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22. The Burning Quest to Revive a Nationalist Vision in Brazil’s Amazon
- Author:
- Eva Bratman
- Publication Date:
- 12-2019
- Content Type:
- Commentary and Analysis
- Institution:
- The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA)
- Abstract:
- Record fires in Brazil’s Amazon this year marked a political protest led by ranchers who, already empowered under Bolsonaro’s government, are keen to push the government to fully embrace a dictatorship-era extractive doctrine.
- Topic:
- Environment, Protests, and Dictatorship
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America
23. Hybrid Institutions: Institutionalizing Practices in the Context of Extractive Expansion
- Publication Date:
- 01-2019
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Postgraduate Program on Sustainable Development and Social Inequalities in the Andean Region (trAndeS)
- Abstract:
- States face the challenge of developing institutions to govern the activities of social actors when an area under their control becomes the target of increased extractive activities. National and local public regulations safeguarding the environment, the assignment of extractive rights to individuals or companies, and handling of ensuing conflicts are developed in an institutional gray zone. This paper analyzes how informal institutions developed in early period become hybrid institutional entanglements that depend largely on configurations of power. It does so by looking at two cases in Peru: Water extraction in Ica, mostly by large companies and gold mining in Madre de Dios, mostly by small scale miners. Taken together, these cases show the institutions resulting from state governance of extractive activities depends heavily on the agency and political leverage of the state but also of other social actors.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Environment, Natural Resources, Water, Institutions, and Ecology
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Peru
24. Belt and Road in Latin America: A regional game changer?
- Author:
- Pepe Zhang
- Publication Date:
- 10-2019
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Four new BRI trends to watch: (i) enforcement of transparency, debt, and environmental safeguards; (ii) growing participation of the private sector; (iii) the role of the advanced economies in BRI; and (iv) new BRI sectors beyond infrastructure Governments and companies in Latin America and the Caribbean should engage and help shape an evolving BRI, mindful of both the opportunities and risks involved The United States can play a key role in setting standards for economic development projects in the region and beyond
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Environment, Financial Markets, and Trade
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, South America, and Latin America
25. The Brazilian model of Investment Agreements and Socio-environmental Safeguards
- Author:
- Maria Elena Rodriguez and Gabriel de Barros Torres
- Publication Date:
- 03-2018
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- BRICS Policy Center
- Abstract:
- With the purpose of contributing to expanding transnational investment flows, Brazil signed, in 2015, a series of Cooperation and Investment Facilitation Agreements (CIFAs) with African and Latin American countries. Among its provisions, the CIFAs feature distinctive characteristics in terms of direct (and indirect) expropriation, corporate social responsibility, dispute settlement mechanisms and national treatment clauses – ultimately, aiming to provide greater legal certainty for investors. However, civil society organizations have warned against the potential impact of this new model of investment agreements on the autonomy of states to establish regulations in the public interest. As such, this Quarterly Brief seeks to analyze similarities and differences between the new Brazilian CIFAs and traditional bilateral investment agreements – as well as to evaluate them in light of alternative frameworks, elaborated by civil society networks, aimed at balancing investment promotion with human and environmental rights protection.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Environment, Treaties and Agreements, Regulation, Social Justice, Land Rights, and Public Health
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America
26. Fighting the tide: Human Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global South
- Author:
- César Rodríguez
- Publication Date:
- 08-2017
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Dejusticia
- Abstract:
- This text forms part of a long-term project undertaken by Dejusticia as part of its international work. The project revolves around the Global Action-Research Workshop for Young Human Rights Advocates that Dejusticia organizes each year to foster connections among and train a new generation of action researchers. The workshop helps participants develop action-research tools, understood as the combination of rigorous research and practical experience in social justice causes. For ten days, Dejusticia brings approximately fifteen participants and ten expert instructors to Colombia for a series of practical and interactive sessions on research, narrative writing, multimedia communication, and strategic reflection on the future of human rights. The aim is to strengthen participants’ capacity to produce hybrid-style texts that are at once rigorous and appealing to wide audiences. Participants are selected on the basis of an article proposal, which is then discussed during the workshop and subsequently developed with the help of an expert mentor (one of the instructors) over ten months until a publishable version is achieved, such as the chapters that make up this volume.
- Topic:
- Development, Environment, Human Rights, Justice, and Ecology
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Global South
27. Trading Forests: Quantifying the Contribution of Global Commodity Markets to Emissions from Tropical Deforestation
- Author:
- Martin Persson, Sabine Henders, and Thomas Kastner
- Publication Date:
- 10-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development (CGD)
- Abstract:
- This paper aims to improve our understanding of how and where global supply-chains link consumers of agricultural and forest commodities across the world to forest destruction in tropical countries. A better understanding of these linkages can help inform and support the design of demand-side interventions to reduce tropical deforestation. To that end, we map the link between deforestation for four commodities (beef, soybeans, palm oil, and wood products) in eight case countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Papua New Guinea) to consumption, through international trade. Although few, the studied countries comprise a large share of the internationally traded volumes of the analyzed commodities: 83% of beef and 99% of soybean exports from Latin America, 97% of global palm oil exports, and roughly half of (official) tropical wood products trade. The analysis covers the period 2000-2009. We find that roughly a third of tropical deforestation and associated carbon emissions (3.9 Mha and 1.7 GtCO2) in 2009 can be attributed to our four case commodities in our eight case countries. On average a third of analyzed deforestation was embodied in agricultural exports, mainly to the EU and China. However, in all countries but Bolivia and Brazil, export markets are dominant drivers of forest clearing for our case commodities. If one excludes Brazilian beef on average 57% of deforestation attributed to our case commodities was embodied in exports. The share of emissions that was embodied in exported commodities increased between 2000 and 2009 for every country in our study except Bolivia and Malaysia.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Environment, and Natural Resources
- Political Geography:
- China, Europe, Malaysia, Brazil, Argentina, Latin America, and Bolivia
28. Why Maintaining Tropical Forests Is Essential and Urgent for a Stable Climate
- Author:
- Rosa C. Goodman and Martin Herold
- Publication Date:
- 11-2014
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center for Global Development (CGD)
- Abstract:
- Tropical forests have the highest carbon density and cover more land area than forests in any other biome. They also serve a vital role as a natural buffer to climate change ―capturing 2.2–2.7 Gt of carbon per year. Unfortunately, tropical forests, mangroves, and peatlands are also subjected to the highest levels of deforestation and account for nearly all net emissions from Forestry and Other Land Use (FOLU) (1.1–1.4 Gt C / year). Net emissions from FOLU accounted for only 11% of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions or 14% of total carbon emissions in 2010, though these figures are somewhat misleading and do not reflect the full potential of tropical forests to mitigate climate change. First, net FOLU emissions have reduced only slightly while emissions from all other sectors have skyrocketed. Secondly, the FOLU net flux is made up of two larger fluxes —deforestation emissions (2.6–2.8 Gt C / year) minus sequestration from forest regrowth (1.2–1.7 Gt C / year). Additionally, intact tropical forests also appear to be capturing at least 1.0 Gt C/ year. Gross deforestation, therefore, accounts for over a quarter of all carbon emissions, and tropical forests have removed 22–26% of all anthropogenic carbon emissions in the 2000s. If deforestation were halted entirely, forests were allowed to regrow, and mature forests were left undisturbed, tropical forests alone could have captured 25–35% of all other anthropogenic carbon emissions. On the other hand, if climate change continues unabated, forests could turn from net sinks to net sources of carbon. Forestrelated activities are among the most economically feasible and cost-effective mitigation strategies, which are important for both short- and long-term mitigation strategies. Action is needed immediately to utilize these natural mitigation solutions, and we need coordinated and comprehensive forest-related policies for mitigation. An international mechanism such as REDD+ is essential to realize the great natural potential for tropical forests to stabilize the climate.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Energy Policy, Environment, Natural Resources, and Reform
- Political Geography:
- Africa, South Asia, and Latin America
29. The Security of Cities: Ecology and Conflict on an Urbanizing Planet
- Author:
- Peter Engelke
- Publication Date:
- 11-2013
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Atlantic Council
- Abstract:
- Humankind recently crossed a historic threshold: over half of all human beings now live in cities. In contrast to most of human history, cities have become the default condition for human habitation almost everywhere on earth. Urbanization is proceeding rapidly and at unprecedented scales in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. These regions are poised to join Latin America, Europe, North America, and Australia as having more people living in cities than in rural areas. Between 2010 and 2050, the world's urban population is expected to grow by 3 billion people—a figure roughly equal to the world's total population in 1950—with the great majority living in developing-world cities.3 Our species, in other words, is already an urban one and will become even more so throughout this century.
- Topic:
- Demographics, Development, Environment, Natural Resources, Urbanization, and Developing World
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Middle East, Asia, Latin America, Australia, and North America
30. The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Negotiations: Overview and Prospects
- Author:
- Deborah Elms and C. L. Lim
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade agreement currently under negotiation between nine countries in three continents, including Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States and Vietnam. In late 2011 three additional countries--Japan, Canada and Mexico--announced their intention to join as well. The TPP has always been called a "high quality, 21st century" agreement that covers a range of topics not always found in free trade agreements. This includes not just trade in goods, services and investment, but also intellectual property rights, government procurement, labor, environment, regulations, and small and medium enterprises. This paper traces the complex negotiations and evolution of the talks since the early 2000s to the present.
- Topic:
- Economics, Environment, International Trade and Finance, Treaties and Agreements, Labor Issues, and Intellectual Property/Copyright
- Political Geography:
- United States, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, Israel, Vietnam, Latin America, Australia, Australia/Pacific, Mexico, Singapore, Chile, Peru, New Zealand, and Brunei
31. Brazil as an Emerging Environmental Donor
- Author:
- Kathryn Hochstetler
- Publication Date:
- 02-2012
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
- Abstract:
- Brazil has always focused on development strategies, but it has recently shifted more attention, on balance, from thinking of its own development to offering assistance to other countries in their national efforts. Former President Lula da Silva has argued that Brazil's own experience with solving problems in inauspicious conditions makes it a particularly good partner for other developing countries (Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada [IPEA] and Agência Brasileira de Cooperação [ABC], 2010: 7). Brazil self-consciously approaches its external development assistance from the perspective of a recipient, endorsing an egalitarian “solidarity diplomacy” that stresses holistic development in its partners. The ultimate aim is “sustainable growth,” which includes “social inclusion and respect for the environment” (IPEA and ABC, 2010: 32-33).
- Topic:
- Development, Diplomacy, Environment, and Foreign Aid
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America
32. Taxation in Paraguay: Marginalization of small-scale farming
- Author:
- Déborah Itriago
- Publication Date:
- 05-2012
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- Paraguay's tax system is insufficient to provide the resource base to eradicate poverty in the country, and has done little or nothing to achieve a more equal distribution of income and wealth. Two major taxation reforms over the last decade have done little to alleviate the fiscal injustice that is generated partly by the low tax reciprocity of the soy agribusiness – Paraguay's main export crop. Meanwhile, programmes to support small- scale farming receive a level of public financing accounting for just 5 per cent of public expenditure. With one of the highest levels of unequal land ownership in the world, labour informality at very high levels and poor environmental regulation of soy producers, the livelihoods and ecosystems of Paraguay's small-scale producers are at risk. There are serious loopholes in Paraguay's tax system that must be addressed in order to deliver a fairer, progressive taxation system that will allow the country to meet its social objectives.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Environment, International Trade and Finance, and Poverty
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
33. From the Think Tanks
- Publication Date:
- 01-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Americas Quarterly
- Institution:
- Council of the Americas
- Abstract:
- No abstract is available.
- Topic:
- Environment
- Political Geography:
- United States and Latin America
34. Combating Rural Poverty and Hunger Through Agroforestry in Bolivia
- Author:
- Kate Kilpatrick
- Publication Date:
- 05-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Oxfam Publishing
- Abstract:
- In contrast to intensive agricultural practices that require widespread forest clearing, agroforestry systems combine tree growing with the production of other crops or animals. By promoting tree planting, biodiversity, and long-term resource husbandry, agroforestry can be an economically and environmentally sustainable option for small-scale farmers who are struggling to combat the impacts of climate change. For hungry and food-insecure communities, agroforestry creates more resilient agricultural systems where the risk of crop failure is spread between diverse crops.
- Topic:
- Security, Agriculture, Economics, Environment, and Food
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Bolivia
35. Ask the Experts: The New Brazil and The Changing Hemisphere
- Author:
- Kevin P. Gallagher, Arturo Sarukhan, Anne-Marie Slaughter, and Kurt G. Weyland
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Americas Quarterly
- Institution:
- Council of the Americas
- Abstract:
- Do traditional models of international relations apply in Latin America?
- Topic:
- International Relations, Economics, Environment, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Latin America, and Mexico
36. Deforestation's Challenge to Green Growth in Brazil
- Author:
- Benjamin S. Allen, Charles Travers, and Louise Travers
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy
- Abstract:
- Understanding Brazil's green growth and emissions story requires a second look. Brazil's energy matrix is approximately 46% renewable, so when one compares the share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy in Brazil to that of most OECD countries, Brazil is doing relatively well (IPEA 2010, 133). However, looking at energy alone misses the core GHG story in Brazil: The principal drivers of GHG emissions in the country are not energy production or heavy industry, but rather deforestation and agriculture. Deforestation is responsible for about 55% of Brazil's GHG emissions, and agriculture for another 25% (McKinsey Company 2009, 7). In fact, the two areas of emissions are intimately linked: deforestation is principally a problem of agriculture. Cattle ranching and soybean and sugar cane farming are the major industries contributing to Brazil's emergence today as an agricultural and agroenergy superpower – and are directly and indirectly responsible for deforestation in Brazil's largest forests, the Amazon and Atlantic (Banco Mundial 2010, Barros 2009, Margulis 2004, McAllister 2008b, Nassar 2009, Nepstad et al. 2008, Sennes and Narciso 2009). By extension, because Brazil's large and growing renewable energy sector is principally based on agriculture, it has ties to deforestation and may not be as green as it first appears.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Emerging Markets, Energy Policy, and Environment
- Political Geography:
- Brazil and Latin America
37. Minorities and Green Political Thought: Normative challenges to an ideal ethics?
- Author:
- Tove H. Malloy
- Publication Date:
- 09-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
- Abstract:
- What does Green minority action do to our traditional views of minorities as conflict-prone, rights claiming entities that defy definition and pose constant tension in normative political theory? Normally concerned with justification of such issues as the right to existence, the right of self-determination, the protection of culture and language, and steeped in discourses of politics and struggles for recognition as well as of identity and difference, and multiculturalism versus egalitarianism, political theory has confined itself to addressing minority issues in terms of normative accommodation. The arrival on the scene of Green political thought has not c hanged this (as yet) but the empirical facts may force normative political theorists to engage with Green theory as well as impel Green political thought to address normative minority accommodation. It is the possibility of the latter that I will explore in this paper.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, and Minorities
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Germany, Denmark, Latin America, North America, and Mexico
38. Making Rio 2012 work: Setting the stage for global economic, social and ecological renewal
- Author:
- Alex Evans and David Steven
- Publication Date:
- 06-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Center on International Cooperation (CIC)
- Abstract:
- The Rio 2012 summit on sustainable development is now one year away. Over two decades since the 1992 'Earth Summit', sustainable development has not materialized: as global GDP has risen, so have greenhouse gas emissions, species loss and environmental degradation.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Economics, Environment, Foreign Aid, and Foreign Direct Investment
- Political Geography:
- Latin America
39. The Environmental Impacts of Soybean Expansion And Infrastructure Development in Brazil's Amazon Basin
- Author:
- Maria del Carmen Vera-Diaz, Robert K. Kaufmann, and Daniel C. Nepstad
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Abstract:
- For decades, the development of transportation infrastructure in the Brazilian Amazon has been the government's main social and economic development policy in the region. Reductions in transportation costs have not only opened the agricultural frontier to cattle ranching and logging but have also caused more than two-thirds of Amazonian deforestation. Currently, soybean cultivation is a new economic force demanding improvements to roads in the region. Profitable soybean crops have spread over the Mato Grosso's cerrados and now head toward the core of the Amazon rain forest. One of the main constraints for soy expansion into the Amazon has been the poor condition of roads. In this study, we analyze the effect Amazon transportation infrastructure programs have on soybean expansion by lowering transport costs. The analysis is based on spatial estimates of transportation costs for the soybean sector, first using current road networks and then projecting changes based on the paving of the Cuiabá-Santarém road. Our results indicate that paving the Cuiabá-Santarém road would reduce transportation costs by an average of $10 per ton for farmers located in the northern part of Mato Grosso, by allowing producers to reroute soybean shipments to the Santarém port. Paving the road also would expand the area where growing soybeans is economically feasible by about 70 percent, from 120,000 to 205,000 km2 . Most of this new area would be located in the state of Pará and is covered largely by forests. A Cost-Benefit analysis of the road project indicates that the investments in infrastructure would generate more than $180 million for soybean farmers over a period of twenty years. These benefits, however, ignore the project's environmental impacts. If the destruction of ecological services and products provided by the existing forests is accounted for, then the Cuiabá-Santarém investment would generate a net loss of between $762 million and $1.9 billion. This result shows the importance of including the value of the natural capital in feasibility studies of infrastructure projects to reflect their real benefits to society as a whole.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Development, Economics, Environment, and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- Brazil, Latin America, and Amazon Basin
40. From declaration to real protection: Biodiversity and local participation in the management of four protected areas in Nicaragua
- Author:
- Helle Munk Ravnborg
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS)
- Abstract:
- This report presents the results of comparative research regarding local participation, floristic biodiversity and local knowledge of plants conducted in four protected areas in Nicaragua. The research has been financed as part of a Danish support programme for the environmental sector in Nicaragua, under the auspices of the programme management committee chaired by the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources.
- Topic:
- Environment
- Political Geography:
- Latin America, Nicaragua, and Dutch