Framing Illegal Logging and Its Governance Responses in Brazil – A Structured Review of Diagnosis and Prognosis

Abstract

In 2012, the new, revised Forest Code was established as the legal and regulatory framework for Brazilian forests. Though illegal logging has continued, frames about Brazil's forest policy and management have changed since that time. While until 2010 the successful implementation of forest policies and the resulting decline in deforestation rates were there for all to see and appreciate, the increase in the deforestation rate since then has become the focus of international criticism. With the help of a structured review of international scientific literature, newspaper articles, and programmes initiated by non-governmental organizations' (NGO) and international organizations' (IO), this paper aims to analyse the frames of illegal logging and its governance responses in Brazil since 2012. The review is guided by the framework of diagnostic (What is the problem? Who is to blame?) and prognostic framing (proposed policy and governance solutions). The main findings revealed a master frame of environmental justice that combines injustice toward indigenous people with the victimization of forest and environment at large. Embedded in this master frame, specific frames that follow the institutional logic of the single policy discourses have been identified. Finally, the results show a strong national focus of governance with continued emphasis on command and control instruments.

A degradação da Amazônia e a dimensão ambiental da crise da democracia no Brasil

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Reframing illegal fishing in small‐scale fisheries as a wicked problem

“…This positivistic conception has been greatly criticized as it only concerns the juridical side of illegality while overlooking other norms and moral aspects strongly linked to legitimacy. Additionally, the juridical perspective ignores conflicting issues and ambiguity as well as the changes over time in what becomes illegal (Kleinschmit et al, 2021).…”

Changes in soil chemical properties and their spatial distribution after logging and conversion to oil palm plantation in Sabah (Borneo)

“…Anthropogenic land-use change often affects soil properties over a shorter time span than natural factors such as climate, topography, vegetation, age and parent material (Amundson and Jenny 1991;Winkler et al 2021;Yaalon and Yaron 1966). In the tropics, logging of primary forests and conversion into agricultural land is widespread (Benhin 2006;Kleinschmit et al 2021;World Resource Institute 1991), which reduces the quality and quantity of natural resources (Guerrero et al 2020). This topic has been widely studied; however, little is known about the short-range variation of soil chemical properties and hence, biodiversity, ecology, entomology, microbiology, mycology and many other ecosystem services.…”