Professional Affiliation

Associate Professor of Environmental Management and Social Studies of Science, Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), Brazil

Expert Bio

Raoni Rajão is an associate professor in environmental management and social studies of science & technology in the Department of Production Engineering at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Brazil. His research interests include spatially explicit modelling, ecological economics, political ecology and science-policy interface with a particular focus on climate and forest policies in Brazil. He has collaborated with different agencies of the United Nations, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ), amongst others, and has advised senior officials from state and federal governments in the creation of environmental policy with a focus on REDD+ and agricultural traceability. His research has featured in journals such as Global Environmental Politics, Social Studies of Science, Science (AAAS) and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). He is an affiliated member of the Brazilian Academy of Science.

Expertise

• Environment
• Food and Agriculture
• Science and Technology

Wilson Center Project

The Military and the Environmental Science Policy Interface in the Brazilian Amazon: From the Military Regime to Bolsonaro

Project Summary

The history of Brazilian Armed Forces (BAF) is deeply rooted on positivism. As a consequence, the military regime (1964-1985) played a crucial role in creating Brazil’s legal and scientific infrastructure at the basis of the country’s current climate and forest conservation policies, such a satellite monitoring programme and a stringent forest conservation legislation. The current administration by president Bolsonaro has close ties with the BAF, considering the substantial number of retired generals in key positions, including the vice-presidency. And yet, it often rejects the scientific and legal accomplishments of the military regime and tends to see the same legal and scientific infrastructure as contributing to foreign interests that poses a threat to the Brazilian sovereignty over the Amazon. This research attempts to understand how this rejection towards Brazil’s own environmental legal and scientific infrastructure come into being, by analysing the role of BAF in the science-policy interface in Brazil since the 1960s.

Major Publications

• Hecht, S., & Rajão, R. (2020). From “Green Hell” to “Amazonia Legal”: Land use models and the re-imagination of the rainforest as a new development frontier. Land Use Policy, 96, 103871.
• Rajão, R., Soares-Filho, B., Nunes, F., Börner, J., Machado, L., Assis, D., ... & Figueira, D. (2020). The rotten apples of Brazil's agribusiness. Science, 369(6501), 246-248.
• Rajão, R., & Georgiadou, Y. (2014). Blame games in the Amazon: Environmental crises and the emergence of a transparency regime in Brazil. Global Environmental Politics, 14(4), 97-115.