Science, policy and nature in the construction of the Brazilian environmental parliament: the Conama and the institutionalization of the environment in Brazil (1981-1992)

Author(s)

Jéssica Garcia da Silveira

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2016-09-30

Examining board members

Márcia Regina Barros da Silva; Paulo Henrique Martinez; Francisco Assis de Queiroz

• Advisor: Márcia Regina Barros da Silva

Abstract

The institutional construction of environmental policies in Brazil has as starting point at the creation of Law No. 6938 (1981), which established the National Environmental Policy. Within this law was established a National Environmental System (Sisnama) created to organize mechanisms for the construction and the operation of the environmental legislation in the country. The Sisnama was composed by institutional bodies (state environmental agencies), a higher body (the National Environmental Council - CONAMA) and an executor central body (Special Environmental Secretariat - SEMA). As the superior and deliberative body of Sisnama CONAMA became a trading field by adding heterogeneous interests by the objective of defining a set of resolutions which, anchored in the law No. 6938 (regulated by Decree No. 88351 of 1983), acquired the force of law. The theoretical framework used for the analysis from CONAMA was the Actor-Network Theory (ANT). This study aims to analyze the construction and the operation of CONAMA, as environmental arena, since its construction until the moment the Ministry of the Environment was established (1981-1992), understanding this period as the environmental institutionalization in Brazil. CONAMA gathered humans and nonhumans actors including: politicians, engineers, scientists, environmentalists, hydropower, the Amazon rainforest, nuclear power plants, atomic waste, conservation units, alcohol distilleries, rivers, among others. Therefore the discussion proposed is to analyze the trajectory of this council and its particip(ation) in the national political scene as designated agency to establish an environmental protection policy in a period highlighted by the consequences of the energy crisis and the attempt to re-establish the economic growth in Brazil. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/24310-9 - SCIENCE, POLITICS AND NATURE IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE BRAZILIAN ENVIRONMENTAL PARLIAMENT: THE CONAMA AND THE INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN BRAZIL (1973-1992)
• Grantee: Jéssica Garcia da Silveira
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master