From Protest to Professionalization: Brazilian Environmental Activism After Rio-92

Abstract

In the past decade, environmental activism in Brazil has experienced a substantial tactical shift. Many activists have gained access to national political offices, the most prominent of whom is Marina Silva at the Ministry of the Environment. This research shows that protest groups of the 1980s paved the way for a professionalized form of environmental activism that relies on a firm-like organizational profile and expert staffing. Today, far away from confrontation, environmental activism in Brazil builds on cooperative relationships between political authorities and scientific elites. In this article, the authors argue that the transmutation of the profile of activism was largely stimulated by the availability of new resources and opportunities and the presence of national and transnational alliances available after Rio-92. The argument presented here draws on an analysis of the two biggest and most important environmental organizations in Brazil, namely, the SOS Atlantic Forest Foundation and the Socio-Environmental Institute (ISA).