ANALYSIS OF PROAMBIENTE AS A FEDERAL PUBLIC POLICY TO THE BRAZILIAN AMAZON REGION

Abstract

This article aims at analyzing the performance of the Brazilian federal government (2003–2006) in implementing the program “Proambiente”. Proambiente is a public policy proposal made by rural social movements from the Brazilian Amazon region that joins: social control, territorial planning, integrated economic and ecological planning of the production units, technical assistance and rural extension, mixed certification of environmental services, and payment of environmental services. This performance analysis was carried out through the review of Proambiente management documents and interviews with federal public managers and rural leaders. Firstly, this article addresses the main aspects of the  agricultural frontier expansion in the Brazilian Amazon region. Secondly, it demonstrates the reaction of the rural social movements in their search of a leading role in the processes of regional development, with the proposal of Proambiente. Finally, this article critically analyses the poor performance of Proambiente caused by the institutional weakness of the Brazilian  Ministry of Environment, and the low priority given by the federal   government. This article concludes that part of the proposals of  Proambiente were implemented in several government departments, but they were consolidated in a non-integrated way, which demands that they are not a finalistic program, but a support program, in order to perform an integrated implementation of actions.
Index terms: agricultural frontier, environmental services, family farming, social movements.