Brazilian Amazonia: Governance Issues and Research Challenges

This talk describes the efforts of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) to monitor forest degradation and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rain forest. INPE has produced annual deforestation rates region since 1988. Since 2005, INPE produces daily alerts of newly deforested and degraded areas. Brazil uses this data to fight against illegal deforestation. The data is also used to establish public policies, including defining access to credit in the Amazon biome, establishing deforestation reduction goals, and soliciting funds to reduce deforestation. INPE's data is the most significant historical database used by the scientific community on tropical deforestation. Meat and soy production chains use INPE dataset series to analyze their suppliers' environmental compliance issues; thus, it has economic importance and academic importance.

Recent political changes in Brazil have led a major changes in land use policy. The new Bolsonaro government has dramatically reduced law enforcement action and fired the director of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. This talk will discuss the latest developments in Brazil and discuss what are the challenges and opportunities for researchers interested in Amazônia and tropical forests in general.