 | Guardians of the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest: Environmental Organizations and Development Subjects: Environment & Agriculture; Area Studies; Global Development; Environment and Sustainability; Geography; Politics & International Relations; Social Sciences; Latin American & Hispanic Studies; Development Policy; Rural Development; Environment & the Global South; Politics & Development; Sustainable Development; Conservation - Environment Studies; Ecology - Environment Studies; Environmental Policy; Environmental Politics; Environmental Change & Pollution; Environmental Management; Environmental Issues; Environment & Resources; Political Ecology; Biodiversity & Conservation; Environmental Politics; Agriculture & Environmental Sciences; Plant & Animal Ecology; Human Geography; Physical Geography; International Political Economy; International Politics; Anthropology - Soc Sci; Sociology & Social Policy; Forestry; Biodiversity; Rural Studies; Environmental Geography; Development Geography; Environments; Globalization; Latin American Politics; Environmental Anthropology; Indigenous Peoples; Political Sociology; The Amazon region is the focus of intense conflict between conservationists concerned with deforestation and advocates of agro-industrial development. This book focuses on the contributions of environmental organizations to the preservation of Brazilian Amazonia . It reveals how environmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, WWF and others have fought fiercely to stop deforestation in the region. It documents how the history of frontier expansion and environmental struggle in the region is linked to Brazil's position in an evolving capitalist world-economy. It is shown how Brazil's effort to become a developed country has led successive Brazilian governments to devise development projects for Amazonia. The author analyses how globalization has led to the expansion of international commodity chains in the region, particularly for mineral ores, soybeans and beef. He shows how environmental organizations have politicized these commodity chains as weapons of conservation, through boycotting certain products, while other pro-development groups within Brazil claim that such organizations threaten Brazil's sovereignty over its own resources. Luiz Barbosa is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, San Francisco State University, USA. |
