Podcast

Explaining Brazil #36: Brazil’s challenges for the environment

To discuss Brazil’s challenges for the environment, we spoke with Gustavo Faleiros, coordinator of the organization Info Amazônia.

Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device:

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | SoundCloud | YouTube | Google Podcasts

Brazil’s challenges for the environment

Just last week, WWF – the World Wide Fund for Nature – published a report warning about increasing deforestation in Brazilian biomes. According to the organization, the Amazon rainforest has already lost 20 percent of its original expanse. The devastation of the Cerrado, a savannah-like biome which covers almost a quarter of Brazil, reaches around 50 percent.

Allies of president-elect Jair Bolsonaro believe that there’s room for more legal deforestation. Bolsonaro himself has promised to pull Brazil from the Paris Accord on Climate Change – a statement he recently recanted. Even so, international organizations have shown deep concerns about Brazil’s environmental policies moving forward.

To discuss the environmental challenges facing Brazil’s soon-to-be president, today we are speaking with Gustavo Faleiros, coordinator of the organization Info Amazônia, a network of organizations and journalists which deliver updates from the nine countries of the Amazon rainforest.

On this podcast

Gustavo Ribeiro has extensive experience covering Brazilian politics. His work has been featured across Brazilian and French media outlets, including Veja, Época, Folha de São Paulo, Médiapart and Radio France Internationale. He is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Abril Prize for outstanding political journalism. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science and Latin American studies from Panthéon-Sorbonne University in Paris.

Gustavo Faleiros is an environmental journalist who specializes in data-driven journalism. In 2012, he launched InfoAmazonia, a website that uses satellite and other publicly available data to monitor the Amazon rainforest. In 2014, InfoAmazonia received support from Google to install sensors to monitor water quality in the Brazilian Amazon. Faleiros studied journalist at the Catholic University of São Paulo and earned a master’s degree in Environmental Politics from King’s College London.

This podcast was produced by Maria Martha Bruno. She is a journalist with 14 years of experience in politics, arts, and breaking news. She has collaborated with Al Jazeera, NBC, and CNN, among others, and worked as an international correspondent in Buenos Aires.

Do you have a suggestion for our next Explaining Brazil podcast? Drop us a line at podcast@brazilian.report

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook.