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In 2023, Brazil achieved positive environmental strides in the Amazon, with a 22% reduction in deforestation rates and a 16% decline in total fire counts compared with 2022, attributed to renewed environmental policy implementation. However, despite progress, deforestation remains above the target, and forest wildfires in old‐growth Amazonian forests surged by 152% in 2023 versus 2022, threatening biodiversity and carbon stocks. The rise in fires poses challenges for traditional farmers, impacts urban areas' air quality, and necessitates urgent measures like enhanced firefighting capabilities and long‐term strategies for fire‐free production chains to protect the Amazonian standing forests—a global socio‐environmental asset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wholesale conversion of natural Amazonian ecosystems has been encouraged by Brazil's extreme antienvironmental government, and historical forest loss explains municipal-scale voting prevalence. Embracing a new administration would strengthen local-to-regional governance, suppress illegal land grabbing, deforestation, logging, and gold mining, thereby protecting the world's most species-rich forest domain and ensuring global sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While Brazil publicly committed to reduce deforestation in Amazonia at the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), the Brazilian parliament is moving toward weakening environmental laws. Deforestation rates continue ascending, reaching in 2021 the highest value since 2006 (13,235 km2). To overcome this paradox, strategies to curb deforestation are mandatory. The current strategy, "Plano Amazônia 21/22," prioritizes law enforcement actions to curb illegal deforestation in only 11 Amazonian municipalities. Here, we show that this prioritization is likely to be insufficient since these municipalities account for just 37% of the current deforestation rate. This strategy may also be undermined by the leakage of deforestation actions to unmonitored municipalities. Using a set of spatially explicit datasets integrated into a deforestation‐prediction modeling approach, we propose a science‐based alternative method for ranking deforestation hotspots to be prioritized by law enforcement actions. Our prioritization method accounts for more than 60% of the deforestation, detecting larger deforested areas in both private and public lands, while covering 27% less territory than "Plano Amazônia 21/22." Optimizing the detection of priority areas for curbing deforestation, as proposed here, is the first step to reducing deforestation rates and comply with the Brazilian legal commitment of 3925 km2 year−1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze the environmental policy of the current Brazilian government of Bolsonaro, considering the fires that spread in the Amazon in June and August of last year. The Amazon, known as the "largest repository of ecological biodiversity in the world" and "the lungs of the Planet", has suffered a wave of devastation in recent decades, and its devastation today is becoming accelerated and massive. That situation has been exacerbated since the inauguration of the government of Jair Bolsonaro, a politician of the extreme right. Therefore, the analysis of the background and the causes of this situation is part of this study. It also includes a comparative analysis, which considers the Lula government's environmental policy. This comparative approach can better point out the problematic features and issues of the current Brazilian government's environmental policy. It is shown here that since 2003, when Lula took over the command of his country, there was a major advance in the issue of the environment, although with some restrictions, that was always treated from the point of view of social inclusion policy. However, during the governments of Dilma and Temer, the devastation and deforestation in the Amazon increased gradually, culminating in the inauguration of the Bolsonaro government, whose environmental policy is very similar to the developmentalism of the military dictatorship that held power in Brazil from 1964 until 1985. Furthermore, it is also observed that environmental policy has until now been characterized by the following persistent factors: a progressive increase of influence of the so-called "banca ruralista" (in official terms, the Frente Parlamentar da Agropecuária, FPA) in the Brazilian National Congress, which defends the interests of landowners (latifundiários) and agribusinesses; the usual government amnesty for land grabbing (illegal appropriation of public land), and other factors, as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research was to relate natural vegetation dynamics to environmental policies and agricultural pressure surrounding the Irati National Forest (INF), in the state of Parana, Brazil. We mapped landuses and detected their changes over a period of 25 years (1992 to 2017), emphasising gains and losses of natural vegetation to other uses. Employing a pixel-based approach, Landsat-5 TM and Landsat-8 OLI data were used to classify landuse surrounding the INF. We reviewed records of agricultural expansion and environmental policies in Parana to explain losses and gains in vegetation cover detected in the landuse change analysis. During the study period the area surrounding the INF gained ~10,000 ha of natural vegetation cover regenerated from areas formerly under crop or pasture cover and planted forests, but lost ~20,000 ha, largely to agricultural expansion, likely for soybeans. We discuss environmental policies, particularly the Ecological ICMS (a Brazilian ecological fiscal incentive paid to counties that shelter protected areas) as the most important reason for the vegetation regeneration and nature conservation. [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]

The article offers information on the threats to an indigenous tribe of Amazon from an hydropower infrastructure plan proposed by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Topics discussed include decline in the Amazonian deforestation rates due to Brazil's environmental policies; conduction of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Tapajós Hydroelectric Complex (THC); and mentions that the former President Dilma Rousseff redrew the boundaries of Amazon National Park (ANP).

The Rio Paraiba do Sul is a highly polluted river in south central Brazil, that is contaminated by industrial, agricultural and municipal wastes, as well as being impacted by dams, water withdrawals and deforestation in the watershed. Since only very intensive and farreaching environmental policies could result in water quality improvements, valuing the restoration of the river presents many unique challenges. We develop a choice-modeling approach to valuation of the restoration of this river, with general tightening of environmental policy as the policy, and an increase in prices as the payment vehicle. The estimation is performed in willingness to pay space, adjusting for heterogeneity of tastes. We find that respondents, who are primarily low income, exhibit higher willingness to pay for complete restoration than moderate restoration, higher for moderate restoration in comparison to minimal restoration, and that they prefer restoration sooner, rather than later. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent citizens are willing not only to support ambitious climate policy but also willing to pay for such policy remains subject to debate. Our analysis addresses three issues in this regard: whether, as is widely assumed but not empirically established, willingness to support (WTS) is higher than willingness to pay (WTP); whether the determinants of the two are similar; and what accounts for within-subject similarity between WTS and WTP. We address these issues based on data from an original nationally representative survey ( N = 2500) on forest conservation in Brazil, arguably the key climate policy issue in the country. The findings reveal that WTP is much lower than WTS. The determinants differ to some extent as well, regarding the effects of age, gender, and trust in government. The analysis also provides insights into factors influencing how much WTS and WTP line up within individuals, with respect to age, education, political ideology, salience of the deforestation issue, and trust in government. Our findings provide a more nuanced picture of how strong public support for climate change policy is and a starting point for more targeted climate policy communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the Brazilian presidential system shape environmental policy there? The comparative literature on environmental policy offers few reasons to think that it might. Most explanations of variations in the quantity and quality of environmental regulation stress levels of economic development or move outside of the nation-state to examine international processes of diffusion and convergence. Other studies look at large macrostructural differences like the contrast between democratic and authoritarian systems and/or the role of non-state actors. This article examines environmental policies and outcomes in three successive presidential administrations in Brazil to develop hypotheses about whether institutional factors should gain a larger place in comparative studies of environmental policies and outcomes. [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]

Successful efforts of indigenous groups to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+) will likely vary with how the initiatives are designed and implemented. Whether REDD+ initiatives are carried out by national governments or decentralized to sub-national or project-level institutions with a nested approach could be of great consequence. I describe the Suruí Forest Carbon Project in Amazonian Brazil, one of the first REDD+ pilot projects implemented with indigenous people in the world. I emphasize (1) how enfranchisement of community members in the policy-planning process, fund management, and carbon baseline establishment increased project reliability and equity, and (2) how the project's quality would have likely been diminished if implemented under a centralized REDD+ scheme. Policy relevance This article explores a decentralized REDD+ intervention established in an indigenous land in Brazil. It expands the theoretical discussions on REDD+ governance and highlights how centralized REDD+ programmes are likely to be less effective than project-level interventions assisted by NGOs in terms of social benefits and community engagement. Additionally, the case study described can serve as reference for the design of critical social and technical components of REDD+. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) can use many design features. We investigate the impact of payment conditionality types, i.e. different specifications when to pay and when not to pay, for PES on deforestation and agricultural production in a lab-in-the-field experiment. Our experiment also tests variations in contract period and payment volatility. We designed a highly visual simulation game to characterize the decision situation of a cattle rancher in Brazil. The player can expand extensive pasture by deforestation or intensify existing pasture. The model includes both a land and a capital constraint. We applied the game in an economic, framed lab-in-the-field experiment in Tocantins, Brazil. Payments conditional on forest carbon stock lead to slow, but steady deforestation, while payments conditional on forest carbon stock-change suppressed deforestation more strongly. But payments conditional on stock increase cattle production while payments conditional on stock-change have no effect on production. Thus, depending on the level of leakage, either type of conditionality can be more cost-effective in reducing global carbon emissions. Contracts with limited periods lead to strong deforestation after the end of the payment period. Payment volatility had no significant effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The leading policy to conserve forest is protected areas (PAs). Yet, PAs are not a single tool: land users and uses vary by PA type; and public PA strategies vary in the extent of each type and in the determinants of impact for each type, i.e. siting and internal deforestation. Further, across regions and time, strategies respond to pressures (deforestation and political). We estimate deforestation impacts of PA types for a critical frontier, the Brazilian Amazon. We separate regions and time periods that differ in their deforestation and political pressures and document considerable variation in PA strategies across regions, time periods and types. The siting of PAs varies across regions. For example, all else being equal, PAs in the arc of deforestation are relatively far from non-forest, while in other states they are relatively near. Internal deforestation varies across time periods, e.g. it is more similar across the PA types for PAs after 2000. By contrast, after 2000, PA extent is less similar across PA types with little non-indigenous area created inside the arc. PA strategies generate a range of impacts for PA types--always far higher within the arc--but not a consistent ranking of PA types by impact. [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]

Land-use regulations are a critical component of forest governance and conservation strategies, but their effectiveness in shaping landholder behaviour is poorly understood. We conducted a spatial and temporal analysis of the Brazilian ForestCode (BFC) to understand the patterns of regulatory compliance over time and across changes in the policy, and the implications of these compliance patterns for the perceived costs to landholders and environmental performance of agricultural landscapes in the southern Amazon state of Mato Grosso. Landholdings tended to remain in compliance or not according to their status at the beginning of the study period. The perceived economic burden of BFC compliance on soya bean and beef producers (US$3-5.6 billion in net present value of the land)may in part explain themassive, successful campaign launched by the farm lobby to change the BFC. The ecological benefits of compliance (e.g. greater connectivity and carbon) with the BFC are diffuse and do not compete effectively with the economic benefits of non-compliance that are perceived by landholders. Volatile regulation of land-use decisions that affect billions in economic rent that could be captured is an inadequate forest governance instrument; effectiveness of such regulations may increase when implemented in tandem with positive incentives for forest conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes the Brazilian position on forests and climate change from 1997 to 2012. It argues that it has evolved from a veto, which excluded from the climate change regime emissions from the conversion of native forests, to a proposition, as Brazil offered its approach to the international community. It explains the change with domestic developments: governance over deforestation, the emergence of new and relevant actors, and presidential diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With regards to the debate about governance of climate change, it should be assumed that the Amazon region plays an important role, as this large area is highly vulnerable to its effects. In this sense, this article aims to discuss how some Amazonian municipalities of Brazil have been taking part in the complexes and multilayered processes of climate governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We discuss the challenges confronting environmental governance caused by the increasing connectivity of resource-use systems and the growing functional interdependencies of ecological and social systems. We take as a point of departure the case of the Xingu Indigenous Park (PIX) in Brazil and its surrounding agro-industrial region. This case provides a basis for reviewing the literature on resource governance, including both points of consensus and contentious issues. We argue that no fixed spatial or temporal level is appropriate for governing ecosystems and their services sustainably, effectively, and equitably. We point to the need to recognize the multilevel nature of such problems and the role of institutions in facilitating cross-level environmental governance as an important form of social capital that is essential for the long-term protection of ecosystems and the well-being of different populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the major global trends linked to the process of globalization is the expansion of agro-industry into the humid tropics. Although agro-industry is an important source of income for Brazil, it is also leading to the displacement of local populations and extensive clearing of native vegetation. In this context, we focus on a second trend resulting from globalization in which financial institutions have demonstrated increasing concern with environmental and social responsibility, notably through the inclusion of environmental and social conditions in loans to the agricultural sector. In this article, we provide an assessment of the potential for this type of economic instrument to help reduce the negative impacts of agro-industrial expansion, and how the different actors who are shaping this debate (non-governmental organizations, industries, the finance sector, government) can best help to realize this potential. We evaluate this broader question through the lens of two International Finance Corporation loans to Brazil's Grupo Maggi, the world's largest independently-held soybean exporter. We identify four areas in which private sector self-regulation can improve to realize environmental and social performance goals: (a) Financial institutions and firms can increase the clarity, quality, timeliness, and regularity of monitoring and reporting; (b) Civil society can develop a more sophisticated approach to distinguishing between companies and initiatives that essentially maintain the status quo and those that are trying to improve; (c) Civil society can help to develop simple, standard measures of environmental and social performance of agricultural lands for use by financial institutions and firms in establishing environmental and social management systems; and (d) Governments can develop strong regulations that capitalize on voluntary regulation mechanisms' flexibility and efficiency, as well as developing incentive systems for producers and firms that demonstrate high social and environmental performance in their operations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Until the 1980s, deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon had largely been the result of public policies (incentives, investment). Since the 1990s, with basic infrastructure installed and cattle-ranching turned profitable due to innovations, deforestation has relied on its own endogenous dynamics. To stop this trend, politics will have to use both traditional and modern instruments for influencing economic behaviour, that is, control and sanctions as well as dialogue and negotiation. Since democratisation, civil society organisations (CSOs) have grown in the Amazon region, often with imp ortant support from foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Today, they are important partners for sustainable, bottom-up development strategies. This has become evident in the political mobilisation against two large public infrastructure investment projects: the dam and hydroelectric plant of Belo Monte; and the paving of the federal highway BR-163 between Cuiabá and Santarém. This article explores how local CSOs perceive these projects, what importance they assign to the environmental dimension and what alliances they build with other, local, national and international actors in order to achieve their objectives. Jusque dans les années 1980, la déforestation de l'Amazonie brésilienne a largement été causée par des décisions publiques (politique fiscale, investissements). Depuis les années 1990, en raison de l'infrastructure mise en place et de l'élevage devenu profitable grâce aux innovations, la déforestation repose désormais sur une dynamique auto-entretenue. Afin de renverser cette tendance, il est nécessaire d'utiliser à la fois des instruments traditionnels et modernes pour influencer le comportement économique, c'est-à-dire non seulement le contrôle et les sanctions, mais aussi le dialogue et la négociation. Dès que le processus de démocratisation s'est enclenché, les organisations de la société civile ont pris de l'importance dans la région amazonienne, souvent avec l'appui d'ONG étrangères. Aujourd'hui, ces organisations sont des partenaires importants pour la mise en pratique de stratégies de développement durable du bas vers le haut (bottom-up). Ceci s'avère évident lorsque l'on considère la mobilisation politique contre deux grands projets publics d'investissement dans l'infrastructure: le barrage et la centrale hydro-électrique de Belo Monte et l'asphaltage de l'autoroute fédérale BR-163 entre Cuiabá et Santarém. L'article montre comment les organisations civiles locales perçoivent ces projets, quelle importance elles accordent à la dimension environnementale et quelles alliances elles construisent avec d'autres acteurs locaux, nationaux et internationaux pour atteindre leurs objectifs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This article reviews changes in the social contexts of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon from the 1970s to the 1990s, moving from the household to the global level. Methods. I draw on satellite imagery, state publications, farm surveys, ethnographic field work, and policy analyses for a comparative analysis that shows how land cover, agriculture, demographics, politics, and markets have changed over time. Results. Alterations in the social contexts of deforestation appear on all levels considered, from household demographic evolution and new land use strategies to a regional demographic transition and the emergence of cattle and timber economies, to a “greening” of Brazilian development policy and changes in national land markets, to multilateral bank loans for new infrastructure and local-international alliances between grassroots and environmental organizations. Conclusions. The social contexts of deforestation are very complex and changing and call for greater attention by social scientists to land cover and land use change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the creation of extractive reserves in Brazil that grants legal protection to forest land traditionally used by rubber tappers, Brazil-nut gatherers and others. Number of extractive reserves established in one of Brazil's states most threatened by deforestation; Value to rubber tappers; Sustainable harvest versus deforestation; Economic value of extractive products; Extractive products for the future; Beyond cost-benefit analysis; Forest justification; Forest maintenance as a constraint on development.

Brazil has created a market mechanism for compensating past deforestation based on the acquisition of forest surplus from different properties. This mechanism, known in Brazil as the 'CRA market', could become the world's largest forest compensation program. The success of this market depends on the specifics of regulations that are yet to come. The objective of this article was to explore three relevant issues to the regulation of a future CRA market within the Atlantic Forest of Minas Gerais state: the balance between supply and demand; incentives for trade in priority areas; and potential policy overlaps between different compensation programs. Based on geospatial evaluations and content analysis of government documents, the study revealed a potential oversupply of CRAs in the Minas Gerais Atlantic Forest, as surplus areas were found to be 2.76 greater than deficit areas. Eventual incentives for trade in priority areas could lessen oversupply, but unfold into sensitive territorial trade-offs. The potential overlap between the CRA market and the existing compensation program of the Atlantic Forest Act, while still unclear, is unlikely to be a very relevant one. Future avenues of research are suggested. • The CRA market could become the world's largest forest compensation program. • Relevant issues for an eventual Atlantic Forest market are evaluated. • CRA oversupply is likely to occur. • Incentive for trade in priority areas could unfold into controversial trade-offs. • Interactions between compensation programs need further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information related to the impact of amazon fires on Brazil’s agribusiness. Topics discussed include series of disastrous changes to its environmental policies including cuts to government agencies that enforce environmental protection laws; impact of fires set by farmers leads to an increase in deforestation and affects protected areas and indigenous lands; and create new pastures and plantations is both environmentally and economically unsustainable.

The article discusses an increase in deforestation in Brazil as of May 2019, according to the Real-time Deforestation Detection System (DETER), resulting from political and economic pressures in addition to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's loosening of environmental policies and enforcement.

A letter to the editor is presented that discusses Brazil's intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2013 in relation to deforestation.