2005-06 Luce Fellows: Brazil

Marta Maria Gomes De Oliveira

Luiz Fernando Macedo Bessa

Marta Maria Gomes De Oliveira has a B.A. in Agronomics from the University of Brasília, Brazil, Specialization training in “Soil and Environment” from the University of Lavras, Brazil, and M. Sc. in Environmental Planning and Management from the Catholic University of Brasilia. She works as an Environmental Analyst in the Secretariat of the Environment of the Federal District, Brasília– DF- Brazil. There she has worked as Manager of Environmental Inspection and Licensing, coordinated the elaboration and execution of the Federal District’s Forest Fire Prevention and Combat Plan and coordinated the project “Sustainable Development: a data base for the Federal District.”. She has also worked as an Agronomist in the Brazilian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, where she was Director of the Pesticides Department. There, she represented the National Secretariat of Farming Defense in the National Environment Council.

Dates in Berkeley: October 23 through December 17, 2005

Luiz Fernando Macedo Bessa, Professor at Catholic University of Brasília, Ph.D. (Doctorat de 3ème Cycle) in Human Geography and Organization of the Space University of Paris- Panthéon- Sorbonne-France. Diploma (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies – DEA), from Institut d’Etudes du Développement Economique et Social (IEDES), Regional Analysis and Organization of the Space, University of Paris I - Panthéon – Sorbonne, - France. Undergraduate Degree in Public Administration from “Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo” da Fundação Getúlio Vargas. At the Catholic University, he teaches in the Environmental Management and Planning Graduate Program. Before joining the university faculty, he worked as a United Nations Development Program-UNDP consultant at the Brazilian Ministry of Environment, both in the National Environmental Program II -PNMA II and the Pilot Program to Conserve the Brazilian Rain Forest -PPG-7- (Ministry of Environment-Brazil/World Bank/UNDP). He has also worked as a consultant for the Panamerican Health Organization-PAHO, with the National Project of Rural Sanitation – (Ministry of Planning/ Brazil/ World Bank/PAHO) Brasília-DF.

Dates in Berkeley: September 17, 2005, through January 31, 2006

In her own words...

In his own words...

The current process of occupying the Brazilian Cerrado (Savannah), which has occurred without civil society participation, is one face of the development model adopted in Brazil in recent decades. The model is based on financial subsidies and fiscal incentives, on land concentration, on the introduction of technological packages, on the implantation of infrastrucure to support business development, and on the expulsion of rural populations through the destructuring of the conditions allowing them to produce.

The degradation and destruction of the ecosystems of the Cerrado biome that this model causes has fostered a great deal of insatisfaction on the part of civil society organizations concerned with the preservation of the biome. Today there are more than 300 working for socio-environmental causes and promoting sustainable development in the Cerrado. These organizations represent rural workers, extractivists, native populations, quilombolas (ex-slave communities), fishermen or are intermediary technical NGOs. They have played an important role in the resolution of conflicts in the region, although this role has yet to be measured.

Thus, in addition to the plans presented in the paragraph sent earlier, I intend to carry out research on the contribution of civil society organizations to the resolution of environmental conflicts. I will carry out the following activities:

• Establish contacts with Berkeley departments that are involved in issues related to civil society organization;
• Find out about research conducted at Berkeley on social movements and their organizations;
• Review the literature on the role of NGOs in the resolution of environmental conflicts
• Get to know experiences and theories on the issue.

I plan to study sustainable governance mechanisms for socio-environmental conflict resolution. The focus of my project will be the occupation of the Brazilian Cerrado (or Savannah region), emphasizing governance mechanisms which environmental management debates in the region have largely ignored. Although macro-level economic and social processes affecting the Cerrado are relatively well understood, it remains necessary to identify and map conflicts at the community level. The project to be carried out during the first half of 2006 would involve three stages:

1. a meeting with regional organizations to identify communities where an action-research project could be carried out, and to define activities that would contribute to the solution of environmental conflicts,
2. research in the selected community(ies); and,
3. a training workshop or other activity with actors from the selected community(ies).

In order to maximize the possibilities for cooperation with the University of California, Berkeley, the following activities will be carried out during the fellowship period (September 2005-January 2006):

• A consultation of current bibliography to develop a theoretical framework on “green governance” and to establish contacts with researchers studying the theme at Berkeley;
• Participation in seminars, talks, and mini-courses on the theme of “green governance”, environmental management and planning, and environmental conflict management;
• Participation in discussions and exchange ideas and experiences on forest management practices in Africa and Asia, especially Nigeria and Indonesia;
• Establishment of contacts with Berkeley researchers that might lead to partnerships and collaborative work;
• Learning about research on the environmental interests and behavior of social actors (NGOs, Businesses, Unions, etc.);
• Developing and discussing the methodology for the proposed activities in the Brazilian Cerrado, which would occur in the semester following the fellowship period.

See the Brazil Fellows' background paper, The State of Forest Management Resources in Brazil [pdf] and fellowship paper, The Green Governance in Brazilian Cerrado [pdf]