New Times, New Agendas for Environmental Citizenship

After four years of many setbacks, dismantling, violence, and stupidity, 2023 began with a fresh start, brought by the inauguration of President-elect Luís Inácio Lula da Silva and his team. Unlike the last administration of the Workers’ Party (PT) in the federal government, the environmental theme was more present, central, and transversal this time. This started already at COP 27, which took place in December 2022, where the then-elected Federal Deputies Marina Silva and Sônia Guajajara participated, together with President-elect Lula, in conversations, meetings, and declarations that indicated the new directions for the presence of the Brazilian State in the forums and the global climate change agenda (G1 MUNDO, 2022). The new administration pointed out that the climate emergency would be essential in Brazil’s actions over the next four years and would permeate government practices beyond the Ministry of the Environment. This is the way to transform Brazil as a leader in the transition to a low-carbon economy, aligned with the socio-environmental practice developed by social movements, traditional populations, and native Brazilian peoples.

Such commitment was presented in the announcements of the new government structure, creating new ministries that configure a much more realistic picture of Brazil’s social diversity. We refer to the creation of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples and the return of the Ministry of Environment. In addition, the issue of Brazil becoming a world leader in the fight against climate change appeared in the speeches of the Minister of the Civil House and the Minister of Finance. Also, the new president of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES) called attention to the bank’s role in creating lines of credit to encourage sustainable development and innovation in promoting a low-carbon economy. The recognition of the traditional populations and native peoples’ rights was also highlighted in the inaugural speeches of the ministers of Human Rights and Citizenship and the Ministry of Racial Equality. For the first time, at least in the discourse, one can observe the internalization of environmental issues and environmental justice as a central component in the Brazilian institutional structures and political practices. After 30 years since Rio 92, the environmental agenda has finally become present and the protagonist of the Brazilian State’s actions. Still a long and challenging road ahead, but a strong indication of change.

At the same time, with the coup attempt that took place on January 08, 2023, where the Supreme court, Congress, and Planalto Palace were barbarously attacked and depredated (SARINGER, 2023), the challenge of promoting sustainable development with the environmental theme in a protagonist position by the Brazilian State, is aligned with the strengthening of the Brazilian democratic institutions. The experience of resistance and struggle of the native peoples, traditional populations, as well as other minorities and majorities marginalized by race, gender, and class, will strongly contribute to this process. The inaugurations of the Ministries of Indigenous People, Sônia Guajajara, and Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, beautifully represented the resistance of the Brazilian people against inequalities, violence, and discrimination present in everyday practices. Their speeches recalled the practices of existence, resistance, and reexistence present in Brazil and how they became key in the face of attempts to weaken Brazilian democracy and the new government, committed to fighting inequalities through a path that combines economic, social, and environmental development.

The socioenvironmental theme mobilized today by traditional populations and native peoples offers an opportunity to contribute and reorient the country’s paths. The Ambiente & Sociedade Journal, in its more than 25 years of existence, has become one of the relevant spaces for reflection on the socio-environmental theme, initially through contributions from academics, but today also opening space for contributions from leaders and activists. In 2021 the journal published the Feature Issue: Decolonial Insurgencies and Emancipatory Horizons: Contributions from Political Ecology based on the discussions held at the III Latin American Congress of Political Ecology that took place in Salvador, UFBA in 2019. In this material, 4 narratives were published from the round tables that dealt with the resistance of traditional populations and native peoples facing the setbacks that were posed and structured by the federal government led by President Jair Bolsonaro. In it, four women formed the table Chico Mendes Vive! where they brought their vigorous speeches about the attacks on their existence and way of life and their reaction to them (Chico Mendes Lives). They were Angela Mendes, daughter of Chico Mendes, and Women’s Secretary of the National Council of Traditional Extractivist Peoples, Claudelice Santos, now a lawyer and sister of José Cláudio and Maria do Espírito Santo, both assassinated for defending a collective territory, Edel Moraes, at the time vice president of the National Council of Extractivist Populations, and Sônia Guajajara, at the time coordinator of the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil. A few months earlier, the then Minister of the Environment, Ricardo Salles, in a television program, had questioned the relevance of Chico Mendes in Brazilian environmental discussions in an attempt to erase his role and legacy while retelling the story from new protagonists such as illegal gold miners, land grabbers, and deforesters. Today, happily, two of them are in prominent and important positions in the current government. Sônia Guajajara is the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, and Edel Moraes is the Secretary of Traditional Populations and Sustainable Rural Development of the Ministry of Environment.

The expectations of the future and the first signs of building a new path with the protagonism of socio-environmental foundations are on the table. In the first month of government, the agenda of the native peoples and socio-environmental conservation are present in the news, in Congress, in the Supreme Court, and in the federal executive. There is a lot of expectation and work ahead. The new government proposes a complete review of the environmental setbacks created in the Bolsonaro era. This means considering the cancellation of measures that caused the dismantling of public institutions and caused the increase of deforestation in the Amazon, Cerrado, and other Brazilian biomes, as well as the reactivation of the Amazon Fund, which had been frozen since 2019 due to mismanagement and the aggressive international policy adopted by the previous government.

The solutions that now appear on the horizon should involve facing the challenges through articulations capable of strengthening production and governance arrangements. Despite renewed hopes for a new administration, starting in January 2023, it is necessary that the civil society keeps a watchful eye and, when necessary, exerts pressure on the government to guarantee that the environmental and climate agendas return to the agenda.

Thus, full of challenges, opportunities, and hope, we wish everyone a Happy 2023 and open Volume 26 of Revista Ambiente & Sociedade.

In the article: Identifying Priorities through the Problem Structuring Method to Reduce the Dependencies on Ecosystem Services in Electricity Distribution, the authors Pablo Ricardo Belosevich Sosa, Leandro Duarte Santos, Bruna Fatiche Pavani, Amanda Nunes Ribeiro, Paulo Antônio de Almeida Sinisgalli, Wilson Cabral de Souza Júnior, and Sandro Luis Schlindwein identified actions that mitigate risks and dependencies concerning Ecosystem Services associated with an electricity distribution company. As a result, they obtained a structured view of actions that enables management to focus on the longevity of both the SEs and economic activity.

The authors Adela Parra-Romero and Cesar Camilo Castillo Estupiñan, in the article: Do we inhabit the same mountain? Towards ontological openings in páramo conservation, through ethnography and documental review, they carried out an ontological analysis of the delimitation process and the conflicts it caused in the regions of Santurbán and Sumapaz in Colombia. They argue that the ecosystem’s challenges demand reflective conservation and an environmental policy based on ontological openness that conceives the branch as a composition of practices where different ways of intervening in the world.

The article: Change in the protection regime of Permanent Preservation Areas in the 2012 Forest Code, by the authors Liane Amelia Chaves, Sandra Mara Alves da Silva Neves, Maria Aparecida Pierangeli, Solange Kimie Ikeda Castrillon and Jesã Pereira Kreitlo, assesses the loss of protected areas, classified in the category of water Permanent Preservation Areas, by virtue of the 2012 Forestry Code, on the Cabaçal river. They conclude that the vegetation cover in the Permanent Preservation Areas was suppressed so that urban and agricultural uses could be implemented, characterizing them as conflicts due to the flexibilization of the environmental legislation.

The authors Cleyton Martins da Silva, Danilo Pinto Moreira Junior, João Rogério Borges de Amorim Rodrigues, Bruno Siciliano and Graciela Arbilla participated in the project “New Airs for Early Childhood”, to obtain evidence to establish a plan to reduce children ‘s exposure to air pollution. The results show high PM2.5 levels compared to World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations and the need for coordinated actions to reduce emissions of primary pollutants and precursors of secondary pollutants. In the article: Clean air for a good start: children are the future of the planet.

To guide decision-makers, in the article: Guidelines for the planning and designing payment for environmental services schemes, the authors Bartira Rodrigues Guerra and Victor Eduardo Lima Ranieri analyzed Brazilian schemes in the face of good practices recommended in the scientific literature. They conclude that monitoring SE provision or its proxies and spatial segmentation were observed practices. The same did not happen with flexible contracts and payments greater than provision costs. These results are useful to reinforce strengths and point out possible vulnerabilities in the design.

The authors Thais Pantoja de Carvalho, Jorge Angelo Simões Malcher and Daguinete Maria Chaves Brito, in the article: The socioeconomic perception of the ones affected by the hydroelectric plants along the Araguari river/AP, Eastern Amazon, analyzed the perceptions from residents of the municipality of Ferreira Gomes on the social and economic impacts of three hydroelectric dams installed on the Araguari River, Amapá. They concluded that hydroelectric dams have established new social and economic dynamics in the population’s daily life, mostly negatively, and have directly and indirectly affected the quality of life, health, income, cost of living, and security of the local population.

The authors Rizza Regina Oliveira Rocha and Victor Manoel Pelaez Alvarez Alvarez evaluated the experience of inspecting pesticides, carried out by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, according to the types of assessment, its temporal evolution and distribution in the Brazilian territory. They identified a 100% increase in fines from 2009 to 2017 but a decrease of 21 % and 60% in 2018 and 2019. Also, the direction of the inspection was not compatible with locations where pesticide consumption is concentrated. In the article: Environmental Inspection Of Pesticides In Brazil.

In the article: Traditional practices and sustainable development: local indicators of sustainability among caiçaras and quilombolas in Bocaina, the authors Jeni Vaitsman, Nathalia Silva Duarte, Lenaura Vasconcelos Lobato, and Rômulo Paes-Sousa sought to adapt a global agenda /national at the level of the territory and build specific indicators capable of apprehending its “location”. Based on secondary data with socioeconomic and environmental information and the provision of public services, 87 local indicators were constructed to monitor the goals and objectives of the 2030 Agenda in the territory.

The authors Paulo Cesar Rausch, Lenita Agostinetto, and Ana Emilia Siegloch, in the article: Disposal of Pharmaceutical Waste by the Rural Population, characterized the disposal of medication by the municipality’s population of Correia Pinto/SC. They conclude that basic sanitation is precarious, as 64.7% of people consume water without treatment and are not served by waste collection, although 94.9% use the septic tank for sewage treatment. A high percentage of the population ( 63.43 %) reported daily medication use. About 75% dispose inappropriately of leftovers and expired medications.

Finally, the article: Environmental education trends and concepts of actions registered in SisEA/MS and carried out in Ladário/MS, by the authors Maria Rita Mendonça Vieira and Angela Maria Zanon, analyzes the conceptions of Environmental Education (EA) in the proposals registered in the State System of Information on Environmental Education of Mato Grosso do Sul (SisEA/MS). The conservative approach was predominant in the actions, intending to change the individual’s behavior, disregarding the sociopolitical dimension. The authors show ways to overcome these trends in the search for practices that seek to transform reality.

We wish you all a great reading!

References

• G1 MUNDO. Veja como a mídia internacional cobriu o discurso de Lula na COP 27. Globo, 2022. Disponível em: <https://g1.globo.com/mundo/noticia/2022/11/16/veja-como-a-midia-internacional-cobriu-o-discurso-de-lula-na-cop-27.ghtml> Acesso em 22 fev. 2023.
  » https://g1.globo.com/mundo/noticia/2022/11/16/veja-como-a-midia-internacional-cobriu-o-discurso-de-lula-na-cop-27.ghtml
• SARINGER, G. Prédios dos Três Poderes são esvaziados após invasão bolsonarista . UOL, 2023. Disponível em: <https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2023/01/08/predios-dos-tres-poderes-vazios.htm> Acesso em 22 fev. 2023.
  » https://noticias.uol.com.br/politica/ultimas-noticias/2023/01/08/predios-dos-tres-poderes-vazios.htm

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  17 Apr 2023
• Date of issue
  2023