Environmental Governance and Risks in Brazil

Environmental governance has advanced  in Brazil since the Rio Conference. Different stakeholders have had a relevant role in the  process that has permeated in a growing scale the process of decision making and formulation of new public policies. The process of environmental governance has brought into scene stakeholders representing the public and private sector and the social movements, mainly the environmental movement.

The incorporation of new social actors with differentiated demands on the management of natural resources has become more frequent as to issues on water, solid waste, biodiversity and climate. The engagement of these different actors has brought to the environmental arena, a logic of dispute and negotiation on aspects linked to natural resources, sustainability in cities, impact of degradation of water sources, loss of biodiversity, conflicts with indigenous population on land, impact of hydroelectricity projects and more recently on the impacts of climate variability and its multidimensional aspects.

The paper will approach how national policies are taking place adequately or insufficiently taking into consideration the complexity of the process of environmental governance, and what this implies in terms of enlargement of the role and engagement of stakeholders in the process of decision making. The analysis will focus on the  the strengthening of deliberative spaces, multiplication of networks that promote awareness and mobilization to face uncertainties and potential risks in cities and biodiverse spaces and the pressure to reduce socio-environmental and knowledge based asymmetries.

Several civil society organizations have had in the last years important role facing environmental governance and risks in Brazil, and these initiatives  promoted advancements towards democratizing access to information, besides pressuring for more transparent and participative decision making processes on  environmental policies and the need to take into consideration diversities, complexities of transformations taking place in a context of global climatic uncertainties.