Suchergebnisse

This paper evaluates the use of climate-based information in drought mitigation in Ceara, Northeast Brazil. It examines two policies -- a seed-distribution program (Hora de Plantar) & the Emergency Drought-Relief Program -- that use climate information produced by FUNCEME (Ceara's Foundation for Meteorological & Hydrological Resources) to implement drought planning. It argues that, in politically charged policy-making environments, the use of climate forecast information may go beyond its problem-solving function to influence broader issues of accountability & democratization. In Ceara's politically charged environment, technocrats rely on scientific information about climate to insulate policy making from both political 'meddling' & public accountability. However, insulation afforded by the use of climate information has played different roles in the policy areas examined in this study. While in drought emergency-relief planning the use of climate information critically contributed to the democratization of policy implementation, in agricultural planning, it worked toward further insulating decision making from public accountability & client participation. Thus, the use of climate information is context-dependent, ie, the distribution of costs & benefits associated with information use in policy making depends on the social, political, & cultural context in which information producers & users work. Moreover, climate information can be used in ways -- positive or negative -- significantly different from the use that information producers intended. 2 Tables, 1 Figure, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.

This article examines the Cubatão Pollution Control Project (CPCP) carried out by Cetesb, the São Paulo state environmental protection agency, to control air, water, and soil pollution in the city of Cubatão, Brazil. It focuses on Cetesb's strategy to involve the Cubatão community in the CPCP as a means to increase the agency's leverage vis-à-vis groups against pollution control implementation, especially the polluting industries. To achieve its goals, Cetesb designed a unique and unprecedented program of environmental education and community participation. The program included extensive surveying of neighborhood demands, orga nization of public meetings for project evaluation, and establishment of new channels of public accountability. As a result, community support played a critical role in Cetesb's ability to carry out pollution control in Cubatão.

This article examines the implementation of integrated water-management institutions in the Paraíba do Sul River basin in southeast Brazil. It argues that social learning has been critical in facilitating reform implementation so far, and will likely continue to be an important factor for the future sustainability of the new management system. There has been a synergistic relationship between social learning and Brazil's water-reform hybrid governance institutions, in which social learning facilitated the implementation of the reform's new institutions, which in turn enabled further learning in the context of the river basin committee's decision-making process. Through interviews, surveys, and observations, we identified social-learning capacities, including trust, an ability to work together, and the committee's shared understanding of the institution's problems, possibilities, and mission. Effective management through social learning was demonstrated by the institution's adaptive capacity in the face of a severe drought.

This paper compares environmental policymaking in two Brazilian cities, Rio de Janeiro and Cubatão. It examines the formation of state‐society synergistic interactions in the public policymaking process and their effect on long term sustainability of social mobilization. It concludes that whereas social capital can be constructed in the context of policymaking, it is critically dependent on a concerted effort from both state and society actors to build trust in their daily interactions. The Cubatão and Carioca River cases show that state‐society synergy had little effect on the ability of the policy coalitions formed for pollution clean up to sustain themselves over time. Instead, there are indications that rather than a constraint, the flexible and informal nature of such coalitions may have been a critical factor in their ability to carry out policy successfully.