Ecological-economic zoning in the Legal Amazon in light of the literature on the implementation of public policies and institutional arrangements

Abstract

This article aims to analyze aspects related to the trajectory and milestones that guide the elaboration of the Ecological-Economic Zoning (ZEE) in the Legal Amazon. The hypothesis that we intend to demonstrate is that two characteristics of the institutional arrangement that involves the elaboration of ZEEs influence their results. First, it is an instrument with limited enforcement power. The effective application of the guidelines produced depends on the effective commitment and interest of public and private actors. As a result, political disputes end up determining whether or not a dynamic of data and guidelines production is maintained and whether they are turned into laws and other public management mechanisms. Second, the ZEE is also characterized by coordination problems that condition its applicability – there are problems of vertical coordination, as processes conducted on a state scale have a good deal of autonomy in relation to what is defined and conducted at the federal scale; and there are problems of horizontal coordination, since a good part of the guidelines produced in the ZEEs involve the competencies of other areas of government in addition to the environmental one, and it does not foresee mechanisms for harmonizing these conflicts. Even with these reservations and in addition to the heterogeneity mentioned here regarding the results achieved, over the years an impressive mass of data and maps has been produced and a significant technical and institutional capacity has been formed for the treatment of this type of information. This constitutes an expressive institutional heritage, dispersed in a set of organizations, but which can be reactivated in order to qualify the public debate and decision-making processes, provided there is a favorable environment for its use.