Governance arrangements for socio-environmental sustainability in the implementation of large infrastructure projects in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

This article explores governance arrangements’ conditions to attend socio-environmental demands from local communities in the context of megaprojects. Specifically, we investigate how the causal conditions “social participation effectiveness,” “political entrepreneurs,” “governmental coordination,” “public budget,” “political priority,” and “administrative capacity” are mobilized in sustainable territorial development plans - governance arrangements to attend socio-environmental demands - in the context of infrastructure megaprojects in the Brazilian Amazon. We applied Mill’s method of difference to compare the role of these conditions in processing five socio-environmental demands claimed in the context of the implementation of the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant and paving BR-163. The results indicate that the relevance of these conditions depends on context, and only the condition “social participation effectiveness” was shared by all the successful cases.