Financial restrictions for actors in the soy and cattle beef production chains involved in the illegal deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest: may the financial field contribute to forest conservation?

• Grant number: 20/16236-7
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: August 01, 2021
• End date: July 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Agreement: CONFAP - National Council of State Research Support Foundations
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Eduardo Alvarez Candido
• Grantee: Silvio Eduardo Alvarez Candido
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Ana Carolina Bichoffe ; antonio josé pedroso neto ; Ismail Erturk ; Julio Cesar Donadone ; Marcelo Domingos Sampaio Carneiro ; Marcelo José Carrer ; Maria Flavia de Figueiredo Tavares ; Martin Mundo Neto ; Salli Baggenstoss ; Ulisses Denache Vieira Souza
• Associated research grant(s): 25/01677-1 - 2025 SASE Annual Meeting of the Society for Advancements in Socio Economics, AR.EXT
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/15439-0 - Data analysis about the relationships between the financial field, the business field of livestock and soybean farming and illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon., BP.TT; 22/14238-8 - Data gathering and analysis about the conceptions of control and financial strategies corporate elites in the soy and livestock chains in the Brazilian Amazon, BP.TT; 22/14311-7 - Data gathering and assessment on responsible investment and shareholding in companies of the soy and cattle raising supply chains in the Amazon, BP.TT; 21/11894-9 - Gathering and analysis of rural credit data for the soy and livestock sectors in the Brazilian Amazon, BP.TT; 21/10508-8 - Data gathering and analysis on socially and environmentally responsible investment and on equity participation in companies in the livestock and soy chains with activities in the Brazilian Amazon, BP.TT

Abstract

The propoasal seeks to analyze the financials restrictions for actors in the soy and cattle beef production chains involved in illegal deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest. The pursuit of the conservation of the Amazon enabled several experiences in which environmental movements directly interfered in the dynamics of markets associated with deforestation, such as the soy, livestock and tiber sectors. More recently, another sector has become an important target for environmentalists: finance. Environmental activists began to realize the privileged position that the financial field has in the contemporary economy and its capacity to influence the practices of the so-called "productive" sectors of the economy, which are directly involved with deforestation, starting to pressure investors to restrict financing to activities linked to illegal deforestation in the Amazon. In recent months, in the context of growing national and international pressure against the growing rates of deforestation in the Amazon and the dismantling of the Brazilian environmental governance by the government of Jair Bolsonaro, signs of these initiatives have become evident. Seeking to understand these recent shifts, a predominantly qualitative research addressing theoretically constructed cases and based on the precepts of abductive analysis will be carried out. Qualitative and quantitative data from multiple sources will be gathered and analyzed based on the techniques of content analysis and social network analysis. This will contribute to understanding the most recent developments in efforts to contain deforestation in the Amazon through the accountability of large companies, and to contribute to the debates of economic sociology and finance about the incorporation of environmental criticism in markets. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SILVIO EDUARDO ALVAREZ CANDIDO. O estabelecimento da moratória da soja na Amazônia Brasileira: ação ambiental estratégica para explorar oportunidades em múltiplos campos. Sociologias, v. 25, 2023-11-27. (20/16236-7, 18/00292-5)