Curbing Corruption in Brazilian Environmental Governance: A Collective Action and Problem-solving Approach

Conservation opportunities and challenges in Brazil’s roadless and railroad-less areas

“…This policy has historic roots in Brazil’s National Transportation System ( Sistema Nacional de Viação ), which consists of nationwide highway and railroad plans that have remained relatively unchanged since the 1970s and still mandates the construction of more than 17,000 km of highways and 19,000 km of railroads that would partially stretch into remote regions of the country ( 17 ). Conversely, most of Brazil’s environmental protection policies and licensing laws, arguably advanced for international standards, have only been formulated since the 1980s ( 18 ). Moreover, as the world’s most biodiverse country ( 19 ), Brazil has also ratified many Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) since the 1990s, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) ( 20 ), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( 21 ), and the 2015 Paris Agreement ( 22 ), as well as supported the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ( 23 ) and has made deforestation reduction and forest landscape restoration pledges to the Bonn Challenge ( 24 ) and in its original Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the 2015 Paris Agreement ( 25 ).…”

“…Elements of Brazil’s planned transportation future represent a threat to global biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem services conservation ( 1 , 18 ). Although Brazil has a comprehensive environmental legal framework and has officially incorporated its MEAs into domestic environmental policy, recent environmental catastrophes and environmental regulatory dismantling ( 26 ), as well as backtracking on commitments to the 2015 Paris Agreement, highlight that there is a stark dichotomy between de jure environmental standards and de facto environmental realities in Brazil ( 16 , 25 , 27 – 31 ).…”