With this post we welcome Ben Brown. Ben is a Corporate Responsibility Advisor from New Zealand, currently exploring South and Central America.
Those who are lucky enough to have travelled through South America will know that the continent has a significant litter problem. It is one of the simplest and most visually obvious forms of environmental injustice and throughout my time in South America I have been shocked to see roadsides, rivers, beaches and hills literally covered with every type of garbage imaginable. Perhaps my fresh Kiwi eyes are tainted by a slight Western ignorance that has not yet been shattered by experiencing this condition which is so common amongst the poorer majority nations. The obvious and well-worn argument is that in poorer nations, governments and communities have priorities that are more salient and immediate than protecting the environment. Indeed, it is apparent to me that most of the impoverished in South America live firmly in the basement of Maslow's proverbial pyramid and would rarely consider the impact of dumping a bottle here or chucking a plastic bag out a bus window there. But what about those nations in South America that have relatively stable governments and strong economies – does the argument hold true that with prosperity comes the kind of self actualization that leads to environmental awareness and protection? Yes, I am talking about you Brazil.
The importance of Brazil's environmental track record will be clear to most. Brazil still holds about one-third of the world's remaining rainforests, including a majority of the Amazon rainforest, a critical carbon sink. It is also overwhelmingly the most biodiverse country on Earth, home to a ridiculous array of plants, birds, amphibians, mammals, and reptiles. And it is also a country doing well thanks to being blessed with these natural “resources” as well as newly discovered oil reserves and a booming beef-grown-on-cleared-rainforest-land industry.
While in the country recently, I spoke with Brazilian Ecologist Ricardo Hentschel about what his thoughts were on Brazil's current environmental performance and what the sentiment was of Brazil's people towards environmental protection. More specifically, I was keen to know what impact economic growth has had on efforts to protect the natural environment.
The Brazilian government is developing a broad program to increase the growth of the economy; it’s called PAC (Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento). This program deals mainly with research and infrastructure to meet an increasing demand for energy. According to Hentschel, at the moment there is significantly more effort being put into constructing infrastructure than into research. For example, the places that have been selected as the sites for new hydroelectric power plants are those that were picked by the government in the 1970’s. At the time of selection the criterion was based simply on geomorphologic features and did not include environmental considerations such as biodiversity. The Ministry of the Environment maintains a stance of acceptance to such decisions, instead of taking a proactive advocacy role to ensure that a broader set of concerns are addressed in future decisions. Hentschel believes the Brazilian environmental laws are getting better every year, but argues they cannot fundamentally change the underlying ideals of the present government.
“It is obvious that at the moment GDP (known as PIB in Brazil) has a much greater importance than the state of our natural resources. In this context, another extremely important issue is the lack of information to the people, in all economic classes. For example, there are plenty of cases where unplanned development to create homes or infrastructure has caused significant environmental impact yet most of the people don’t realize that this rapid growth, and the growing availability of energy can cause real problems, including species extinction” says Hentschel.
This juxtaposition of short-sighted growth with environmental destruction is no more obvious than in Pai Quere. This piece of the Atlantic rainforest with particularly high levels of biodiversity has just been confirmed as a site for a new hydroelectric power station.
Anecdotally, a lot of Brazilian people are happy with the present government. They feel more secure and prosperous then they have in recent memory. But what effect has Lula had on Brazil’s environmental performance since coming to power in 2002? Hentschel believes not much, saying that “as with his predecessors, the environmental questions haven’t been responded to in the interests of science or foresight, but rather primarily in the interests of continued economic growth”.
It appears that this absence of acknowledgement filters down to the local council or municipality level, and the public at large seems unengaged with such issues. Hentschel explained a recent example that took place in his home city of Porto Alegre. The mayor called a public referendum to decide whether some coastal land could be used in a private development initiative of commercial and residential buildings. The current law did not allow this kind of development in the area, yet the community voted in favour. This occurred primarily due to a lack of awareness of an alternative use of the land or any inclination from the council’s constituents to protect it. Now the area might be saddled with four buildings of twelve floors each.
It seems hard to see that progress can be made on the environmental agenda without central government leadership and a deeper level of education amongst the nation’s people. Hentschel says that education levels are low, particularly amongst the poor. The cities are in an interesting transition, whereby most are now beginning to introduce entry-level recycling and pollution reduction schemes. This is certainly positive but it is in rural areas, closer to the natural environments that experience the most damage, not in the cities, where the people claim to be more educated. Meanwhile those living in the countryside interact more with the natural environment through agriculture for sale or subsistence. Yet, according to Hentschel, it is these people who are uneducated about environmental issues “this is a sad gap in my mind and it ultimately has a big impact on biodiversity and all environmental protection”. Hentschel believes that the person wearing the “Recycle Brazil” t-shirt knows more and cares more and yet it is in the uneducated provinces that the biggest gains can and should be made.
But there is also some good news from Brazil. In June, three of Brazil’s biggest supermarket chains; Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, announced they will suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in deforestation of the Amazon. This is great if it comes to fruition, but in order to, it will have to be supported by a lot of on-the-ground initiatives. In my travels, I also came across a local council that was taking brilliant leadership in preserving a little slice of secluded paradise. Trindade is a small beach town that is part of the Paraty municipality, located about three hours of Rio de Janeiro city. While I was there I learned that the entire area was protected by the Parque Nacional da Serra da Bocaina which was established through some foresight in 1971. During one walk down the beach I noticed that the local council has now gone to the extraordinary lengths of hiring a “Litter Prevention Officer”, complete with a hand gun and bullet-proof vest; employed for the sole purpose of making sure that no wayward beer can or cigarette butt made it onto the beach at the hands of a careless sun-seeker. Who can argue with that?
This is an extraordinary example and is certainly one that most places in South America do not match. So I am left wondering; if governments, especially those of poorer countries of this continent, do not lead with policy and initiative then where will it come from? In my view it is from the people – it has to come from the people themselves. This is obviously a luxuriously simple comment, but I have been reminded recently of the power of citizen driven environmental action by two events.
The first was the announcement of the 2009 winners of the Goldman Environmental Prize which is commonly regarded as the Nobel Prize for Grassroots Environmentalism. One winner this year was Marc Ona Essangui. Mr Ona campaigned for three years against a sizable mining project in Gabon's Ivindo National Park which was due to go ahead through a deal between the government of Gabon and a Chinese mining and engineering company called CMEC. His extraordinary actions were commended by prize founder Richard Goldman, who commented in an interview with the BBC that the award “honours fledgling leaders who exemplify unwavering commitment to their struggles; a quality that is more relevant now than ever”. Arguably, in a time when governments and businesses the world-over struggle to come to grips with the economic downturn and the deep impacts of irresponsible governance, the need for exceptional grassroots environmental leaders has never been greater. They can and do achieve dramatically positive environmental outcomes.
The second event that reinforces the power of citizen activism took place in my native New Zealand recently and was the epitome of grassroots leadership. A coastal cleanup on Great Barrier Island was organized by Sustainable Coastlines, a charity established with the mission of supporting local communities with initiatives to protect coastal areas of Aoteroa. What I find remarkable about the Great Barrier Island coastal cleanup is that in the space of six weeks, they set up an event which mobilised the Coast Guard, the Navy, about 200 Great Barrier Island locals and more than 250 volunteers from Auckland to spend a weekend collecting trash of every kind from the East coast of the island. Collecting more than 2 tonnes of rubbish for recycling, this event was a true success and a real testament to the power of grassroots action. Not even a man with a gun and a bulletproof vest can create that kind of outcome.
Ricardo Hentschel is a partner in the Brazilian company CEDRO Consultoria Ambiental. He is currently working on a project funded by UNEP to restore a boundary zone of a natural reserve called Taim, a wetland that is home of more than 256 species of birds and more than 550 species of plants.
