Bolsonaro's Anti-Indigenous and Anti-Environmental Policies in Brazil

In the thirty years following the enactment of the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, Indigenous and environmental rights advanced through policies and actions that led to important results, as shown by the decrease in annual deforestation rates. It is worth pointing out that providing socio-environmental protections and development has always been an arduous and, at times, paradoxical task for the Brazilian state, as there are copious economic interests fighting against and overriding the rights in question. However, previous governments never gave up and were successfully able to reduce deforestation and comply with international treaties and programs, in which Brazil played a prominent role. Since 2019, when Bolsonaro’s government—characterized by a reactionary position in relation to those issues, including a pronouncement against environmental conservation and the demarcation of Indigenous lands and in favor of economic sectors interested in exploring the Amazon—came to power, problems related to these matters have intensified. To achieve its objectives, the government elaborated a series of anti-policies connected by omissions, negligence, and the dismantling of environmental and Indigenous institutions. That scenario of devastation favored groups and individuals that felt they had the right to invade Indigenous lands and deforest the Amazon rainforest. Government actions converged to make those protected lands available for land grabs, agribusiness, and mining, similar to what happened during the period of military rule (1964-1985). Bolsonaro was trained by the Bolsonaro’s Anti-Indigenous and AntiEnvironmental Policies in Brazil