Governance in the Amazon region of Brazil: State, market, civil society and international donors in the making of sustainable development projects

This is a piece of research on the relations among civil society, market interests, the State and international donors in the negotiations of new areas of sustainable use under the Amazon Region Protected Area Program (ARPA) funded by the World Bank, PPG7, WWF-Brazil and the Brazilian government. I am particularly interested in articulating theoretical and empirical discussions in order to account for 1. the shaping of local-global interactions and its impact on domestic politics and 2. the scope of citizenship in Brazil today.

Brazil is the largest conservatory of biodiversity in the world. Despite the country’s low environmental performance, it has become an activist on environmental governance. Business and Industries, Rural Elites, Indigenous People, Politicians, International Donors, NGOs and the Scientific Community have different prospects of sustainable development. My main research questions are: how actors involved in the establishment of conservation units (CUs) carry out their agendas? Does the evolution of an international environmental regime affect actor’s behavior?

ARPA is a ten year program comprised of three phases that proved itself to be a strategy tool of the Federal Government to inhibit the advance of deforestation and assist regularization in critical regions rather than privileging the creation of CUs in remote areas, which marks a contrast with the creation of protected areas in previous years. The program first phase (2003-2009) established 63 CUs, of which 30 are of sustainable use.

CUs for sustainable use usually have more success in forming local councils but more difficulties approving Management Plans when compared to strict protection areas. This is so because this kind of protected area opens the possibility of exploitation of forest resources. Market-oriented groups (logging and mining business), socially engaged groups, donors and technicians hurry to discuss the proposed areas and strive for legitimacy and political influence along the way.