GEO Brasil - UNEP

1. The Continuation of Environmental
Pressur
essure: e: Establishing Trends
Projection of evolution tendencies should begin from global
adjustments among several social components, changing
the relations between the State and companies. These
elements have contradictory points of view that are evident
today in the conflicts of interest in the Kyoto Protocol
regarding global warming. Controversy exists regarding
the conservation of the present biomass supply or in the
increase of reforesting areas that serve to absorb carbon
from atmosphere. This controversy has a direct influence
on the present and suggested use of the huge surfaces of
the planet.
environmental management
These adjustments, not always co-operative and many times
conflicting, are part of the context definition of transnational
mechanisms for environmental control. Vegetation surface
is - both, a carbon reservoir on the earth’s surface and a key
element in the control of its exchange in the atmosphere.
These interrelationships represent an important challenge
on conducting and implementing strategic environmental
management concepts.
1.1 Brazil in the Context of Global Environmental
Changes
Brazil occupies an important position on the global scene,
as far as global environmental changes are concerned. First,
due to territorial and demographic proportions, Brazil is
among the ten largest nations in the planet. Secondly, the
immense presence of rainforests and fresh water mass,
largely untouched, gives Brazil an important participation
role in terms of the remaining natural planet cover. Thirdly,
the extreme imbalance in social and land income distribution
reduces social alternatives and contributes to large spatial
movement of the Brazilian population. This is one of the
main factors explaining the rapid and extensive changes to
land surface and use.
Larger participation in the international market and a
significant reduction in the State’s business role caused
the substitution of a national developing project with global
macro-economic stability, limiting substantially planned
territorial intervention. This made the process even more
selective and more dependent on the private sector and the
international financial system.
Large dependence on foreign financial resources results in
vulnerability to speculative international actions and
maintenance of high interest rates, reducing the pace of
economic growth and the reach of social policies. This
position has become particularly critical with the recent
North American orientation, imposing barriers on Brazilian
import products. Maintaining this opinion opposes the
International Trade Organisation policy and may provoke
the recurrence of protectionism in other regions, causing
unpredictable effects on international trade.
Internally, currency stabilisation in the second half of 1990
is constituted an important macro-economic policy matter.
This stabilisation increased social system vulnerability,
mainly regarding employment matters, and made sectorial
and/or integrated political policy introduction and
investments more difficult. Territory, on the other hand, is a
dynamic subject and reflects observed tendencies,
modifying them or re-directing them in some regions.
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