The COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to weaken environmental protection in Brazil

Vale, Mariana M.; Berenguer, Erika; Menezes, Márcio Argollo de; Castro, Ernesto B. Viveiros de; Siqueira, Luiz Tenório de Brito; Portela, Rita de Cássia Quitete

doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2021.108994

Cited by 147 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Therefore, the spread of the coronavirus deserves maximum attention from health agencies, as confirmed by this study and COIAB's Emergency Action Plan. However, this urgency was not translated into combating the external sources of infection (26). It is key to halt contact with outsiders to stop the contamination cycle (20).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Under-Reporting of COVID-19 Cases Among Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: A New Expression of Old Inequalities

Fellows

Paye²,

Alencar

et al. 2021

Front. Psychiatry

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Objective: To estimate the incidence, mortality and lethality rates of COVID-19 among Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon. Additionally, to analyze how external threats can contribute to spread the disease in Indigenous Lands (IL).Methods: The Brazilian Amazon is home to nearly half a million Indigenous persons, representing more than 170 ethnic groups. As a pioneer in heading Indigenous community-based surveillance (I-CBS) in Brazil, the Coordination of the Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) started to monitor Indigenous COVID-19 cases in March of 2020. Brazil's Ministry of Health (MOH) was the main source of data regarding non-Indigenous cases and deaths; to contrast the government's tally, we used the information collected by I-CBS covering 25 Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEI) in the Brazilian Amazon. The incidence and mortality rates of COVID-19 were calculated using the total number of new cases and deaths accumulated between the 9th and 40th epidemiological weeks. We studied (a) the availability of health care facilities to attend to Indigenous Peoples; (b) illegal mines, land grabbing, and deforestation to perform a geospatial analysis to assess how external threats affect Indigenous incidence and mortality rates. We used the Generalized Linear Model (GLM) with Poisson regression to show the results.Results: MOH registered 22,127 cases and 330 deaths, while COIAB's survey recorded 25,356 confirmed cases and 670 deaths, indicating an under-reporting of 14 and 103%, respectively. Likewise, the incidence and mortality rates were 136 and 110% higher among Indigenous when compared with the national average. In terms of mortality, the most critical DSEIs were Alto Rio Solimões, Cuiabá, Xavante, Vilhena and Kaiapó do Pará. The GLM model reveals a direct correlation between deforestation, land grabbing and mining, and the incidence of cases among the Indigenous.Conclusion: Through this investigation it was possible to verify that not only the incidence and mortality rates due to COVID-19 among Indigenous Peoples are higher than those observed in the general population, but also that the data presented by the federal government are underreported. Additionally, it was evident that the presence of illegal economic activities increased the risk of spreading COVID-19 in ILs.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Under-Reporting of COVID-19 Cases Among Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: A New Expression of Old Inequalities

Fellows

Paye²,

Alencar

et al. 2021

Front. Psychiatry

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“…The Forum resurged after 2017, but its ambitious new proposals went nowhere without take-up from a strong executive. Similarly, the private governance arrangements for soy and beef provide some speedbumps to the Bolsonaro government's desire to develop the Amazon rapidly, but deforestation is arcing up as many regional actors conclude the government will not stop them (Vale et al 2021).…”

Section: Synthesis: Brazilian Climate Institutions In Form and Functionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate institutions in Brazil: three decades of building and dismantling climate capacity

Hochstetler

2021

Environmental Politics

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What kinds of national climate institutions can solve the governance challenges that the Paris Agreement devolves to them? This article identifies three stages of climate institutions in Brazil, a major emitter of greenhouse gases through deforestation that managed to reduce such emissions for nearly a decade. It shows that a narrow definition of climate institutions that seeks purpose-built state institutions fails to capture important dynamics there, and that such institutions have little direct impact on outcomes. In Brazil's political landscape, national presidents exercise a decisive influence on their climate ambitions and capacities. However, positive and negative feedback loops also brought some effective climate action from the layering of climate purposes into existing institutions, as well as through non-traditional institutions like private governance arrangements for agriculture.

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“…All of these bills signal further forest conversion in every region of the country, not only in the Amazon. On top of that, 57 regulations have been enacted in the last two years to weaken existing environmental legislation (Vale et al, 2021), and a proposed comprehensive review of already established protected areas threatens those sanctuaries with downsizing and downgrading (Barbosa et al, 2021).…”

Section: Policies and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brazil’s Next Deforestation Frontiers

Schneider¹,

Marques²,

Peres

2021

Tropical Conservation Science

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Public land grabbing, concomitant with hinterland colonization and agrarian reform programs, translocated millions of rural migrants into remote regions of Brazil, most recently to the Amazonian forest domain. Despite state-of-the-art command-and-control and remote sensing monitoring systems in Brazil, effective law enforcement in a country of ∼8.5 million km2 remains a huge challenge, and particularly difficult in times of lenient central-government environmental policies. Cropland and pasture expansion is the most important factor in land use change in Brazil, and the leading driver of primary habitat conversion worldwide. This essay discusses the most likely business-as-usual agricultural frontiers in Northern and Central Brazil to make room for new farmland: the MaToPiBa region in the transitional Cerrado-Caatinga biogeographic zone; the northernmost Cerrado areas of Amapá; and the opening-up of Indigenous Lands to industrial scale agriculture. We discuss the origins, recent developments and implications to conservation of these new agricultural frontiers.

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The COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to weaken environmental protection in Brazil

Cited by 147 publications

References 13 publications

Under-Reporting of COVID-19 Cases Among Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: A New Expression of Old Inequalities

Under-Reporting of COVID-19 Cases Among Indigenous Peoples in Brazil: A New Expression of Old Inequalities

Climate institutions in Brazil: three decades of building and dismantling climate capacity

Brazil’s Next Deforestation Frontiers

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