Prologue

Brazil's participation in the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, sometimes called the Earth Summit or Rio '92) began in 1988. Then-President Sarney responded to the outcry in the international press on the “burning of the Amazonia forest” by offering to host the Earth Summit. Until then, global environmental concerns had been absent from discussions in Brazil. Typically, the reports appearing in the international press of events occurring in the Amazonia were most often regarded in Brazil as attempts to interfere with national sovereignty.

Moreover, the environmental movement was not very strong in Brazil at this time. Urgent, more immediate problems—such as the very serious water and air pollution problems in the cities—were consuming the attention of the fledgling environmental movement. Their focus was on such cities as Cubatao, near the Port of Santos, which became popularly known as the “valley of death.”

It was the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer that first raised awareness of global environmental problems in Brazil. Political leaders and private citizens began to recognize that serious global problems existed and that events taking place inside national borders could influence the climate in other countries.