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Land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) models are important tools for environmental policy planning. LULCC models are frequently constrained to the generation of projections at a specific resolution. However, subsequent studies or models may require finer resolutions. In this work, a downscaling method for LULCC models is proposed that uses a mathematical programming approach to disaggregate the multiple layers of the land-use change projections while respecting a series of constraints. The method is calibrated and validated with MapBiomas data for the years 2000 and 2018 converted for the GLOBIOM-Brazil model, successfully predicting land-use at a finer resolution. Also, as proof of concept, the calibrated model is also applied for GLOBIOM-Brazil projections for 2050. This paper advances the state-of-the-art by proposing and testing a downscaling method using a mathematical programming approach with spatial effects, that operates on multi-layered land-use projections with a range of constraints while allowing flexibility on the number and type of the specific layers and constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: This paper is proposed to analyze, in a descriptive and prescriptive way, Public Policies that carry the concept of sustainable civil construction, and that are related to the issue of housing in Brazil. Methodology: The legal framework pertinent to this scenario is presented through content study, policy evaluation and information for policy formulation. Relevance: The paper discusses the existing gaps in the legal and fiscal scope of Brazilian public policies aimed at the sustainability in the civil construction sector. Results: The public policies analyzed to encourage sustainable construction lack a preventive focus, especially regarding the generation of waste and waste of natural resources. Contributions: Additional efforts, mainly political, are needed to increase the effectiveness of the application of environmental policies inherent to this theme, to guarantee the right to housing and environmental protection, both provided for in the Brazilian Federal Constitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Neotropical Ichthyology promotes the Special Issue (SI) “Human impacts and the loss of Neotropical freshwater fish diversity” with the purpose of publishing relevant scientific articles on the current biodiversity crisis and the loss of Neotropical freshwater fishes in the Anthropocene. The SI is composed of 22 publications, being two review articles and 20 original articles. A total of 107 researchers contributed to these papers, involving 44 institutions based in Brazil and six other countries. Published articles investigated main anthropic activities and their impacts on fish diversity, with special focus on river regulation, mining, land use changes, aquaculture, and fisheries. Studies provided evidence about the loss of fish diversity in the Neotropics, including fish kill events, demographic changes, contamination, changes in assemblage structure, loss of taxonomic and functional diversity, besides the degradation of ecosystem functions and services, and the lack of effective protection and conservation. Studies were conducted in rivers, streams, lakes, and reservoirs from different Neotropical systems. The studies published in this SI represent a relevant sample of the current worrisome situation of freshwater fishes in the Neotropical region and call for urgent revision in environmental policies, management and conservation initiatives, and socioeconomic priorities. [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]

This paper analyzed, for the Brazilian case, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The concept of negative externality and market failure was used to understand the need for environmental policies capable of favoring the sustainable development of countries. The results show the importance of scale for the registration of projects. The energy sector, for example, has more small-scale projects that were created to simplify procedures and lower costs. It was concluded, in general, that the CDM has become an international historical landmark, as it is an innovative tool in contributing to the mitigation of climate change. However, despite its importance being recognized globally, it was observed that the mechanism has weakened over time and there are uncertainties regarding the validity of the Kyoto Protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disaster education outcomes are highly dependent on the political context of that education. Based on a rich, in‐depth case study of the creation of community monitors in a landslide and flood‐prone city in southeast Brazil, this paper demonstrates how developmental and political environments add much additional nuance to existing theories of behaviourist and transformative education for disaster preparedness and mitigation. Beyond identifying the benefits of education, it argues that disaster risk reduction outcomes are reliant on governance frameworks that alter over time. The study reveals the political complexity associated with programme implementation and cites the perspectives of a number of participants. Disaster education is shown to be the necessary yet underappreciated twin of the militarised and technical approaches that dominate disaster response in Brazil. Understated, however, is education's situatedness: how it can become an arena of conflict between government and civil actors over matters of state and society in increasingly hazardous urbanisation settings in Latin America. [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]

Cooperation between environmentalists, scientists, and governmental actors was a crucial driver behind Brazil's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the forest sector from 2004 onward. The same climate coalition's advocacy work to reduce emissions in the energy sector, Brazil's second-most emitting sector, has been unsuccessful. Why has climate-policy development been so different in the two sectors? Building on the advocacy coalition framework, this paper analyzes the climate coalition's role, systematically comparing how the coalition has worked to influence policy development in the two key sectors for Brazilian GHG emissions between 2003 and 2015. The paper finds that strong climate-coalition unity, unambiguous scientific knowledge, economic growth, and international pressure functioned as a constellation of factors that enhanced the climate coalition's ability to take advantage of a climate-policy window and frame deforestation as a core climate concern. The same constellation of factors was missing in the energy sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Solid waste accumulation in coastal environments has been a growing concern. In the coastal megacity of Recife, Pernambuco state, Brazil, plastic waste issues currently exist both at the ocean scale and river basin scale. The city is known as the 'Brazilian Venice' thanks to the Capibaribe River, which crosses many neighborhoods, running in a west-east direction into the Atlantic Ocean. This paper provides the initial basis to develop a Plastic Waste Management Program proposal for implementation in the city of Recife, given the lack of resolutions that have looked at plastic waste management through integrated water environment scales (from river basin to ocean). The methodology used included articulation and documental collection from four main public agencies from the state/city and stakeholders. The results showed its relevance for better plastic waste management in Recife, considering an integrated water environment on a river basin-to-ocean scale by using the recognized major connected water environments (Capibaribe river and Boa Viagem beach). Similar integrated program proposals could be made for other coastal areas, enabling not only the identification of fragilities but also the exchange of information regarding the theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental licensing is a command-and-control (C&C) instrument used at the state level in Brazil to enforce compliance with legal requirements and environmental standards; however, it does not encourage continuous improvement. The objective of this paper is to propose a methodology that can be used as a licensing and monitoring policy for industrial activities, based on both command and control and economic instruments. Therefore, the development of a matrix to measure the environmental performance of companies is proposed so as to include mandatory compliance requirements, environmental management requirements and continuous improvement indicators. Performance assessment could be used by the environmental agency as a tool to support environmental management policy change by working with environmental incentives for better-performing companies. The results obtained with the matrix will demonstrate exactly what the theory describes: in an environment where the control imposed to the entrepreneur is by the attendance of a legislative standard and not the demonstration of continuous improvement, there is no evolution of the environmental performance over the 3-year period of the companies. Consequently, the inclusion of a tool to assess environmental performance constitutes a requirement for the environmental evolution of the country. • Development of a matrix for the use of environmental management in licensing. • Licensing is an instrument of command and control. • The matrix makes it possible to apply economic instruments. • Improvement environmental performance for enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The socio-economic fabric of single-company mining towns needs to be carefully considered by both Government and companies in sustainability policymaking. Policy design and effectiveness in such towns are significantly impacted by the city's economic dependence on a single company. This paper explores the perceived effectiveness of government and voluntary private sector mining policies for pursuing sustainability in the historic mining town of Itabira, Brazil over a period of 20 years. Itabira serves as a worthwhile case study because it allows for an in-depth and longitudinal analysis that can reveal valuable lessons to policymakers of different sectors and jurisdictions located elsewhere. Based on extensive face-to-face interviews and literature reviews, study results indicate that changes to the state environmental licensing policies in the 1990s led to significant socio-environmental improvements in the area. The globalization of the mining company also contributed to an increase in the quantity and quality of voluntary industry policies. Recent technological improvements in the beneficiation processes of the mining company promises to extend the life of the mine to 2050. Although there are significant incremental socio-environmental policies and programmes, sustainability remains an elusive vision in Itabira, with no clear objectives or monitoring and accountability mechanisms. The paper concludes by recommending a more formal integrated policymaking framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brazil’s Ministério Público (“MP”), or prosecuting agency, is a unique institution. Unlike public prosecution entities in other countries, such as federal prosecutors in the United States, the MP is the primary enforcer of Brazil’s environmental laws and initiates the vast majority of environmental public civil actions. In the United States, most environmental suits are citizen suits filed by private actors, but in Brazil, the MP files almost 96 percent of those same cases. These actions have improved compliance with environmental laws and helped contribute to the MP’s reputation as an independent body, separate from the corruption known to plague other governmental bodies in Brazil. While the MP’s lawsuits have proven effective, they are adversarial in nature and preclude more cooperative means of regulation. Additionally, prosecutors within the MP feel as if they must respond to every complaint they receive, which keeps them from prioritizing the largest environmental harms. As scholars like Robert Kagan, John Scholz, and John Braithwaite have noted: a rigid, punitive style of enforcement may not be appropriate in all situations with all regulated actors. This legalistic manner of enforcement creates tension between the MP, the regulated actors, and environmental agencies; slows the enforcement process; and strains the MP’s limited resources. This paper proposes creating a second branch of the MP’s offices: a more mediative style of enforcement for less culpable actors, in line with actions that certain members of the MP’s office have already begun to take. Prosecutors within this mediative branch would go beyond judicial remedies and would collaborate with environmental agencies, government bodies, and community members to solve challenging environmental problems. This plan is already within the range of autonomy given to the MP and would allow the MP to retain its reputation as an independent, uncorruptible enforcer, while also remedying some of the problems and inefficiencies that result from the current rigid, legalistic enforcement style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IPCC and other global environmental assessment processes stress the need for national scientific participation to ensure decision makers’ trust in the associated scientific conclusions and political agendas. The underpinning assumption is that the relationship between scientists and decision makers at the national level is characterized by trust and interpretive synergy. Drawing on ethnographic research in Brazil, this article challenges that assumption through a case study of the policy uptake of divergent scientific interpretations as to whether or not the Amazon is a net carbon sink. It shows that the carbon sink issue became a site for struggles between important Brazilian scientists and decision-makers with central authority over the definition of the country’s official position in international climate negotiations. In a geopolitically charged scientific controversy involving scientific evidence bearing on the Kyoto Protocol, Brazilian decision makers studied revealed critical distance from national scientists advancing evidence that the Amazon is a net carbon sink. As such, the decision-makers’ interpretations were at odds also with dominant framings in the Brazilian media and closer to those of American scientists involved in carbon cycle research in the Amazon. Seeking to explain this disconnect, the paper discusses the divergent policy preferences of key scientists and decision-makers involved, and the correlations of these preferences with interpretations of the available scientific evidence. It identifies the continued impact of a national political tradition of limited participation in decision making and suggests that this tradition—while increasingly challenged by countervailing democratizing trends—is reinforced by key Brazilian decision makers’ constructions of science as a medium through which rich countries maintain political advantage. Reflecting this, key Brazilian decision-makers justified rejecting national scientists’ interpretations of the Amazon as a significant overall carbon sink by suggesting that the scientists’ scientific training and associated foreign interactions bias them in favor of foreign interests, compromising their ability to accurately identify national interests. The paper situates its analysis in terms of theories of the science–policy interface and argues for greater attention to the role of culturally and politically laden understandings of science and the role of science in policy and geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Cerrado, the tropical savanna covering 22% of Brazil's territory, or approximately 1.783 million km2, has suffered significant human impacts during the past three decades. This paper re-examines estimates of Cerrado vegetation change dynamics using high-resolution satellite remote sensing data from an area of interest extracted from eastern Mato Grosso State. This region has undergone a high degree of typical agricultural development since the early 1970s. Results indicate significant loss of original vegetation as well as high levels of regeneration, suggesting Cerrado vegetation may be more resilient to human impacts than catastrophic estimations suggest. The paper concludes with a critical review of Cerrado land-cover change studies and the implications of evidence for vegetation regeneration, land-cover dynamism and land-use intensification, paying particular attention to spatial scale and research methods. The discussion concludes that Cerrado land-cover change studied at a higher resolution and larger scales (smaller area) is required to represent more effectively the complexity of land conversion for better assessment of human impacts and environmental policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper updates the SCVI (Socio-Climatic Vulnerability Index) maps developed by Torres et al. () for Brazil, by using the new Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) projections and more recent 2010 social indicators data. The updated maps differ significantly from their earlier versions in two main ways. First, they show that heavily populated metropolitan areas - namely Belo Horizonte, Brasília, Salvador, Manaus, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo - and a large swath of land across the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Bahia now have the highest SCVI values, that is, their populations are the most vulnerable to climate change in the country. Second, SCVI values for Northeast Brazil are considerably lower compared to the previous index version. An analysis of the causes of such difference reveals that changes in climate projections between CMIP3 and CMIP5 are responsible for most of the change between the different SCVI values and spatial distribution, while changes in social indicators have less influence, despite recent countrywide improvements in social indicators as a result of aggressive anti-poverty programs. These results raise the hypothesis that social reform alone may not be enough to decrease people's vulnerability to future climatic changes. Whereas the coarse spatial resolution and relatively simplistic formulation of the SCVI may limit how useful these maps are at informing decision-making at the local level, they can provide a valuable input for large-scale policies on climate change adaptation such as those of the Brazilian National Policy on Climate Change Adaptation. [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]

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]

The paper addresses the issue of whether – in line with the Chinese economic approximation to Latin America during the last decade – the region has experienced political changes in terms of countries' foreign policies, shifting their traditional alignment with the positions of the regional hegemon, the United States. Given this general focus, the research project focuses on evaluating a specific issue of global governance: climate change policy. Here I find a marked difference between the Chinese and the US position, constituting two opposing poles between which Latin American countries must operate. I consider the cases of two countries, Brazil and Chile, in terms of their discursive location between China and the United States on global climate change policy. I was able to identify discursive changes throughout the decade that suggest a political alignment of the two Latin American countries with China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study, holding as background the conflicts that involve the environment, analyzes the fraternity principle, from the perspective of the theory proposed by Baggio, concluding that the official pattern of environmental litigations composition that exist in Brazil --solidified by the obsolete monopoly of Judiciary-- consolidated on a Law's positivism and on a competitive point of view of the society, does not contemplates the fraternity as a legal value. In other hands, the paper starts to focus the mediation, making clear that this alternative way of contest's solution not only disposes with justness to the environmental conflicted issue but --remarkably by its communicative characteristic acting and shared true-- deeply excited by the fraternity idea. The subject has been researched in the specialized literature, making sure about the precarious systematization of the mediation as management way of environmental conflicts, as well as a lack on the approach of the fraternity as juridical category of potential incidence at the environmental field. In the end, the analysis concludes that the eco mediation may appease the insertion of the fraternity component on arguing related to environmental estates, generally ruled by the radicalization and a vision of world's representationalism, contributing perhaps to the co-operation construction of a new paradigmatical systemic epistemology for conflicts solutions, that insures the emphasized roll to fraternal as imperative of conduct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The creation of policies for managing the water resources, such as charging policies for the use of the water, has been influenced by different perspectives that not only affect the views that people have of the world, but also their actions. This paper discusses the different perspectives that influence the process of creation and implementation of these policies, seeking to evaluate their consequences on the system of charging for the use of water resources in Brazil. It was observed that although the Brazilian legislation on water resources has been created in a context of discourses of sustainable development, the focus of its implementation is, basically, the technical-driven perspective, with an anthropocentric and utilitarian view, relegating social and ecological sustainability to second place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes how environmental conditions have influenced the level of development in the local population of the State of Bahía, given the growing importance of environmental issues and the lack of information on these issues in the State. To this end, the Index of Socio-Environmental Development --IDSA-- is innovative in introducing the Index of Human Development --IDH--, variables representing the environmental quality of the State municipalities. The IDSA average was 0.26, a value 0.4 points below that of the idh. Thus the study concludes that environmental quality is a significant factor in reducing the level of human development in Bahía. This has occurred principally as a result of the poor quality and availability of sanitation services provided by the State. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effectiveness of the environmental policy is a recurrent theme in the debate on environment and development in Brazil. Each environmental policy constitutes an institutional arrangement that allows for legislation fulfillment and sets a new relation between humans and the environment. The aim of this paper is to comparatively evaluate the implementation of three environmental policies provided by State of Paraná in recent decades, by analyzing their institutional arrangements in order to identify particular fragilities. The policies in analysis are the Ecological-Economic Zoning (ZEE), the Coastal Management (GERCO) and Incentive policies to agroecology. The hypothesis is that the difficulty of implementing these environmental policies in the state is due to the inherent weaknesses of their institutional arrangements. Among them, there are the diversity of interests and conflicts between actors and between local, state and federal institutions; the incapacity of the environment institutions to enforce its policies in the context of economic development; and the financial, material, technical and personnel deficiencies of environmental agencies. It concludes by pointing out the lack of long-term vision that transforms these policies into government actions instead of State policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present article aims to understand and analyze social policies concerning the environment, specifically on the management of solid waste in the Distrito Federal. At first we introduce the concept of public policy, its evolution, its actors and stages of formulation. The second topic provides the definition and classification of solid waste. In the third topic, shows the evolution of public environment policies in the world. Then, the evolution of public environmental policy at national level. Later, as it develops the issue of solid waste management in the Distrito Federal. Finally, there will be an evaluation of the suggested public policy for the management of solid waste in the Distrito Federal. At the conclusion, in addition to general observations about the various aspects covered in this paper, it is verified that there is little being made by the public policies developed on this theme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This text observe how the newspaper Gazeta do Povo (Curitiba) addresses environmental public policies during the period 2000 to 2009. The policies are the result of the attention that the government provides for certain topics and the need for a large number of people, in which case the environmental theme was highlighted from the last decades of the twentieth century, when the environmental problems brought to the attention of society . In this scenario, the media act as a space for debate, where we can see to what extent it gives the public discussion on the subject and also as a way to schedule the public sphere. The paper presents empirical data that allow you to observe what the most common themes and moments in which development of these actions the media gives more attention and makes the cover. The initial hypothesis that guides the work is that the themes do not appear in a balanced way and the media coverage has also fragmented, addressing the issue only as a means of disseminating the government agenda and not the debate preceding the establishment of policies and in its assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper wants to establish theoretical foundations and ideas about the environmental communication from the practice of research in Mato Grosso do Sul, in preserving the Pantanal biome. The production of news related to the Pantanal area in Mato Grosso do Sul, also is minimally present in the newspapers, as receive other approaches to environmental issues, showing that the preservation area is understood as the exploration area. It follows, by analysis, that the angle, presence and speech of news related to the Pantanal come as an instrument for firm economic issues, devaluing the biome and the relevant environmental considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

This paper examines the governance of hydroelectric dam planning in Brazil with a particular focus on two factors: first, governmental institutions that aim to provide participatory mechanisms for civil society, and second, new participatory institutions created by civil society to remedy the lack of meaningful participatory measures. One example of the latter are new collaborative research projects, which have changed dam building policies and governmental thinking about participation. It is argued here that these kinds of collaboration are fundamental to making dam-building policy more accountable to local citizens. The analysis demonstrates that lay/expert collaborations provide pathways through which affected people can contest inaccurate official scientific reports, in turn influencing the policy process. I examine six such participatory projects across the country: four are nationally based and two are international in scope. A four- pronged typology is used to analyse the processes and outcomes of these collaborations. This typology reveals multiple types of knowledge-sharing that constitute concrete means to implement participation in environmental policy, hence advancing the democratisation of environmental governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological modernisation is a normative theory that explains why society's institutions and practices change in response to environmental consequences of industrial economies. It is also a term used to describe broader processes of change in environmental governance. In this paper, we use the second concept to explore the development of Brazil's governance of genetically modified (GM) or transgenic crops. We discuss three major shifts in GM-crop governance and regulatory institutions during the past decade. We focus on how nongovernmental organisations, local governments, and farmers challenged the federal government's biotechnology regulatory institution. The analysis of Brazil's GM debate offers important insights into the process of ecological modernisation in the global South. The case represents a key example of how ecological modernisation may proceed in countries facing neoliberalism and export-oriented economic policies paralleled by increasing democratisation. In Brazil, these seemingly contradictory forces have led to innovative, market-based paths of institutional change in environmental governance. Our study also offers an instructive example of how ecological modernisation processes in the global South intersect with broader dynamics of globalisation to shape potentially diverse environmental policy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state-society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state-society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]