Green institutions in Brazil: The road from Stockholm to Rio

Brazil's performance regarding environmental issues during the 1970s and 1980s drew severe criticism from the international community. A survey of articles in the press, scholarly papers and books about environmental policies reveals that successive Brazilian administrations are described at best as indifferent to the environmental degradation of the territory; at worst as frankly unwilling to take steps to reconcile economic growth with environmental conservation. The possible exception is the overall assessment of Fernando Collor de Mello's administration, the civilian president who also chaired the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in 1992. The signs that Brazilian administrations were not indifferent to environmental problems or to criticisms from the international community are evident since the 1970s. In October 1973, an authoritarian military administration created the Special Secretariat for the Environment (SEMA), and a national policy for the environment began to emerge. In the years that followed a complex system developed, which includes a sophisticated regulatory framework, specialized agencies and trained personnel. This research represents an effort to provide a more comprehensive and balanced perspective on the evolution of environmental environmental awareness and institution-building in Brazil over a thirty-year period that was rich with political and social changes for the country. It was also a time of significant changes in international environmentalism--as illustrated by the two environmental conferences sponsored by the United Nations (in Stockholm, in 1972, and in Rio, in 1992). Contrary to widespread perception, the Brazilian state was not a late starter as regards the adoption of an environmental agenda. In fact, Brazilian environmental institutions evolved at the interface of the country's domestic and international policies. Environmental awareness was integrated into the state's geopolitical visions of national security and development strategies, helped shape both domestic and foreign policies in Brazil and constitutes an important element of Brazilian political history and its relations with other nations.