ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Volume 5, Number 2, 2012

ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
DOI: 10.1089/env.2011.0012

Movements and the Network

of Environmental Justice in Brazil

Marcelo Firpo Porto

ABSTRACT

This article discusses the development of environmental justice (EJ) in Brazil, particularly since the creation
of the Brazilian Network of Environmental Justice (RBJA, by its initials in Portuguese). The RBJA, created in
2002, takes EJ as an integrating and mobilizing concept, because it connects the environmental, social, and
ethical dimensions of sustainability and development. Such a concept reduces the fragmentation and
isolation existing within several social movements and local communities. I intend to provide some evi-
dence on how RBJA and some social movements are using the concept of EJ in their work, taking as a
reference several documents that circulated in the network between 2002 and 2009, as well as the Map of
Environmental Injustice and Health in Brazil. The conceptual EJ debate in Brazil has been influenced by
social sciences and political ecology, which criticize the capitalistic development model adopted in Brazil
that creates social and environmental inequality. EJ arises as a field of reflection and mobilization, and also
as a rallying point to identify the struggle of several individuals and entities, such as trade unions,
grassroots movements of residents, traditional populations, small agricultures and the landless workers’
groups affected by different hazards and risks, environmentalists, and scientists. The RBJA is significantly
contributing to spread EJ discussions and mobilizations with different strategies and tools, such as
meetings, campaigns, a Web site and an Internet database with EJ documents available. The article ends
with some current trends that will probably mobilize the RBJA for the next years.

INTRODUCTION: THE BEGINNING appearance of EJ in Brazil, connected issues were published

OF EJ DISCUSSIONS IN BRAZIL
T he debate surrounding environmental challenges
emerged in Brazil mostly by the end of the 1980s. In
1985, after a long period of military dictatorship, Brazil
was experiencing the rise of democracy in simultaneity
with a harsh economic crisis and the spread of global-
ization. But the concept of environmental justice (EJ) first
appeared in Brazil in academic texts by the end of the 90s,
and it was only widespread during the last decade, after
the creation of the Brazilian Network of Environmental
Justice (RBJA) in 2002. At the same time, the concept of
environmental racism appeared, although the debate of
racism in Brazil and its singularities had some tradition in
the social sciences and anti-racism movements.1 Before the
Dr. Porto is a senior researcher at the National School of Public
Health, Oswaldo Foundation (FIOCRUZ), in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1
Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro. O racismo na História do Brasi:
mito e realidade. (Ática, 1994), 64.
in Portuguese, regarding some fields and specific themes
such as environmental sociology, democracy, and conflicts;2
political ecology and ecological economics;3 social inequal-
ities, vulnerability, and public health.4 Specially during
and after the Rio Summit in 1992, some important social
movements and organizations of the civil society, like
political parties, labor unions, rural landless, indigenous,
anti-racism, and urban local community movements, in-
corporated environmental issues to their political agendas,
but without mentioning the concept of EJ.
2
Henri Acselrad. ‘‘Cidadania e Meio Ambiente.’’ In: Herbert de
Souza (ed.). Meio Ambiente e democracia. (IBASE, 1992), 18–31.
3
Joan Martinez-Alier. ‘‘Justiça ambiental (local e global).’’ In:
Clovis Cavalcanti (ed.). Meio Ambiente, Desenvolvimento Susten-
tável e Polı́ticas Públicas. (Cortez, 1997), 215–231.
4
Marcelo Firpo de Souza Porto and Carlos Machado de Freitas,
‘‘Major Chemical Accidents in Industrializing Countries: The
Socio-Political Amplification of Risk,’’ Risk Analysis 16 (Feb. 1996)
19:29.

100
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS IN BRAZIL
In Brazil, the emergence of the EJ debate contributed to
link environmental problems with public health, human
rights, and justice. However, there are some differences
between the process that lead to the development and the
usage of the EJ concept in the U.S. and in Brazil. In the
U.S., EJ movements were strongly organized by local
communities and specific ethnic groups (‘‘people of col-
or’’),5 but in Latin America and Brazil, since the very
beginning, EJ discussions leveled criticism against the
capitalistic ‘‘development’’ model and the unfair regional
role within the context of international trade. Apart from
singular and historical patterns of social inequality and
ethnic discrimination, environmental conflicts in Latin
America have a strong relationship with its insertion
in the international economy. Another significant aspect
in Brazil is the relevance of traditional communities—
indigenous, quilombolas (African slaves’ descendants
established in country areas), and other native people
who live from forest gathering, agriculture, and fishing—
inhabiting territories disputed by powerful economic
groups from the industries of agribusiness, mining, and
construction of hydroelectric dams.
UNDERSTANDING ENVIRONMENTAL
CONFLICTS AND EJ IN BRAZIL:
A POLITICAL ECOLOGY PERSPECTIVE
As mentioned before, in Brazil social sciences and po-
litical ecology have served as a critical theoretical frame-
work for distinct environmental movements, and this is
also important when considering EJ in distribution con-
flicts arising from economic, social, and ecological phe-
nomena that place the burdens of development squarely
on the poorer, the most discriminated and excluded areas
and populations.6
In a sense, several types of dilemmas, inequalities, and
conflicts that can be found in a broad international setting
are portrayed in Brazil, in a dynamic society characterized
by the simultaneous presence of different technologies
and the unequal distribution of the risks and benefits
posed by economic and technological development. The
private appropriation of natural resources and services
in several economic sectors, including associated infra-
structures—such as energy and transport—pollution-
related damage and precarious and authoritarian work
relations define what several political ecology authors,
such as Martinez-Alier7 and Porto,8 describe as environ-
mental or ecological distribution conflicts.
The perspective gained by political ecology shows how
the main environmental conflicts in countries such as
5
Robert Bullard. Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environ-
mental Quality. (Westview Press, 1994), 256.
6
Marcelo Firpo Porto and Joan Martinez-Alier, ‘‘Ecologia po-
lı́tica, economia ecológica e saúde coletiva: interfaces para a
sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento e para a promoção da
saúde,’’ Cadernos de Saúde Pública 23 (Dec. 2007): S503–S512.
7
Joan Martinez-Alier. The environmentalism of the poor: A study
of ecological conflicts and valuation. (Edwar Elgar, 2002), 317.
8
Marcelo Firpo Porto. Uma Ecologia Polı́tica dos Riscos. (Editora
FIOCRUZ, 2007), 244.
101
Brazil are intimately related to the patterns of production
and trade, while simultaneously allowing the analysis of
concepts such as (un)sustainability and development
through the logic of international trading and global
economy price setting paradigms. These prices result
largely from the way natural resources and labor are
valued through externalization mechanisms that either
minimize or do not consider impacts on the population
and environment. Therefore, an unavoidable link may be
established between goods imported by the U.S., Europe,
or Japan and the subsequent high levels of pollution,
environmental degradation, and poor working conditions
in the countries where they were extracted or produced.9
Thus, when comparing ‘‘competitiveness’’ in different
agricultural and mineral commodity-exporting econo-
mies, we must include the ‘‘advantage’’ of reducing prices
by externalizing negative impacts, which will end up
being paid collectively, and in a discriminatory fashion,
by affected populations and societies. Different types of
conflicts materialize in disputes that attempt to modify
asymmetries at the national or international level, be it in
terms of political and commercial relationships, in insti-
tutional, political, and decision-making settings, or geo-
graphically, by defining insalubrious and dangerous
sacrificial areas10 with no basic infrastructure or services,
usually in the poor peripheries, and, above all, isolated
from healthier rich areas.
Returning to the Brazilian context, an important envi-
ronmental conflict relates to unequal land distribution and
pressures caused by export monocultures in vast areas of
the country. The ultimate impacts of this conflict are varied
and can be considered from different vantage points, in-
cluding the perspective of ecosystem degradation, erosion,
and loss of topsoil, intensive use of pesticides—since 2008,
Brazil has been the greatest global consumer11—as well as
clashing with political projects to reform the agricultural
legislation, to protect family-based agriculture and agro-
ecology. There is an exacerbation of preexisting conflicts
involving traditional lands and values, such as those re-
lated to the so-called forest people, indigenous popula-
tions, quilombolas (people who live in settlements called
quilombos) and gatherers, as we can see in the results of the
Map of Environmental Injustice and Health in Brazil,
a project coordinated by FIOCRUZ and FASE, a non-
governmental organization (NGO) that acted as Executive
Secretary of the RBJA between 2002 and 2011.12
9
Porto and Martinez-Alier, ‘‘Ecologia polı́tica, economia eco-
lógica e saúde coletiva’’; Martinez-Alier, The environmentalism of
the poor, 317.
10Acselrad, ‘‘Cidadania e Meio Ambiente’’; Bullard, Dumping
in Dixie, 256.
11
Vicente Eduardo Soares de Almeida, Fernando Ferreira Car-
neiro and Nirlene Junqueira Vilela, ‘‘Pesticides in vegetables: Food
safety, socio-environmental risk and public policy for health
promotion,’’ Tempus. Actas em Saúde Coletiva 3 (Dec. 2009): 84–99.
12
Marcelo Firpo Porto and Tania Pacheco, ‘‘Conflicts and en-
vironmental injustice in health in Brazil,’’ Tempus. Actas em Saúde
Coletiva 3 (Dec. 2009): 26–37; FIOCRUZ and FASE. Map of
Environmental Justice and Health in Brazil. < http://www
.conflitoambiental.icict.fiocruz.br > . (Last updated on Jan. 27, 2011).
102
The expansion of agribusiness and soy plantations has
been particularly important in generating these types of
conflicts, and in degrading traditional landscapes, in-
cluding the Amazon rainforest. One can similarly con-
sider plantations that are not real forests, since they
consist of tree monocultures (eucalyptus, pine, acacia)
used for fuel or paper production, the latter with a high
export quota. The Brazilian Network Against the Green
Desert has acted against the negative impacts of euca-
lyptus monoculture, especially in the states of Espı́rito
Santo and Bahia, articulating the participation of envi-
ronmental movements, indigenous populations, farmers,
and quilombolas. Other examples of appropriation and
degradation of natural resources include, for example, the
expansion of shrimp farms that have destroyed mangrove
areas and caused organized reactions from environmen-
talists and traditional farming and fishing communities.
Other noteworthy conflicts involve water, notably
the construction of great dams for irrigation or power
generation, or even the changing of riverbeds, such as
the ongoing discussion about the São Francisco River in
the Northeast. MAB, a Brazilian movement rallying those
affected by dams, is an example of resistance, and has
been an important player in discussions on agricultural
reform and alternative energy policies.
It is interesting to note that urban problems were not so
important for the beginning of EJ movements in Brazil in
comparison to the former ones.13 The radical urbanization
process in the last decades—current urbanization rates are
almost 90%, compared to approximately 25% in 1940—
added the permanence or even worsening of income con-
centration, and is the source of important environmental,
sanitary, and health problems in Brazil. In spite of that,
many environmental conflicts within urban areas still re-
main not named as environmental injustice problems. An
expressive portion of the urban population lives in slums
and places without appropriate urban infrastructure, fre-
quently in risk areas of flooding, garbage sites, industrial
pollution, and major accidents. However the social move-
ments for sanitation and for human rights related to home
and violence in Brazilian slums, as well as the creation of
associations organized by residents around waste and
hazardous sites or by workers contaminated by chemicals
(e.g., asbestos and POPs—persistent organic pollutants) are
present in different cities. They are classic examples of EJ
movements and their voices tend to grow up.
THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN BRAZIL
As a consequence of prior social, environmental, and
academic groups which were articulating a common
agenda, in September 2001 representatives of social
movements, trade unions, NGOs, environmental entities,
13
Marcelo Firpo Porto and Tania Pacheco, ‘‘Conflicts and en-
vironmental injustice in health in Brazil,’’ Tempus. Actas em Saúde
Coletiva 3 (Dec. 2009): 26–37; FIOCRUZ and FASE. Map of En-
vironmental Justice and Health in Brazil. < http://www.con-
flitoambiental.icict.fiocruz.br > . (Last updated on Jan. 27, 2011).
PORTO
associations of Afro-Brazilian descendants, indigenous
people, academic researchers from Brazil, the United
States, Chile, and Uruguay participated at the Interna-
tional Colloquium on Environmental Justice, Labor and
Citizenship, held in the city of Niteroi.14 A very important
aspect of this meeting was to join people to discuss the
concept and movements for EJ, and at the end a De-
claration of Principles of Environmental Justice in Brazil was
written. Another important decision was to organize the
Brazilian Network of Environmental Justice, launched in
the World Social Forum of Porto Alegre in January 2002.
The Brazilian Declaration was based in the U.S. expe-
rience of 1991 when the EJ ‘‘17 principles’’ were estab-
lished at the People of Color Summit for Environmental
Justice. The document expressed a central idea that en-
vironmental injustice cases in Brazil result mostly from a
historical model of development dominant in Brazil
which concentrates economic and political power and,
simultaneously, produces social and territorial exclusion,
rendering socially and discriminated groups more ex-
posed and vulnerable to different environmental and
hazardous risks. Ethnic discrimination and racism com-
plete the frame of environmental injustice.15
In urban spaces this takes the form of placing the mass
of workers in the neglected peripheries of the cities,
mainly slums without sewage sanitation and basic human
rights. Meanwhile, in the countryside, the lack of possi-
bilities to achieve better life conditions encourages, or
forces, peasants and small farmers to flee to large urban
centers. Traditional populations, including miners and
small rural producers who live in regions near the con-
tinually spreading borders of expanded capitalist activi-
ties, are those who mostly suffer from the pressures of
compulsory displacement. They are displaced by huge
projects such as dams and highways, as well as by set-
tlements for the exploitation of mineral, timber, agrarian,
and cattle resources. As a consequence, many people
leave their homes and workplaces and lose access to the
natural resources provided by land, forests, and rivers.
But many of them, especially traditional populations, re-
sist in their territories.
Thus, the Declaration defines ‘‘environmental injustice’’
as
the mechanisms by which societies, whose members
are unequal from economic and social perspectives,
place the biggest burden of the environmental harms
accompanying development on disempowered
lower income populations, poor urban zones, ra-
cially discriminated, traditional ethnic groups, and
blue-collar groups. In a few words, the burdens are
placed on the most vulnerable and marginalized
populations.16
14
José Augusto Pádua, Henri Acselrad and Selene Herculano
(orgs.): Justica Ambiental e Cidadania. Relumé Dumara. Rio de
Janeiro, 2004.
15
FASE. Rede Brasileira de Justiça Ambiental. < http://
www.justicaambiental.org.br > . (Last updated on Jan. 27, 2011).
16
Ibid.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE MOVEMENTS IN BRAZIL
On the other side, ‘‘environmental justice’’ is under-
stood by the set of principles and practices that:
a. guarantees that no social group, be it ethnic, racial or
class oriented, should bear a disproportionate share
of the negative environmental consequences of eco-
nomic operations, policy decisions and federal, re-
gional and local programs as well as the lack of such
programs or the neglect of their enforcement;
b. guarantees fair and equal access, directly or indi-
rectly, to the environmental resources of the country;
c. assures full access to relevant information about the
use of environmental resources, the destination of
wastes, the sites which are sources of environmental
hazards, as well as assuring participatory and dem-
ocratic procedures in the definition of policies, plans,
programs and projects concerning such issues;
d. enables the empowerment of collective actors, social
movements and popular organizations so that they
become protagonists in the building-up of an alter-
native pattern of development which might assure
the effective democratization of the access to envi-
ronmental resources and their sustainable use.17
THE CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT
OF THE BRAZILIAN NETWORK
OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
Following the idea that environmental justice issues
represent a conceptual approach to bring together into
the same dynamics the popular struggles for human
and social rights, a collective good quality of life, and
environmental sustainability, the Brazilian Network of
Environmental Justice (RBJA—Rede Brasileira de Justiça
Ambiental)18 was founded in 2002.
Its basic aims were, among others: to develop tools to
promote EJ; to denounce cases of environmental injustice
and organize campaigns in order to face them; to en-
courage dialogue among multiple actors in EJ struggles
with an interchange of experiences, ideas, data, and
strategies of actions; to democratize access to information
and organize a databank with reports of concrete cases,
legal disputes, lists of institutional mechanisms available,
and other relevant matters; identify and bring together
experts from different specialties who are willing to
support and advise the environmental social movements;
to sensitize the media, opinion makers and public opinion
in general; to put pressure on politicians and govern-
mental agencies in order to develop and implement
public policies concerned to EJ, as well as to publicize and
give public accessibility to information concerning risk
assessment and environmental hazards; to develop and
strengthen strategies of international articulation on EJ,
including workshops on environmental justice during the
World Social Forums; and last but not least to contribute to
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
103
the settlement of a new agenda of science and technology
within an EJ perspective.
Since 2002, the RBJA has organized its activities mainly
through: (i) virtual lists of discussions to exchange expe-
riences, circulate campaigns and information on meetings
etc.; (ii) general meetings, where the Network itself, prin-
ciples, organization, and praxis is discussed, and a work
agenda for the next years is developed. There were four
general meetings between 2004 and 2010; (iii) work-
groups—three took shape in the last years, one engaging
groups on discussions about chemical pollutants, another
against environmental racism, and the latter to join or-
ganizations and populations about the impacts of mining,
metallurgy and steel industry; and (iv) specific workshops
developed by the Network, its workgroups, or partici-
pating in events organized by specific organizations en-
gaged with EJ issues, e.g., climate justice.
All these activities have the support of its members and
a executive secretary, based in Rio de Janeiro at a NGO
(FASE). The last meeting in 2010 decided to change the
secretary from FASE (there is a moving to Ceará, a
Northeast State) and to create a political council with
eight organizations. There are 96 different organizations
that are members of RBJA at the moment and they rep-
resent the universe of social groups and movements
which are engaged in EJ struggles and movements, such
as environmentalists, grassroots movements of residents,
traditional populations and anti-racism groups, trade
unions, small agricultures, scientists, and groups affected
by different hazards and risks (like asbestos and POPs).
It is possible to find out more information—most of
the texts are in Portuguese—by accessing the Web site
< www.justicaambiental.org.br > . Besides general infor-
mation about its history, principles, campaigns, and
news, the site makes available texts about EJ in a virtual
library and also in a databank of about 3,000 texts on EJ
which circulated in the virtual list between 2002 and 2009,
the so-called ‘‘thematic databank’’ (banco temático). The
databank project was developed by FIOCRUZ (an aca-
demic public health institute) and the NGO FASE, and the
search tool allows the user to localize documents orga-
nized by different categories such as population, gener-
ating activities of environmental injustices, etc. Another
interesting source of information about environmental
conflicts in Brazil is found by accessing the results of the
Map of Environmental Injustice and Health in Brazil,19
where we can find out about 400 cases that have been
discussed by EJ organizations and networks since 2006.
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS:
CURRENT TRENDS IN RBJA
In November 2010, during the last RBJA meeting held in
Rio de Janeiro, some important trends were discussed, as
well as issues and projects that are currently mobilizing its
19
FIOCRUZ and FASE. Map of Environmental Justice and
Health in Brazil. < http://www.conflitoambiental.icict.fiocruz.br > .
(Last updated on Jan. 27, 2011).
104
members and organizations. Twelve ongoing processes
were pointed out, including the use of the Map of Environ-
mental Injustices and Health in Brazil20 to disseminate the
concept of EJ and current conflicts; the Rapporteur for the
Human Right to Environment, coordinated by the Brazilian
Platform of Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental
Human Rights (Plataforma Dhesca Brazil21), as a result of
some local missions conducted annually in response to the
denouncement of environmental injustices; mobilizations
related to the RBJA workgroup ‘‘Articulation Mining,
Metallurgy and Steel Industry,’’ engaged with environ-
mental conflicts in these economic sectors; the creation of the
Evaluation of Environmental Equity, a tool developed by an
academic group (IPPUR/UFRJ) for the strengthening of
social and local EJ movements during the processes of en-
vironmental licensing and territorial planning;22 mobiliza-
tions of the workgroup ‘‘Combat to the Environmental
Racism’’;23 the perspective to organize awareness campaigns
and create a workgroup inside the RBJA to study the impacts
of uranium mining and nuclear activities in Brazil; the or-
ganization of a new workgroup dedicated to climatic justice
issues; the participation of RBJA and the introduction of EJ
topics in the so called ‘‘Rio + 20’’ Meeting which will take
place in Rio de Janeiro in 2012; the meeting ‘‘Convergence
and Dialogues among Networks,’’ led by the National Ar-
ticulation of Agroecology (ANA)24 and linked with several
movements and networks which are working on different
issues like EJ, solidarity economy, food safety and sover-
eignty, and public health.25
There are two other processes that can be taken as good
examples of how EJ Brazilian movements, often in articu-
lation with international networks and organizations, are
trying to connect social and ethical dimensions of sus-
tainability and justice in order to influence public policies
and the development model. The first of these examples is
the struggle against pesticides that have increased since
2008, when Brazil became the biggest pesticide consumer
in the world, combined with campaigns. The campaign
Against pesticides: In defense of life26 is organized by several
organizations engaged in agroecology and agrarian re-
form. The documents that are circulating due to this
campaign were mostly created by activists and scientists
who are members of the RBJA. The arguments are based on
political ecology concepts and point out that agrochemi-
cals are consumed by an industrial agriculture oriented to
20
Ibid.
21
DHESCA BRASIL. < http://www.dhescbrasil.org.br > . (Last
updated on Jan. 27, 2011).
22
FASE. < http://www.justicaambiental.org.br/justicaambiental/
pagina.php?id = 1366 > .
23 GT Combate ao Racismo Ambiental. < http://racismoambiental
.net.br/ > . (Last updated on Feb. 2, 2011).
24
ANA (Associação Nacional de Agroecologia in Portuguese)
is a national network that brings together organizations dedi-
cated to agro-ecology and land reform.
25
ANA. < http://www.agroecologia.org.br/encontro-nacional/
encontro-de-dialogo-e-convergencia > . (Last updated on Feb. 2,
2011).
26
MPA. < http://mpacontraagrotoxicos.wordpress.com/ > .
(Last updated Feb. 2, 2011).
PORTO
the production of rural commodities for export and not to
the production of local-regional safety food. This agro-
system is based on great-scale plantations and monocul-
tures which are chemical-dependent, needing industrial
fertilizers and pesticides. Often the analysis recognizes
local cases of pollution and contamination with pesticides
as environmental injustice situations connected to an in-
ternational unfair trade, the need of land reform, and the
development of agroecological solutions.
The second example is the mobilizing debate and the ac-
tions conducted within the RBJA regarding the Brazilian
energy policy and the construction of major dams and hy-
droelectric plants in the Amazon. For instance, the para-
digmatic case of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam27 is
uniting environmental, indigenous, and scientific organiza-
tions against this project in the Amazon. The denouncers
show the gap between the official discourse based on the
need of more energy for industrial and urban growth and
the threat to the welfare of indigenous and riverine com-
munities living in the Xingu River basin, where the damages
of hydroelectric dams are being hidden and minimized.
Again, possible environmental injustices are linked to in-
ternational unfair trade, since the energy produced by this
dam will be used largely for the production of rural and
metal commodities which will destroy biological and cul-
tural diversity. These two examples show that EJ can mo-
bilize stakeholders and engage them in social struggles that
are critical for sustainability, social equality, and community
health. These are the greatest challenges that the Brazilian
society and its development model are facing at this time.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Guest editors gratefully acknowledge language
revision support provided by Julia Martinez Herrera.
Address correspondence to:
Marcelo Firpo Porto
Rua das Laranjeiras 531 ap. 61
Laranjeiras
22240-005
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
E-mail: marcelo.firpo@ensp.fiocruz.br
27
FIOCRUZ and FASE. < http://www.conflitoambiental.icict
.fiocruz.br/index.php?pag = ficha&cod = 75 > . (Last updated Feb.
2, 2011).