Inter-sectoral determinants of forest policy : the power of deforesting actors in post-2012 Brazil

Abstract

Typically, forest policy-analysis focuses on the forest industry; however, this article argues that analysis should take into consideration non-forest economic–political sectors, creating an inter-sectoral analysis of pathways. An analysis of Brazil's recent forest governance changes allows to outline the political dynamics, thrust and ideas that most influence the use of forests in a political economy whose overall developmental and environmental policies are defined primarily by agribusiness. The Brazilian Congress passed a New Forest Code in 2012, greatly relaxing the previous Code from 1965. The law-changing project was an illustration of the tension between the large landholders-lobby, and the new sustainability demands of various sorts of “green economy” proponents. The recent framing of forests by the agribusiness lobby and the Minister of Agriculture are assessed to explain why and how the understanding and pathway of sustainability in relation to forest and other land uses has changed since 2012. Studies on the major impacts of the post-2012 forest laws are also reviewed. A novel approach is taken, uniting an analysis of large-scale agriculture, tree plantation companies, and socio-environmentalists. It is shown how the New Forest Code and other measures that have brought together the agricultural and forestry frontiers, policies and vocabularies in Brazil have made their united analysis necessary. Brazil provides an important case to study how some parts of the “brown economy” and “green capitalism” pathways are supporting each other in practice, and how the forest industry has become a key actor in this alliance, to the detriment of “socio-environmentalism”.