Dismantling the Environmental State: Actors, Strategies and Discourses Behind the Bolsonaro Attack on the National Environmental Regulation

The document details how the Bolsonaro administration has systematically weakened Brazil's environmental state through institutional budget cuts, the exclusion of civil society from policy-making bodies like CONAMA, and the use of infra-legal decrees to bypass congressional scrutiny. It argues that these actions are driven by a coalition of agribusiness and mining interests seeking to expand into biomes such as the Amazon, Pantanal, and Cerrado. The authors highlight the fragility of environmental protections that rely on administrative decisions rather than legislative law and call for the establishment of more resilient protective mechanisms to prevent future reactionary attacks.

• The Bolsonaro administration has employed a four-pillar strategy to dismantle environmental protections: weakening federal agencies like ICMBio and IBAMA through budget reductions, reducing social participation in bodies such as the National Environment Council (CONAMA), increasing military and police control over agency management, and using executive instruments like decrees and provisional measures to bypass the National Congress.
• The government specifically targeted the National Environment Council (CONAMA) by reducing its membership from 96 to 23 and limiting civil society to only four representatives selected by lots, which facilitated the repeal of Resolutions 302 and 303 regarding Permanent Preservation Areas to benefit economic interests in the government's coalition.
• The administration's efforts are driven by a coalition of agribusiness and mining sectors aiming to expand their frontiers into the Amazon forest, the Pantanal, and the Cerrado, viewing environmental protections as obstacles to economic growth.
• Environment Minister Ricardo Salles explicitly suggested using the public's focus on the COVID-19 pandemic as a window of opportunity to accelerate deregulation and simplify rules through infra-legal reforms without the need for Congressional approval.

APA

Climate Social Science Network (2021). Dismantling the Environmental State: Actors, Strategies and Discourses Behind the Bolsonaro Attack on the National Environmental Regulation. https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CSSN-Position-Paper_-Dismantling-the-Environmental-State_Final_03_April.docx.pdf

Chicago

Climate Social Science Network. Dismantling the Environmental State: Actors, Strategies and Discourses Behind the Bolsonaro Attack on the National Environmental Regulation. 2021. https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CSSN-Position-Paper_-Dismantling-the-Environmental-State_Final_03_April.docx.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Climate Social Science Network |title=Dismantling the Environmental State: Actors, Strategies and Discourses Behind the Bolsonaro Attack on the National Environmental Regulation |date=2021 |url=https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CSSN-Position-Paper_-Dismantling-the-Environmental-State_Final_03_April.docx.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{climatesocialsciencenetwork2021dismantling, author = {{Climate Social Science Network}}, title = {{Dismantling the Environmental State: Actors, Strategies and Discourses Behind the Bolsonaro Attack on the National Environmental Regulation}}, institution = {Climate Social Science Network}, year = {2021}, url = {https://cssn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CSSN-Position-Paper_-Dismantling-the-Environmental-State_Final_03_April.docx.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }