Can Silva parlay prestige into bigger budgets?

Brazil

After Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won election last October as president of Brazil, it didn’t much matter that 160 Brazilian green groups urged him to pick Marina Silva as his environment minister. Silva, a federal senator who was raised in the Amazon as a rubber tapper, is a longtime ally of the new president and the best-known green activist in his socialist Workers’ Party. To the surprise of no one, Lula, as the president is known here, did indeed choose the 44-year-old Silva for Brazil’s top environmental post. What will Silva mean for Brazilian environmental policy? Possibly a great deal, judging by her strongly held green views and the high political profile she brings to a ministry traditionally lacking in clout... [Log in to read more]

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