Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA)

The Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Reno-váveis—IBAMA) enforces federal environmental laws and international treaties with environmental content to which Brazil is a signatory. Created in 1988 under President José Sarney, the institute initially suffered a severe lack of human and financial resources. Sarney's successor, Fernando Collor de Mello, accorded the environment a higher priority in his administration and elevated IBAMA to the status of an autonomous ministry. Resource allocation to IBAMA then improved, but chronic insufficiencies remained the norm.

In Brazil's decentralized postmilitary political system, a significant amount of environmental protection is being implemented by state agencies, not IBAMA. Its most visible activities tend to be in the Amazon, where, with all nine states that comprise Legal Amazonia, IBAMA has made accords to interact with their law enforcement agencies in the protection of flora and fauna. Endeavors to reduce deforestation are utilizing satellite technology to identify sites of illegal burning, with mixed results; a decrease in deforestation in one year has been followed by an increase the next, perhaps due as much to climatic factors (wet versus dry years) as to IBAMA's enforcement efforts.

See alsoEnvironmental Movements .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography

Schmink, Marianne, and Charles H. Wood. Contested Frontiers in Amazonia (1992).

"International Network Formed to Map Tropical Deforestation by Satellite," International Environment Reporter: Current Report 13, no. 2 (14 February 1990): 65-66.

"Brazil Beefs Up Efforts Aimed at Slowing Amazon Deforestation," International Environment Reporter: Current Report 13, no. 14 (21 November 1990): 485-486.

Presidência da república, secretaria do meio ambiente, instituto brasileiro do meio ambiente e dos recursos naturais renovaacute;veis—IBAMA, Coletânea da legislação federal de meio ambiente (1992).

                                               Laura Jarnagin