Abstract
This paper examines the Green Municipalities Program (Programa Municípios Verdes – PMV) – a major multi-stakeholder forum designed to combat deforestation – in Pará state in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We qualitatively analyzed in-depth interviews with 39 people with different perspectives: respondents with deep knowledge of the context but no direct involvement in the program, organizers of the program, diverse program participants, and diverse non-participants. We interrogated the PMV's strategy to address deforestation by collaborating directly with the powerful sectors that are driving it, while excluding indigenous and grassroots organizations from the process. The results reinforce the critique of 'anti-politics' approaches that prioritize technical solutions that focus on the consequences of environmental problems (such as deforestation) without addressing their underlying causes. The research highlights the risks of multi-stakeholder processes in highly unequal contexts that do not question the power of elites, and questions the legitimacy of initiatives that gain wide acclaim but are perceived locally as unjust.
Highlights
Reducing deforestation and forest degradation is a priority in the global agenda to address the climate crisis, focused around global environmental conventions such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement
Anti-politics refers to a process that separates technical goals from political change and social transformation (Bebbington 2005, Büscher 2010), perpetuating “business as usual” realities. This paper explores these issues by analysing the Green Municipalities Program (Programa Municípios Verdes – Programa Municipios Verdes (PMV)), a major state-level program in Pará state that operated through a multi-stakeholder forum (MSF) – the Steering Committee – in the Brazilian Amazon
The paper is based on fieldwork and desk research carried out as part of a comparative study by the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) on the effectiveness and equity of subnational multi-stakeholder forums
Summary
Different national and subnational responses have been developed to combat deforestation – including the creation of policies and programs, investment in law enforcement, creation of protected natural areas, reforestation projects, inter-sectoral dialogues and multi-stakeholder platforms. As part of this wider search for ideas to address the climate crisis and related environmental challenges, the involvement of multiple stakeholders and inter-sectoral coordination has been advocated as an effective and inclusive way of dealing with these issues (Buchy and Hoverman 2000, Hemmati et al 2002). Calls for the inclusion of powerful elite sectors (see Estrada-Carmona et al 2014, Lima et al 2017) in environmental and sustainable land use multi-stakeholder forums has taken place with little reflection on whether bringing such powerful players to the discussion and decision-making arenas will compromise conservation and environmental justice concerns
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