From Rising Giant to Irrelevant Global Player: Bolsonaro’s Destruction of Brazil’s Global Environmental Relevance and How to Reverse It by Rafael R. Ioris - 02/25/22

During the first decade of the twentieth-first century Brazil was fast moving towards becoming a consolidated democracy and a rising diplomatic powerhouse. A nation that consistently pursued multilateral, non-interventionist, and peaceful lines of foreign policy, Brazil had indeed become a vital interlocutor for the Global South, taking a leading role especially in international conversations related to environmental issues. Though the country is still seen as a necessary partner on such matters, largely due to its abundant biodiversity as well as its large carbon footprint, Brazil’s relevance in recent ecological negotiations has dramatically shrunk.  

These trends had begun earlier in the decade, but they gained substantial momentum after the presidential election of long-time defender of the military regime and, at least until recently, irrelevant backbencher, Jair Bolsonaro. Often called the Trump of the Tropics, given their similar authoritarian styles and right-wing demagogic positions, the current president of Brazil has presided over an administration that has sanctioned higher levels of land grabbing and deforestation activities in the Amazon rainforest while providing legal and political cover to attacks against indigenous communities.

With an economy historically defined by exports of commodities, mining and agriculture interests have always played an oversized role in Brazilian politics. Even progressive administrations had to closely associate with the dynamic agribusiness sector of the economy. Bolsonaro deepened these trends to an unprecedented level, though, by promising to demarcate not even a single new inch of protected reservations and to transfer the office of indigenous rights to the Ministry of Agriculture. In addition to an overt level of prejudice, these moves are intrinsically tied to the role native populations have historically played in helping protect natural resources, especially in the Amazon.

As expected, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest has surged under Bolsonaro’s tenure, reaching a 15-year high in 2021, to a level where the forest has begun emitting more carbon than it can absorb. Moreover, his government has slashed 240 million reais ($45.7 million) from the Ministry of Environment budget for next year, and the Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) will lose $3.6 million from its budget, further weakening its ability to carry out inspections, especially in the Amazon region. And although the Brazilian delegation to the COP-26 in Glasgow late last year made some new, largely modest, commitments to reducing deforestation and emissions, Bolsonaro’s embarrassing participation in the annual G20 meeting in Roma, a few days before, did not help halt the declining relevance of his country in global affairs, particularly those related to the environment.

Bolsonaro’s position was more comfortable with Trump and though Biden has yet to deliver more fully on his promise of establishing more constructive lines of engagement with the Latin American region and Brazil, the new Democratic administration no longer offers a natural alignment with Brazil’s extreme right president. This could be overdue but still important news for the Amazon and such a reversal could be abetted by pressure from the international community of still functioning democracies, such as in the European Union and the United States, as well as from consumers demanding an end to encroachments into the Amazon to produce meat exports.

But no consequential change will take place in Brazil’s unfolding environmental deterioration unless Bolsonaro is defeated next October presidential election. All indications are that the best choice to achieve this goal resides in former president Lula’s centrist ticket. And even if the former president, too, governed in close partnership with conservative agrarian elites, it seems plausible that a new government would be vital in rebuilding the country’s democratic institutions, improve in Brazil’s environmental backsliding, and reclaim the country’s rightful place in the negotiations on global environmental governance. 

None of this will be achieved, however, without continued pressure from interested parties, especially among environmental groups and indigenous people’s movements. Recent transnational mobilization of these sectors is encouraging, but their activism will need to be proportional to the massive attacks they have been suffering under the regrettable years of Bolsonaro’s rule. And their actions have must be supported by all forces interested in rebuilding and expanding democracy in Brazil.

Rafael R. Ioris is Associate Professor in the History Department at the University of Denver, and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Washington Brazil Office.

Feature articles express the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or WBO.