India and Brazil - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 179

back to 1827 and embedded in the Constitution of 1891. Nothing was
done for a long time and the capital remained in Rio de Janeiro. Planning
for construction began in 1956, and the government officially moved in
1960. The city has wide boulevards and long, sweeping vistas. After a half
century the city has faithfully preserved the architectural integrity of its
original plan. It focuses on the Congress building with its two domes, one
inverted, and its twin office towers. One is for the Senate and the other is
for the House of Delegates. The capitol forms one side of the Plaza of the
Three Powers (congress, president, and courts). To the west the ministry
buildings stretch out in their dignified cubic pattern. Only two buildings
vary in design: the hyperboloid white cathedral with its crown, and the
exhibition hall with its big dome and two ramps. The city has no museums
because the whole city is a museum, with the public invited to wander into
all government offices, even the presidential palace. Wide boulevards and
freeways move auto traffic smoothly.
The key agency is the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable
Natural Resources, called IBAMA for its acronym in Portuguese. The
Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity, called
ICMBIO, manages the conservation units. IBAMA's greatest challenge has
been to control deforestation of the Amazon Basin. In 2011 it announced
its Zero Deforestation campaign, deploying 600 of its officers to prior-
ity zones. To concentrate on the worst offenders, it announced it would
ease cattle seizures from ranchers who cooperated, and would sign agree-
ments with local municipalities to enforce the regulations. Not everyone
applauded this, however. The Greenpeace Amazon Campaign warned
that the local governments are more easily pressured by local elites, wood
barons, or agribusiness. Many times these have used violence and intimi-
dation to silence critics. Worse still, an amendment to the national Forest
Code took away IBAMA's authority to act directly.
Many nonprofit groups exist. These include SOS Atlantic Forest, the
Social Environmental Institute, the Pro-Nature Foundation, and the
Amazon Working Group. WWF and the Nature Conservancy have
branches. Selection of Rio de Janeiro for the 1992 Earth Summit put Brazil
in the center of world attention. Two years earlier in anticipation of the
conference, 50 nongovernmental organizations established the Brazilian
Forum of NGOs. They began a series of eight regional meetings, and by the
time of the summit, over a thousand groups existed. During the summit
the NGOs participated actively and forged alliances with groups inter-
nationally. Afterward, however, their activity declined. Political attention