities. K-means clustering indicated heterogeneous profiles as poorer clusters, despite lower street network centrality and little sanitation, were either the densest or sparsest. Meanwhile, areas with higher street network access exhibited intermediate-to-high rather than highest-income inhabitants. Findings indicate a need to look over municipal boundaries and distribute better city amenities. • Findings indicate a tendency of white, literate, and wealthy living in apartments • Low income, particularly very low, have barely any reach to large leisure areas • Very high-income groups have access to large leisure areas, most close to the sea • K-means shows two poorest areas profiles: sparsest or densest, located differently • Intermediate income clusters exhibit higher street integration than higher income [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses the effects of public policies on the occurrence of natural disasters related to extreme rainfall. By using a unique and geolocated database on natural disasters in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I test whether variables related to public policies - e.g. forest cover and urban infrastructure - affect the occurrence of natural disasters, conditional on the existence of extreme rainfall. Results point to a significant role for public policies in order to mitigate effects of extreme weather events. More specifically, results point to an important role for urban infrastructure, as proper sewage and waste collection, and forest cover in reducing the impacts of extreme rainfall. Moreover, I discuss how these heterogeneous effects have distributional consequences and can be linked to the Environmental Justice literature. Finally, this paper reinforces the idea that adaptation policies to disasters are essential in reducing local vulnerabilities and can yield distributional and fiscal benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of public policies have emerged worldwide as a response from governments facing climate change effects, drawing the attention of the scientific community to the outcomes and actual effects/benefits these policies have brought so far. One of the challenging aspects related to this context is the integration of the objectives set by climate change policies within the sectoral and regional planning. In this respect, the literature recognizes the relevance of Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) as an instrument to deal with climate change issues in the planning process and to support the development of alternatives to respond to climate change policies. The influence of climate change policies on the plans and programs supported by SEA in emerging economies is yet to be verified. The paper relies on the case of Brazil, recognized by its relevance in terms of biodiversity, water resources and climate regulation. In 2009, Brazil introduced the National Policy of Climate Change (NPCC), which established guidelines to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 2020. The present paper is based on the analysis of the current SEA practice and the corresponding level of integration of climate change issues, considering the objectives of the NPCC. A set of 29 statements, delivered by the literature, was applied, combined to the content analysis techniques to review the quality of 35 SEA reports produced in Brazil between 1997 and 2014 (out of 40-odd cases). The outcomes indicate the performance is similar to what was found in other contexts, i.e., SEA areas barely address climate change issues. This thus reveals an important gap between the objectives of NPCC and sectoral/regional planning. SEA can contribute to reducing this gap, but it needs more strength to influence the development of sectoral and regional policies and plans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressures are mounting for the simplification of environmental impact assessment (EIA). This phenomenon is drawing increasing scholarly attention, but studies have not gone far beyond speculating what could happen as a result of recently implemented or proposed regulatory changes. This paper takes a more longitudinal look at simplified EIAs. The main objective was to analyze the perceived outcomes of a number of simplified EIA processes, using Brazil as the empirical context. More specifically, this paper aimed at understanding: 1) how simplified EIAs have been conceptualized and implemented in southeastern Brazil; and 2) how developers and civil servants in that region perceive the outcomes of simplified EIAs. This study adopted a sequential mixed method research approach. Data was collected through literature reviews, 261 telephone-based interviews and 10 face-to-face interviews. Degrees of EIA simplification can vary significantly within and across jurisdictions. In any case, simplification is often framed as a win-win solution to EIA ineffectiveness, through which regulatory and procedural changes are made to ease the process, while, at the same time, maintaining or providing better environmental protection. This approach is more frequently applied to potentially low-impact processes. Chi-square tests of the data collected through telephone interviews in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais indicated that developers tend to perceive EIA processes as difficult and slow regardless of how simplified it is. Most civil servants, who were directly involved in the implementation of simplified EIAs in state environmental agencies, argued that simplified EIAs are driven mostly by environmental agencies, as these institutions have long been unable to cope with an ever-increasing load of license applications. Policy outcomes of simplified EIAs in the territory are not sufficiently monitored by state agencies. Civil servants revealed concerns about the potential long term effects of EIA simplification on the ground, as they have had limited resources for audits and inspections. [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]

Abstract: Land reform settlements (LRS) in the Brazilian Amazon have been suggested to hold promise for the successful implementation of incipient efforts to reducing emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD). However, differences in forest cover, deforestation behaviour and settler welfare plus the inevitable overlap of upcoming REDD efforts with existing conservation policies, mean that scope and impact of REDD in LRS will not be uniform across settlements. Based on evidence from a case study of four LRS and a Brazilian Amazon regional analysis of opportunity costs, this paper explores the actual scope for targeting initial Brazilian REDD efforts to LRS and discusses potential welfare and equity implications based on scenario analysis. While our findings confirm considerable economic scope for compensation-based schemes for avoided degradation and deforestation, the pre-existence of legal use right limitations in combination with the distribution of forest cover among LRS means that less than half of settlements – poorer – will be able to derive economic gains. Exploring a mix between incentives and disincentives seems to offer the most promising future regarding efficiency and equity successful results. The paper concludes with the implications of the results in the international debate on the constraints ahead to implement the REDD principles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Large-scale land governance and environmental monitoring are huge challenges for tropical countries with significant forest cover. In this discussion paper, we analyzed the conditions and achievements of the implementation of the Brazilian Rural Environmental Registry (CAR). CAR was an important breakthrough of the Native Vegetation Protection Law for environmental monitoring in Brazil. CAR is the mandatory and self-declaratory registry for rural properties. Owners must provide georeferenced delimitation of their property’s boundaries and legally protected areas, such as Areas of Permanent Preservation and Legal Reserves. We used the example of the State of Mato Grosso (transition between the two largest biomes in Brazil – Amazon and Cerrado) to discuss how CAR and its national information system (called SICAR) provide important inputs for land-use, environmental, economic, territorial, and food security policies. Future policies should include increasing investments and coordination between different sectors to integrate CAR and conservation efforts with agricultural production and sustainable management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The establishment of protected areas is one of the most common environmental policy tools which can effectively contribute to landscape protection, biodiversity conservation, and ecosystem services provision. In this sense, the Brazilian Law on Native Vegetation Protection establishes the legal reserves, mandatory protected spaces within private rural lands, which seek to maintain and restore ecological functions and promote biodiversity conservation. This paper aims to present an approach that attempted to locate potential protected spaces, in the form of legal reserves, in the East Zone of Ribeirão Preto – a recharge zone of the Guarani Aquifer System. We made use of seven criteria to create five possible scenarios with varying priorities for native vegetation protection or restoration. Then, we used eight landscape metrics, as well as the level of compliance with the law, to discuss the viability of each scenario in terms of ecological thresholds and landscape indicators. We found only one scenario (the broader perspective on recovering the natural vegetation corridors) capable of meeting the ecological and legal requirements. We conclude that using less data-demanding methods, such as the one applied in this research, could be useful in assisting decision-making regarding the selection of areas for conservation or restoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) for Brazil from 1970 to 2010 as an alternative indicator to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After a growing disparity between these two indicators in the 1980s, when Brazil's per capita GPI featured a 35% decline, there was a relative catch-up in per capita GPI, but not one sufficiently strong enough to reduce the historical GPI–GDP gap. The recent trend of rapidly increasing environmental and social costs, along with the decline in unpaid labour and infrastructure services, poses concerns about the sustainability of an increasing GPI for Brazil into the future. Policies aimed at reducing environmental costs are necessary if Brazil is to enjoy a sustainable pattern of non-declining economic welfare. Brazil must pursue a higher rate of productivity in material and energy consumption in order to keep environmental pressures to a minimum level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze transformations within a land reform settlement in the Brazilian Amazon, with special land-use regulations targeting forest conservation. We conducted long-term action research in the Virola-Jatobá Sustainable Development Project (PDS), where peasant farmers who were the early settlers of the area, and more recent occupants allied to illegal loggers, land grabbers and speculators adopt antagonistic positions and challenge respective entitlements towards land and forest. In this research we highlight issues of power asymmetry and social injustice when assessing how social relations and environmental conditions in the study area are affected by land use and forest conservation policies since year 2000, when the scheme was established. The PDS situation approached a collapse in late 2017 when the integrity of its forests and the beliefs and practices of vulnerable local residents were damaged. This case study empirically demonstrates that Amazon forest frontier systems have a limited capacity to endure extreme perturbations in the social and ecological interconnected domains. We argue that when a threshold is reached in systems featuring heavily institutionalized social asymmetries that constrain the action of vulnerable resource users, few conditions remain to reorganize the constituent setup through adaptive changes in the same regime or state. Reaching this stage will likely result in drastic changes that will lock the system into a pathway that compromises human wellbeing and the provision of ecosystem services. The fundamental nature of a tenurial scheme that combines social justice and environmental conservation tends thus to be lost for good, to enter a new regime with fewer options and novelties in social-ecological advances, reflecting the overall setbacks currently experienced in Brazilian policy. • Failed delivery and enforcement of land and forest policy in Amazon forest frontier. • Land tenure modality in a liminal status between environmental and agrarian reform regulations. • Social support for conservation affected by political and economic factors mediated by governmental agencies. • A new regime takes place with lower complexity in both social and ecological terms. • Outcomes reflect overall setback in Brazil's current social and environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fake controversies have influenced policy making on health and environmental issues for decades, resulting in major implementation setbacks worldwide. As a case study, in this paper we examine fake controversies produced by a small group of active Brazilian researchers that have seriously impacted environmental conservation, particularly in issues related to deforestation and climate change. Based on the literature, we develop a typology of strategies deployed in fake controversies, which include manufacturing uncertainty, misusing scientific credentials, and disregarding scientific literature. Afterwards, we examine the influence of this group of contrarians at the National Congress. We then analyze the fake controversies promoted by these contrarians and argue that, to properly understand them, we need to consider a strategy so far overlooked in the literature: the manufacture of "pseudo-facts", namely, affirmations at odds with the established literature but that strives to appear as scientific facts. Unlike other contexts, in which contrarians have mainly sought to cast doubt on consensual issues by arguing that there are still considerable uncertainties surrounding them, in Brazil pseudo-facts on deforestation have been produced and published outside the peer-reviewed literature. We conclude the study with recommendations on how to oppose fake scientific controversies that threaten environmental conservation in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents a multi-agent model system to characterize land-use change dynamics. The replicable parameterization process should be useful to the development of simulation frameworks, important to environmental policy makers to analyze different scenarios during decision making process. The methodological two-fold approach intends to form a solid backbone based on: (i) the systematic and structured empirical characterization of the model; and (ii) the conceptual structure definition according to the agent-based model documentation protocol – Overview, Design concepts and Details. A multi-agent system for land-use change simulation was developed to validate the model, which is illustrated with a case study of the Brazilian Cerrado using LANDSAT ETM images. The simulation results prove the model importance with a figure of merit greater than 50%, what means the amount of correctly predicted change is larger than the sum of any type of error. The results are very good compared with nine popular peer-reviewed land change models. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Scholars agree that governance of the public environment entails cooperation between science, policy and society. This requires the active role of public managers as catalysts of knowledge co-production, addressing participatory arenas in relation to knowledge integration and social learning. This paper deals with the question of whether public managers acknowledge and take on this task. A survey accessing Directors of Environmental Offices (EOs) of 64 municipalities was carried out in parallel for two regions – Tuscany (Italy) and Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region (Brazil). The survey data were analysed using the multiple correspondence method. Results showed that, regarding policy practices, EOs do not play the role of knowledge co-production catalysts, since when making environmental decisions they only use technical knowledge. We conclude that there is a gap between theory and practice, and identify some factors that may hinder local environmental managers in acting as catalyst of knowledge co-production, raising a further question for future research. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Environmental policies based on the extended producer responsibility (EPR) concept have been adopted in various countries, and the EU, as a strategy to promote product redesign and to reduce the amount and toxicity of solid waste. This paper describes the development and implementation of an EPR-inspired policy in Brazil to deal with tyre waste, and analyses its constraints. It is argued that the experience was an attempt to use an institutional solution to overcome structural problems. The findings provide a basis for recommending that governments pay attention to the potential constraints upon the effective implementation of foreign policy solutions before these are imported. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Water conservation and water reuse concepts in food industry are presented in this paper. The developed study was in poultry processing plant, which focused water reuse evaluation for only non-potable applications. Although potable water reuse is allowed in some countries and there are international regulations about this practice [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Guidelines for Water Reuse; 2004. http://www.epa.gov/nrmrl/pubs/625r04108/625r04108.htm], this issue is recent in Brazil, where there is only a general regulation that deals with non-potable water reuse. In this study, rational water use strategies to identify operational flaws were evaluated by improvements at operational issues and physical losses identification. Some sectors with high water consumption and wastewater generation were identified, and the feasibility of water reuse practices was evaluated. A reduction by almost 31% in water consumption was achieved as a result of this study. It can be concluded that water conservation and water reuse programs are important tools for industry economy and its sustainability, and for the environment by preserving freshwater resources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• The operationalization of market instruments for environmental governance depends on political processes in order to adapt to socioeconomic and political contexts; • Actors participating in the operationalization of forest certificate trading group together in advocacy coalitions that emphasize (1) environmental additionality, (2) market viability or (3) agricultural consolidation. • Actors apply knowledge filters (adoption, rejection or transformation) to new ideas, experiences and knowledge in order to influence policy-making processes in accordance with their beliefs and interests • Actors can adhere to multiple advocacy coalitions and shift their position depending on the political situation, suggesting that the boundaries of advocacy coalitions overlap. • Although the appropriation of the policy process has resulted in a decree for regulating trade, there is still much uncertainty about the future due to ignored concepts and hostile politics. Market instruments for environmental governance have a foundation in an economic theorythat claims to be universal and atemporal, but their materialization in practice always takes place in specific socioeconomic and political contexts. The Brazilian trade in forest certificates (CRA) is a new market instrument that allows farmers that have deforested illegally prior to 2008 to become compliant by acquiring certificates from other farmers that conserve a forest area beyond legal requirements. Even though the CRA market has been praised as an innovative environmental policy, it is still unclear whether it will be implemented even after more than two decades of political debate, congressional approval of legislation and substantial investments in new supporting systems. This research paper aims to analyze the materialization of this market by reconstructing how policy participants form advocacy coalitions (i.e. environmental protection, market viability and agricultural consolidation) to advance their interests. Our results show that advocacy coalitions filter (i.e. absorb, reject or transform) new ideas, experiences and knowledge in order to influence the regulations for forest certificate trading. In doing so, they often combine positions, form new alliances and merge with other advocacy coalitions in accordance with the interests of their constituents. These fluid allegiances within and between coalitions explain why market materialization remains ambiguous and unlikely to become operational in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Riparian buffers smaller than 8 m can act as a source of sediments to streams. • Forests are the best land use in riparian zones to protect streams from sediments. • The greater the forest buffer the greater the protection of streams. • BMP adoption at watershed scale is the best strategy for watershed services supply. • Compliance with NVPL will not guarantee watershed services supply in Brazil. In Brazil, the Forest Code requires landholders to maintain fixed-width buffers of native vegetation along watercourses – legally called Areas of Permanent Preservation (APPs). In 2012, agricultural activities started to be partially allowed in APPs, but only if best management practices on soil and water conservation are adopted and if a narrow buffer strip with native vegetation is restored adjacently to the watercourse. In this paper, we present a modeling framework to investigate the capacity of legal compliant APPs to supply watershed services (erosion control and stream bank stabilization) in a 2,200 ha watershed in São Paulo State, Brazil. Our results suggest that the narrower the riparian buffer the lower the control of soil erosion dynamic within APPs, and that riparian buffers smaller than 8 m can act as a source of sediments to streams. The adoption of best management practices can contribute to controlling soil erosion within APPs but the presence of native forests in the first 15 m is necessary to guarantee equivalent protection to streams when compared to APPs completely covered by forests. Moreover, we observed that forest restoration within APPs helped to reduce the average soil loss of the watershed by only 20 %, compared to a reduction of 55 % when best practices are implemented in all watershed agricultural areas. We conclude that (i) the reduced requirements for APP restoration may contribute to stream sedimentation, which will likely affect the supply of watershed services by stream ecosystems; (ii) the implementation of best management practices in APPs will not have the same effect as native forests to reduce stream sedimentation; and (iii) the adoption of best management practices in all agricultural production areas – and not only within APPs as required by law – is the best strategy to promote the supply of watershed services to society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]