Purpose
and Goals of Trip
In
my field work this summer, I visited seven states
and conducted over 70 interviews with representatives
of the Ministerio Publico, environmental agencies,
and non-profit environmental organizations as well
as with other researchers. My research this summer
had three primary objectives. The first was to construct
a national profile of the role of the Ministério
Público (MP) in relation to other governmental
and non-governmental institutions involved in environmental
enforcement. With a greater understanding of the
activities of the MP in various regions of Brazil,
I am now better able to specify my research questions
and determine suitable case study sites for my dissertation
research. Second, I sought to explore the availability
and accessibility of legal documents and environmental
quality data. While I knew that many legal documents
were in the public record, I needed to learn my way
around the Brazilian system in order to access them.
Environmental quality data is important to my research
as I hope eventually to compare case study sites
in terms of the environmental outcomes achieved under
varying institutional arrangements. Third, I wanted
to formalize institutional affiliations, interact
with local scholars and students, and familiarize
myself with relevant local scholarly work.
Description
of Activities while Abroad
To
construct a national profile, I required information
about the activities of the MP, governmental environmental
agencies, and environmental groups throughout the
country. I began collecting information for this
national profile in Sao Paulo, and then visited the
capitols of the states of Rio de Janeiro (the capitol
is Rio de Janeiro), Parana (Curitiba), Pernambuco
(Recife), Mato Grosso (Cuiaba), Para (Belen), and
Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre). As such, my national
profile incorporates data from two states in the
Southeastern region of Brazil, two in the South,
one in the Northeast, one in the North, and one in
the Central West.
During
the first several weeks of my summer, I was a visiting
researcher at the Institute of Economic, Social,
and Political Studies (IDESP) in Sao Paulo. Researchers
at IDESP have conducted studies of the Brazilian
courts and Ministerio Publico for several years under
grants from the Ford Foundation. There I was able
to share my research plans with and learn from other
students and professors who have studied the Ministerio
Publico. In Sao Paulo, I also began my interviews
of public advocates, agency personnel, and environmental
group leaders by conducting ten interviews.
I
then spent a week in Rio de Janeiro where I have
an institutional affiliation with the Institute of
Law and Society (IDES). In addition to strengthening
this institutional affiliation, I collected the information
I needed about the institutions involved with enforcing
environmental law by conducting nine interviews.
In Curitiba, I conducted eleven interviews. In Recife,
I conducted twelve interviews. In Cuiaba, I conducted
eleven interviews. In Belen, I conducted 12 interviews,
and in Porto Alegre, I conducted five.
When
conducting interviews of public advocates at the
MP, I collected information regarding variations
in the MP's organizational characteristics; the extent
to which the MP is active in environmental cases
and the types of cases; the degree to which formal
legal actions such as investigations and lawsuits
are utilized; the extent of cooperation with organized
civil society groups, particularly environmental
NGOs; the types of defendants pursued whether private
or public; and legal and environmental outcomes.
When
conducting interviews of environmental agency personnel,
I asked about the agency's structure and history,
enforcement powers, types of enforcement activities
carried out, relationship with the MP and environmental
groups, opinions about the agency's strengths and
weaknesses, opinions about the environmental activities
of the MP, the agency's human and budgetary resources,
and availability of environmental quality data.
In
interviews of environmental group leaders, I collected
information about the types of activities carried
out by their group and other local environmental
groups and their opinions regarding the work of the
MP and the environmental agencies.
In
addition to interview data, I consulted and acquired
copied of relevant documents and publications in
each study location.
Relationship
of my Field Research to my Degree Goals
The
field work conducted this past summer was preliminary
dissertation research. The opportunity to conduct
this research has significantly strengthened my dissertation
prospectus, allowing me to verify sources of data,
hone my research questions and hypotheses, identify
suitable case studies, strengthen institutional affiliations,
and make additional contacts throughout the country.
Lesley
Barnhorn is a graduate student in the Department
of Sociology
