Brazilian Perspectives On Sustainable Development Of The Amazon Region

Very often, the reports and commentaries come from outside the countries and peoples of the region, while much of the thinking about Amazonia from within is not widely known or accessible.

The aim of this book is to analyse the current development scenario in the Amazon, using Terra Preta de Índio as a case study. To do so it is necessary to go back in time, both in the national and international sphere, through the second half of the last century to analyse its trajectory. It will be equally important analyse the current issues regarding the Amazon – sustainable development and climate change – and how they still reproduce some of the problems that marked the history of the forest, such as the absence of Amazonian dark earths as a relevant theme to the Amazon. ​In a world in which the environment gains each time more space in the national and international political agenda, the Amazon stands out. Known around the world for its richness, the South-American forest is the target of different visions, often contradictory ones, and it plays with everyone’s imagination. This is where the terra preta de índio – Amazonian Dark Earths - are found, a fertile soil horizon with high concentrations of carbon with anthropic origins, which has generated great interest from the scientific community. Studies on these soils and their so singular characteristics have triggered crucial discussions on the past, present and the future of the entire Amazon region. Despite its singular characteristics, the importance of Amazonian Dark Earths – and a history of a more productive and populated Amazon – was hidden since its discovery around 1880 until 1980, when it is possible to identify the beginning of an increase in the number of research on these soil horizons. These hundred years between the first records and the beginning of the increase in the interest around these soils witnessed structural changes both in the national arena, with the military dictatorship and a change in the place of the Amazon within internal affairs, and in the international arena with changes that reshaped the role of the environment in the political and scientific agendas and the role of Brazil in the global context.

Area Studies - Brazil Regional Sustainable Development Review is a component of Encyclopedia of Area Studies - Regional Sustainable Development Review in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. This volume reviews initiatives and activities towards sustainable development in Brazil such as: Perspectives on Sustainable Development in Brazil; Demographic Dynamics and Sustainability in Brazil; The Impacts of Industrial Development in Brazil; Archeological Heritage and Cultural Resources in Brazil; Women's Perspectives On Sustainable Development In Brazil; Education, Public Awareness and Training Processes for Sustainability in Brazil: from history to perspectives; Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Brazil; Integrating the Environment and Development in the Decision-Making Process; Territorial Settlement, Regional Development and Environmental Problems in the Brazilian Midwest; Fragile Ecosystem: The Brazilian Pantanal Wetland. Although these presentations are with specific referenceto Brazil, they provide potentially useful lessons for other regions as well. This volume is aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College students Educators, Professional practitioners, Research personnel and Policy analysts, managers, and decision makers and NGOs.

Government policy for sustainable development: Building sustainability in Brazil. Towards sustainable development. Sacale, ecological economics and the conservation of biodiversity. Environmental valuation in the quest for a sustainable future. Achieving a sustainable world. Policies for sustainable development. Green accounting and macroeconomic policy. A politico-communicative model to overcome the impasse of the current politico-technical model for environmental negotiation in Brazil. Agenda 21: a sustainable development strategy supported by participatory decision-marking processe. International prevate finance and sustainable development: policy instruments for Brazil. Enviromental services as a strategy for sustainable development in rural Amazonia. Exploitation of biodiversity and indigenous Knowledge in Latin America: Challenges to sovereignty and the old order.

​This volume provides an overview of the ways sustainable development issues as a whole, and the SDGs in particular, are perceived and practiced in a variety of countries in the Latin America and Caribbean region. It also discusses the extent to which its many socio-economic problems hinder progresses towards the pursuit of a sustainable future, and documents successful experiences from across the region. This book is part of the "100 papers to accelerate the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals initiative".

Barbosa (sociology, San Francisco State University) provides a global, world-systemic analysis of the problem of deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. He shows how changes in global ecopolitics demanding sustainable development, coupled with the onset of democracy in Brazil, substantially altered the battle over the future of Amazonia. He describes deforestation in the region in the context of an expanding frontier of global capitalism, and compares Amazon experiences with those of Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Annotation This title studies the role of cattle ranching its dynamic and profitability in the expansion of deforestation in Brazilian Amazonia. It provides a social evaluation of deforestation in this region and presents and compares a number of different scenarios and proposed recommendations.