Environmentalists are bracing for the worst following the Oct. 28 election of Jair Bolsonaro, at times a withering off-the-cuff critic of environmental regulation and land conservation, as president of Brazil. Yet regressive environmental statements the right-wing Bolsonaro made in advance of his comfortable 55%-45% win came amid a general lack of detailed green-policy proposals, leaving many analysts in doubt as to what’s in store. “Bolsonaro has no understanding of what constitutes environmental policy,” says Mario Mantovani, public policy director for the SOS Atlantic Forest Foundation, a Brazilian nonprofit. “But it’s unclear if he’ll stick to regressive statements he has made about the environment, which would be disastrous, or instead heed warnings from scientists, environmentalists and agribusiness groups that sound environmental... [Log in to read more]