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This article explores the contradictory relationship between identity politics and environmental conservation in Brazil. First, the rationale for setting aside territories for ethnic groups in Brazil that have been historically discriminated against is examined and legal definitions for such traditional populations are presented. Second, ethnographic and philosophical critiques of essentialized ethnic identity are used to highlight how traditionality and conservation are conflated in Brazilian environmental policies. These policies, in turn, are related to another bundle of contradictions in Western bio-centric preservation which (erroneously) essentializes nature and excludes the human presence from within reserves. Research findings from two remote regions located in critical biomes for conservation in Brazil are presented succinctly to illustrate different kinds of contradictions between ethnic territories and conservation. In conclusion, a relational research agenda is offered which avoids the pitfalls of essentialized identity and nature. [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]

Within the context of risk society and its delocalized, incalculable and noncompensable global risks, environmental controversies have become increasingly complex. Within this scenario, the Brazil's High Court (STJ, acronym in Portuguese) stands out as it has been recurrently applying environmental hermeneutics' principles and strategies on its decision-making process and clarifying controversies regarding the interpretation of the environmental legislation. Through bibliographic and jurisprudential research, this article therefore seeks to outline the recent highlights of STJ's case-law, analyzing more in depth some of the court's leading environmental cases and its contributions to the evolution of environmental law in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Karst areas in densely populated and industrialized areas in Brazil are under severe environmental pressure due to urbanization, quarrying, groundwater pollution, groundwater overpumping and cave vandalism. Although karst terrains receive no specific protection according to Brazilian environmental law, caves, regardless of rock type, are classified as belonging to the society, and must be studied in detail to have their significance (and related level of protection) determined. Most caves (>90%) are of either maximum or high significance, which results in protection of not only the cave but also of an associated buffer zone. Given the very conservative definition of cave (a natural void large enough to allow a human being to enter), hundreds of caves will exist in any given outcrop and the amalgamation of buffer zones tends to yield an integrated area that covers most of the karst surface. In the Lagoa Santa Karst, Brazil's most urbanized and industrialized karst area, cave preservation is presently the most effective approach to protecting karst heritage. However, other karst features not connected to existing caves (e.g., covered karst, karst aquifers with no accessible caves, dolines with no associated caves) receive no specific protection. Although this heterogeneous level of protection may yield non-preserved karst areas, the remaining zones tend to be surrounded by protection belts, imposing severe restrictions on urban and mining development and associated sources of potential damage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries have environmental legislation to protecting natural resources on private property. In Brazil, the Brazilian Forestry Code determines specific areas to maintain with natural vegetation cover, known as areas of permanent preservation (APP). Currently, there are few studies that relate topographic variables on APP. In this context, we sought to evaluate the influence of relief on the conservation of areas of permanent preservation (APP) in the areas surrounding Caparaó National Park, Brazil. By using the chi-squared statistical test, we verified that the presence of forest cover is closely associated with altitude. The classes of APP in better conservation status are slopes in addition to hilltops and mountains, whereas APP streams and springs are among the areas most affected by human activities. The most deforested areas are located at altitudes below 1100.00 m and on slopes less than 45°. All orientations of the sides were significant for APP conservation status, with the southern, southeastern, and southwestern sides showing the lower degrees of impact. The methodology can be adjusted to environmental legislation to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern about the effectiveness of environmental protection is growing up in face of the growing awareness of society regarding the environment that surrounds them and the need for effective maintenance life on Earth. For that arise various instruments to be followed for installation of activities that may be degrading the environment, fitting into this article as a way to introduce a new regulatory instrument that is not yet regulated by a specific law in Brazil. The article has the purpose of analyzing the possible application of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the Brazilian legal system. Aiming to EXAMINE the significance of the SEA and its need for inclusion in the Brazilian legal system, and specific goals CONCEPTUALIZE the Institute of Environmental Impact Assessment; DEMONSTRATE the concepts and requirements of the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) and IDENTIFY the concept, requirements and applicability of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). At the methodology was used the inductive method ate the research phase; at the data processing the Cartesian method and at the research report the inductive base. Were also triggered the techniques of referent, category, operational concepts, literature research and book report. [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]

This article is an enquiry into Brazil's evolving responses to global climate change norms. Following an overview of the evolution of international normative frameworks of climate change governance, I examine the relationship between some of these international norms and domestic environmental politics in Brazil. Internationally, the analysis focuses on the North/South political debate about climate change and its role in shaping understandings about the impact and responses to global warming. Domestically, I explore the evolving relationship between state and private actors in the decision-making process. I argue that Brazil's official position on climate change negotiations is currently influenced by a nationalist/developmental approach based on the particular worldview of the dominant faction within the foreign ministry and backed up by private groups, powerful sectors in the military establishment, key ministries, and the presidency. Yet, this worldview has been increasingly undermined/permeated by other state and nonstate actors, who are more closely aligned with the environmental concerns of international stakeholders. The ensuing domestic conflict has important implications for the legitimacy and coherence of the Brazilian position in international climate change negotiations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the relationship between socio-economic factors and public opinion on environmental policies in Brazil, drawing on a survey conducted in June 2012. There are few systematic studies of the determinants of environmental preferences in emerging economies, and Brazil is a particularly interesting case because of its democratic political system, rapid economic growth, and importance for the global environment. In general, we find that the Brazilian public is highly supportive of environmental protection. To explain variation in environmental preferences, we focus on the effects of income and education. Many previous studies suggest that both should have positive effects, but the empirical evidence is mixed. Indeed, we find that income has no effect on environmental preferences. However, education is a strong predictor of environmental preferences. While college education is not necessary for environmental awareness, there is a large difference between Brazilians with primary and secondary education. For policy, the findings imply that investment in secondary education can raise environmental awareness, regardless of income levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

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

Tourism development and environmental protection are intertwined processes. Protected areas have been established to both promote nature-based tourism as well as control the environmental impacts of tourism development. Therefore, tourism has been a force to motivate the creation of protected areas in several developing countries. This article examines the roles of governments, and local and external actors in the policymaking process of establishing protected areas, using as a case study the establishment of environmentally protected areas in the state of Bahia, Brazil. [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]

Examines whether Japan's role in international activity towards a sustainable future has changed in the decade since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. Japan since Rio; Change at the domestic level; Observation that Japan was playing a more active role on environmental matters at both the regional and global levels; Japan's concern with the climate-change debate; Japan's capacity for environmental leadership.

Focuses on the impact on the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) after 10 years. Urban challenge; Socio-environmental burdens and deprivations; Observation that brown agendas are still incipient, and concern that citizens are at risk has grown only recently; Potential of local Agenda 21 initiatives; Challenges to effectiveness; Action through education and empowerment.

Points out that the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 1992, and the resulting Rio Declaration on Environment and Development document was a vital but not yet decisive victory in the ongoing battle over the meaning of scientific findings in environmental policy. Quantitative risk assessment; Precautionary principle; Definitional controversies; Lack of scientific certainty regarding cause and effect; Environmental implications of each and every planned activity.

Evaluates the impact of the last 10 years on the Rio North-South Bargain from the perspective of the South. 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Sustainable development; Additionality principle; Common-but-differentiated-responsibility principle; Polluter-pays principle; State of malaise of global environmental politics.

As of the 1980s, 'urban problems' have come to be perceived and treated in new ways in Brazil. Innovations introduced into public administration and legislation, at both the national and local levels, accompanied a broader social process and created conditions in which urban regulations, planning and management not only were equipped with new mechanisms for intervention in the urban context, but were submitted to a new approach structured around respect for environmental concerns. The ideas developed in this article begin with an outline of environment-related litigation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil offered as a way to identify the actors that are able to ensure that their demands and arguments for environmental protection circulate publicly. The second section is designed to begin the task of identifying the available repertoire of versions of the environment as a social problem in Rio de Janeiro. Some remarks are called for here in order to mark out the terrain on which environmental conflicts occur in Rio de Janeiro? The first relates to the role played by public institutions, which goes far beyond their participation as parties to litigation.

The article discusses some economic policies of the Brazilian and Chilean military regimes that destroyed the natural environment in both countries. The violation of human rights and the impoverishment of a unique natural environment, carried out without impunity, are two main features of the military legacy in Brazil and Chile. The first policy is the policy under Augusto Pinochet. Pinochet's New Economic Order consisted of a combination of an export-oriented agri-capitalism and a continuous increase in profits without a responsive increase in labor costs via higher wages. This New Economic Order obscures the catastrophic proportions of environmental damage which the democratically elected administration of Patricio Ailwyn and all future generations have inherited. The second is "The open Sea policy". It was designed to allow international fish industries, to fish freely in Chilean waters in exchange for a fixed revenue. Two main problems resulted from this policy, first, the less technologically advanced Chilean fishers were displaced by more high-tech fishing operations thus creating a micro-economic vacuum. Second, the Pinochet Government placed no environmental restrictions on foreign industries in exchange for revenue, the fishing opportunities were wide-open and pollution was ignored. The stubborn adherence to authoritarian practices lent legitimation to the subordination of political freedoms and environmental rights to an elusive notion of order and progress.

Uses the Brazilian situation as a starting point in discussing the First World's role in environmental protection. Socio-economic conditions in Brazil; Destruction of the Amazon ecosystem and its effects; Argument on the extent of rich and poor countries' responsibilities in environmental conservation efforts.

Examines the impact of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 10 years after. Observation that the momentum for interstate environmental diplomacy has ebbed dramatically; Deficiencies in Agenda 21, the action plan on issues ranging from desertification and soil erosion to water quality and urban settlements; Failure of the UNCED framework to come to grips with the socioeconomically transnationalized character of environmental problems.

The authors discuss development pressures related to the demands for hydropower and mineral resources and shifts in legislation that are compromising the Brazilian government's environmental successes, such as deforestation control, and threatening its protected areas (PAs). Topics include the critical role that Brazil's existing PA network plays in biodiversity conservation, the cumulative effects of large-scale development projects, and poorly conceived environmental mitigation policies.

The article presents an overview of Brazil's Forest Code, which is the main piece of Brazilian legislation regulating land use and management on private properties. Changes which have been seen in environmental obligations and the rights which are granted to land owners in Brazil as a result of revisions which have been made to the code are discussed. A discussion of the impact the code will have on conservation, and of the challenges that are associated with implementing the code, is presented.

The authors comment on research concerning the properties of fly ash and its environmental impact in its use in earthworks. They comment on the cohesion tests and small-strain shear response on Charqueadas, Brazil coal ash and state that they do not have similar data available for the Indiana ashes. They mention that Charqueadas and Indiana ashes have similar chemical constituents and mineral structures. They state that coal ash disposal sites in Indiana are tested to determine how contaminated the ash is, and that the Indiana study focused on environmentally safe coal ashes as refined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Conservation and Restoration Act. They mention that the ashes used as construction material for highway embankments were encased in low-permeability materials.

Provides an overview of the environmental policy of Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Comment on the growth plans included in the policy; Government's perspectives on the tropical rainforest of the Amazon region; Concerns of Lula's environmental program with quality of life.

Examines that the effect of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 after 10 years of globalization. Organizer Maurice Strong; Institutional and conceptual roots in the 1972 United Nations Conference on the Human Environment; Substantial transformation of the international institutional system leading to the diminishment of the United Nations and the interstate system.