Smith publishes Building a Sustainable Future in Brazil

Brazil, like the Amazon Rainforest, stands at an inflection point. It is increasingly clear that Brazil’s future lies not in the deforestation of its past, but in summoning the political and societal will to build a twenty-first century economy that prioritizes human capital and sustainable, low-carbon growth. History shows that effective legal, regulatory, and enforcement frameworks can substantially reduce deforestation, which fell as low as 4,700 square kilometers in 2012. Sustaining that level of effort has proven politically and economically challenging. In the current political environment, it will be even more so. But the alternative—the destruction of the Amazon—should concern us all.

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