This first editorial of 2022 celebrates 25 years of Ambiente & Sociedade (A&S), one of the first journals in the field in Brazil. A&S launched in 1997 by the inter-institutional articulation of Brazilian professors and researchers, most of them working in the areas of sociology, politics and anthropology with a focus on strengthening an interdisciplinary view of the multiple interfaces in environment and society. The team that assumed editorial responsibility was composed until 2011 by Lucia da Costa Ferreira (NEPAM/Unicamp), Hector Leis (UFSC) and Pedro Roberto JacobiJACOBI, P.R. 2012. Governança ambiental, participação social e educação para a sustentabilidade. In: PHILIPPI, A. et al. (Eds.) Gestão da Natureza Pública e Sustentabilidade. São Paulo: Manole, 2012. Cap. 12, pp.343-361. (PROCAM/USP).
At the time was still an very incipient area of knowledge, but in 2011 it was formalized as Environmental Sciences with the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel of the Ministry of Education (CAPES/MEC) in Brazil. Nowadays, there is 141 programs graduate programs in Environmental Sciences in all regions of the country. The motivation of this group of researchers was to expand the scope of diffusion of scientific production and consequently of the dialogue between Applied Social Sciences and Natural and Environmental Sciences.
This integrated approach represented an innovative perspective and, at the same time, a great challenge in bringing to the debate issues that were announced as a result of the progressive degradation of the environment. These worrying impacts, which we observe in each report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), have already been, since the beginning of the 1990s, illustrating the profound interferences of human activity in the of support for the planet’s ecosystems, according to the discussions and referrals of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio 92). During this period, the research capacity on anthropogenic impacts and, under the name of Anthropocene, the understanding of the impacts of human actions as the dominant force for changes in the biosphere and for global society was expanded. The prospects for sustainable use of natural systems are also expanding, which have started to signal a [desired] future that can be built in parallel with an [undesired] future that can be avoided.
The members of the founding group of Ambiente & Sociedade, at that time, prioritized creating a means of dissemination around the necessary reflection on the challenges that emerged to face the growing and complex socio-environmental problems, and to contribute to a possible reversal of their causes considering the dynamics of existing rationality.
The commitment to interdisciplinarity was guided by the need to promote interaction between disciplines and areas of knowledge and broad dialogue with society as a whole, overcoming the scientific compartmentalization caused by excessive specialization. The prevailing view since the publication of the journal emphasizes the importance of the social processes that determine the forms of appropriation of nature and its transformations through social participation, or its absence, in the management of environmental resources, as well as the practices of the different social actors and its relationship with the environment.
Initially, the Journal had the fundamental administrative support of the Center for Environmental Studies and Research (NEPAM) at Unicamp. As of 2011, the National Association of Graduate Studies and Research in Environment and Society (ANPPAS), created in 2000, took over the management of the Journal. Since 2011, the journal has been published in a digital version, as part of the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), and is also indexed in the Scopus database. Currently, Ambiente & Sociedade journal has an annual format, publishing around 70 articles per year. The importance of academic production free from commercial editorial groups and with open access is highlighted, enabling greater visibility (since the journal is indexed on the main international platforms), access and the fundamental sense of free dissemination of scientific production in association with selective editorial policy. Published articles must meet quality criteria such as relevance to the journal’s focus, research quality, solid bibliographic review and methodological structuring, contribution to the advancement of knowledge and an interdisciplinary and fertilizing approach.
But more than that, Ambiente & Sociedade pioneered the approach to the theme in Brazil, allowing many young researchers to publish their articles and giving visibility to a different way of approaching environmental issues. Thus, more than a vehicle of highly qualified scientific communication, the journal was configured (and still is) as a space for training, experimentation and emancipation of the vision of the Global South. The uniqueness of the Ambiente & Sociedade Journal is also characterized by the interdisciplinarity of the articles and the diversity of themes, which is why the Journal is evaluated by Qualis Periódicos in 25 areas of knowledge.
A&S has contributed to Brazilian and world science over time, publishing scientific works by national and international collaborators that, from an interdisciplinary perspective, deal with the most varied topics that demand, due to their complexity and urgency, permanent updating and dialogue with the themes emerging at a global level.
The increase in the number of articles submitted to the journal over time, as a result of the scope of dissemination and the quality of published works, reflects the growing recognition of the journal by professors, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, public managers, technicians from the environmental area and other stakeholders from similar areas that deal with the issue of the environment in their different perspectives, not only in Brazil, but also abroad. This new reality has demanded an organizational change, as maintaining its quality implies resources linked to editorial production in general. Among them, editorial and communication advice, the process of reviewing articles and services for the translation of editorials and publicity material, layout and, more recently, conversion of files to XML format, meeting the criteria of permanence of the SciELO.
To this end, the editorial body of the Journal was expanded and currently comprises the Editor-in-Chief, Scientific-Editorial Committee, Deputy Editors, Associate Editors, Editorial Board, Assistant Editors and Editorial Executive Secretary. We also highlight the role of reviewers from Brazil and abroad, which, throughout all these years, has been of fundamental importance to guarantee the quality of published articles.
For the functioning of the journal, a broad group of researchers and professors is engaged voluntarily and cooperates in the various activities required by a scientific publication. Over the years, the Editorial Board has provided important support for Ambiente & Sociedade to strengthen the area of knowledge of Environmental Sciences with an increasingly broad and diversified public. The collaboration of so many people has turned Ambiente & Sociedade into a journal that takes the form of a collaborative dynamic, at a time when resources for publications are declining. In this context, it is also worth highlighting the role of A&S in enabling its editors and collaborators to work with increasingly organized, integrated and documented processes.
Currently, the main objective of the editorial board is to increase the visibility of the work of Brazilian and Latin American researchers with an international audience, in which the English language prevails. Therefore, we chose to publish the articles in bilingual format, also encouraging, in addition to English, publication in Spanish.
In recent years Ambiente & Sociedade has become a regional reference that stands out for the fact that it brings together a multiplicity of researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, public managers, technicians in the environmental area and interested publics, not only from Brazil, but also from abroad, on cross-cutting themes that dialogue with the socio-environmental issue.
There are many memories of so many people who have contributed over the years for A&S to consolidate itself in the field of knowledge, guaranteeing editorial quality in an interdisciplinary perspective associated with the need to publish articles that dialogue with the dynamics that characterize the main challenges of the times in which we live. In this moment of celebration, it is essential to highlight, with great emotion, the friends who are no longer with us, such as Daniel Hogan, a great supporter since the beginning, and Hector Ricardo Leis, who participated in a very collaborative way and with full commitment, since his creation until shortly before his death.
At this moment, we would like to thank each and every one of our colleagues who contributed over the years to its creation, consolidation and substantial appreciation in the fields of knowledge that Ambiente & Sociedade contemplates, guaranteeing their pioneering approach to the theme in Brazil. This has allowed many young researchers to have their articles published, thus increasing the visibility of production around innovative themes that mobilize the scientific community.
We also want to celebrate our 25th anniversary by presenting a new identity for the Journal Ambiente & Sociedade. Our first logo was designed by Carlos Thadeu, then by Nicolás Bujak, and the new one by Igor Chaves, one of our collaborators, together with members of the editorial team and the secretariat. The idea we seek is to demonstrate the plurality and diversity that characterize our society and our research, and how these values serve as a premise for our work.
Our sincere thanks to each and everyone who supports and collaborates so that Ambiente & Sociedade is an editorial vehicle that expands the diffusion of innovation in the reflection on the transformations taking place in global society and the frontiers of knowledge. The Journal’s trajectory is intertwined with its mission, being an example of a rich and collaborative process of construction and dissemination of knowledge.
With the firm commitment to continue with this task, and with great joy, we open Volume 25 of Journal Ambiente & Sociedade.
The manuscript: Genetic Heritage Management Council and the coordination of the access and benefit-sharing policy in Brazil, where the authors: Biancca Scarpeline de Castro and Anna Carla Carvalho Dos Santos discuss the functioning of the Genetic Heritage Management Council (CGen) from the enactment of Law No. 13.123/2015 until December 2019. They verified that the CGen is a leader in law enforcement; however, the low participation of the beneficiaries of the policy and representatives of states and municipalities puts the effectiveness of the policy in jeopardy.
The authors: Spensy Kmitta Pimentel and Paulo Dimas Rocha de Menezes, in the article: The Peoples’ Web and the university: agroecology, insurgent traditional knowledge and epistemic decolonization, propose reflections on the encounter of traditional knowledge and academic knowledge as a pedagogical reference for an education decolonizing, and discuss how the questions established within the scope of political ecology are connected to epistemic decolonization within the scope of an emancipatory struggle strategy.
Based on the method of analysis of policy documents and the theoretical approach of Science and Technology Studies, the authors: Andrea Lampis and Célio Bermann bring to light the relevance of reformulating the entire process of regulation of distributed energy in terms of an attempt to to build a narrative of control over technical innovations with the potential to democratize access to and use of energy services. In the article: Public Policy and Governance Narratives of Distributed Energy Resources in Brazil.
In the article: Willingness to adopt voluntary and compulsory forest restoration practices by rural landowners in the central Rio Doce basin - MG, the authors Caroline de Souza Cruz Salomão, Letícia Santos de Lima and Raoni Guerra Lucas Rajão analyzed the willingness of rural landowners to voluntary forest recovery and regularization (Federal Law 12.651/2012) in the middle Rio Doce region (MG). The results indicate that 86% of the owners recognize the importance of maintaining the vegetation cover as high, highlighting benefits such as reduced erosion (86%) and increased flow from springs (73%).
The authors André Ruoppolo Biazoti and Marcos Sorrentino, in the article: Political engagement in urban agriculture: power to act in community gardens of São Paulo, investigate political engagement in community gardens in São Paulo, and show that it is possible to consider that there are affections that they empower the subjects to engage in significant changes for territorial management, enabling the formation of an expanded collective of action that institutes unique forms of management that confront the established powers.
In the article: Mortality of large macaws by electrocution in an urban area, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, the authors: Larissa Tinoco, Aline Calderan, Sabrina Cristiane Appel, Eliane Vicente and Neiva Maria Robaldo Guedes show that the body size, the wingspan of the Macaws’ wings and behavior, as well as the proximity of electrical structures to food and nesting resources, favored the chances of electrocution. They conclude that it is necessary to develop mitigation measures to reconcile the sustainable development of a city with the conservation of biodiversity.
The authors: Tiago Machado Castelli and André Andrade Longaray analyze the influence of Green IT practices associated with the conscious purchase, use and post-use of technological equipment, bringing as their main contribution, a scale of evaluation of sustainable actions related to Information Technology in individual level, and whose results may arouse interest in the scientific community to develop new studies under the adopted perspective. In the article: Analysis of green information technology information from the perspective of individual’s socio-environmental awareness.
Analyzing the theoretical-empirical aspects of development with Transshipment and Loading Stations (TLS) and the challenges to health, the authors: Franciclei Burlamaque Maciel, Júlio Cesar Schweickardt, Jéssica Burlamaque Maciel and Kátia Helena Serafina Cruz Schweickardt, in the article: Health and Development in the Amazon we “want”, conclude that planning for, and in, the Amazon needs to include the traditional populations of the region, as well as pointing to alternative models for development, especially when the health and survival of cultures, ecosystems and the various Life forms.
The authors: Pilar Carolina Villar and Ricardo Hirata, in the article: Groundwater Governance and the Construction of Legal Indicators for Brazilian States, identify the federal legal obligations related to the governance of these waters and build a tool to assess whether they have been incorporated and applied by States. They conclude that federal legislation guaranteed a standard of mechanisms for state management, from which it was possible to structure the Groundwater Governance Assessment System (SAGAS), composed of 48 main and 25 subordinate indicators.
Finally, in the article: Do command and control instruments for nature conservation on private property always fail?, the authors Lauro de Camargo Neto, Eleri Rafael Muniz Paulino and Victor Eduardo Lima Ranieri analyze, from the perception of the land owners, the scope of the Projeto Formoso Vivo regarding the adequacy of rural properties to the current legal-environmental regime that deals with the protection of native vegetation. They demonstrate that all interviewees recognize the importance of the project and consider it possible to reconcile the economic production of the rural property with the requirements of areas destined for conservation.
We wish you all a good read!
References
- JACOBI, P.R. 2012. Governança ambiental, participação social e educação para a sustentabilidade. In: PHILIPPI, A. et al. (Eds.) Gestão da Natureza Pública e Sustentabilidade. São Paulo: Manole, 2012. Cap. 12, pp.343-361.
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
15 Apr 2022 -
Date of issue
2022
