My research in Brazil is about environmental governance and development planning, and the conflicts and compromises that emerge as conservation and economic growth are prioritized by the state.

In my book,  Governing the Rainforest: Sustainable Development Politics in the Brazilian Amazon, I portray the stories of  how projects and policies conducted in the name of sustainable development yield uneven socio-ecological outcomes. 

Related publications and interviews:

Bratman, E. “The Burning Quest to Revive a Nationalist Vision in Brazil’s Amazon.” NACLA, December 5, 2019.

Bratman, E. (2019).“Sustainable Development Reconsidered: The Left’s Legacies in the Amazon.” In: Manuel Balán and Françoise Montambeault, eds. What’s Left? The Promise and Reality of Inclusive Citizenship in Latin America. (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press), 280-317.

Bratman, E. and Dias, C. B. (2018). “Development Blind Spots in Environmental Impact Assessment: Tensions between Policy, Law and Practice in Brazil’s Xingu River Basin.” Environmental Impact Assessment Review 70: 1-10.

Bratman, E. “Energy and Environment – Not the Olympics – Are Brazil’s Real Test.” Pacific Standard. July 25, 2016.

Teaching Notes (and “Expert”) for Council on Foreign Relations Infoguide on Deforestation in the Amazon (see “Resources” link in bottom left corner for the Teaching notes). And, check out the video of the Council on Foreign Relations Back-to-School event on Deforestation in the Amazon, panel discussion with Eve Bratman and Matthew Taylor, moderated by Robert McMahon, October 14, 2016.

Bratman, E. December 16, 2015. Brazil’s Belo Monte Dam and the Green Economy. Panoramas.

Bratman, E. “Passive Revolution in the Green Economy: Activism and the Belo Monte Dam” International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law, and Economics 15:1 (March 2015), 61-77.

Bratman, E. “Brazil, the Green Economy and Challenging Environmental Norms in Global Governance.” in Matthew Taylor and Oliver Steunkel, eds., Brazil and the Liberal Order, (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015).

Bratman, E. “Human Rights and Environmental Advocacy in the Eastern Brazilian Amazon.” in Ed Lorenz, Dana Aspinall and Mike Raley, eds., Montesinos’ Legacy: The Universality of Human Rights (Lexington Books, 2014).

Bratman, E. “Contradictions of Green Development: Human Rights and Environmental Norms in Light of Belo Monte Dam Activism.” Journal of Latin American Studies 46: 2 (May 2014), 261-289.

Bratman, E. “Villains, Victims, and Conservationists? Representational Frameworks and Sustainable Development on the Transamazon Highway.” Human Ecology, 39: 4 (August 2011), 441-453.