The Limits of International Action in the Conservation of the Brazilian Amazon Forest: the National State in its Historical Interactions with Global and Local Actors

• In Event: Forests, Communities, and States: Ecological and Political Challenges in Latin American Environmental History

Abstract

The massive deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon is a historically recent phenomenon. In the early 1970s, the forest still retained about 98% of the coverage found by Europeans in the 16th century. Previous processes of occupation and colonization, including the famous “rubber boom” of the 19th century, had not produced massive and well-consolidated deforestation. It is possible, therefore, to follow a powerful historical movement of destruction, but also of conscious conservation, of important areas of that forest from the beginning, with abundant documentation. Moreover, the beginning of this historical movement coincided with the rise of global environmentalism, generating from its very start concerns, denunciations, and resistance at the national and international levels. On the other hand, deforestation over the last decades has not been quantitatively homogeneous. There are years or annual series of intense deforestation, but also years or annual series where the number of thousands of square kilometers destroyed has dropped considerably. In my presentation, I will try to demonstrate that, despite the many global manifestations in favor of "saving the Amazon", external pressures have proved limited in explaining the causes of these cycles. In other words, the survival of ecosystems of planetary ecological importance, in many cases, depends crucially on the national policies of the countries that have political sovereignty over their territorial materiality.

Author

• José Augusto Pádua, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro