ABSTRACT
The dilemma of modern agriculture and environmental conservation was addressed only tangentially by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), or the Rio Conference. This chapter argues that the national level sustainability' debate has had few tangible implications, with one exception, amongst western Bahia's modern farms. A regional-scale private farmers' association has taken the lead from ineffectual state agencies in crafting policy initiatives for the environment. The chapter reviews of the sustainability policy debate in Brazil, with special attention to agriculture and the Cerrado ecoregion. It outlines the broad characteristics of Brazil's soya development, focusing on the Cerrado and discussing the case study region of western Bahia state in north-eastern Brazil. The discussion focuses on implications of our remote-sensing classification, the apparent divergence between national level sustainability discourses and regional policymaking, and whether the private policies amount to greening or greenwashing. Formal sustainable development policy in Brazil is institutionalized in three political-geographical scales.
