Politics of the Amazon

The beginning of Lula’s third term in Brazil – his first six months in office in January-June 2023 - provides an interesting glimpse of the complexities of building and trying to maintain a pink-green ruling coalition. The returning president had a strong start. He promised to reverse his predecessor’s lack of concern for Amazon deforestation. Lula announced a 37-strong ministerial team (up from 23 under his predecessor). Signalling a change in approach as part of this restructuring, he created a new ministry for indigenous people, appointing Sonia Guajajara, an indigenous rights campaigner, as its new head. He also appointed the well-known climate change campaigner Marina Silva as the new environment minister. Lula and Silva have history. As a prominent green in a pink government, she had held the post before in an earlier Lula presidency but resigned after clashing with the president over the Belo Monte hydroelectric project, which he supported on developmentalist grounds, but she opposed, on environmental grounds. Her re-appointment was therefore interpreted as a sign that the new government would take environmental issues more seriously than it had done in the past.