“A Floresta em pé como nova Commodity global!”: o discurso da bioeconomia enquanto alternativa ao desenvolvimento da Amazônia

Abstract

The research proposal aims to analyze the discourse of Bioeconomy in the State of Pará, repre- sented by specific policies that have introduced a new pathway for regional development in and

of the Amazon. Since 2016, environmental policies in Brazil have suffered setbacks, jeopard- izing the integrity of the Amazon rainforest. This has resulted not only in the loss of Brazil’s

credibility in fulfilling its environmental commitments to the international community but also in the suspension of resources from the Amazon Fund. Consequently, subnational entities have

taken the lead through paradiplomatic actions to signal their commitment to preserving the Am- azon to the international community. Pará, leveraging this context, has positioned itself as a

reference in sustainability, promoting its leadership in implementing environmental and climate

policies in the Amazon through Bioeconomy as a solution to ensure sustainable economic de- velopment. This dissertation argues that the Bioeconomy discourse promoted by the State of

Pará projects a development model based on Bioeconomy as the new economic vocation of the Amazon, focusing on transforming the forest itself into a commodity. From this perspective,

the research seeks to address the following question: To what extent does the Bioeconomy dis- course practiced by the State of Pará constitute a proposed pathway for the regional develop- ment of the Legal Amazon? This theoretical and exploratory study employs discourse analysis

as its methodology and content analysis as its research technique, supported by NVIVO soft- ware. The research adopts a qualitative approach, combined with bibliographic and documen- tary research procedures. The documents analyzed include the State Bioeconomy Plan, the Am- azon Now State Plan, the State Climate Change Policy, and news articles from the Pará State

News Agency, covering the period from 2020 to 2024. The theoretical framework is grounded in the concept of neoliberal rationality proposed by Dardot and Laval. Based on empirical data and literature, in response to the guiding question, the findings conclude that the Bioeconomy discourse practiced by the State of Pará, as materialized in its environmental policies, cannot be considered a new development model for the Amazon. Instead, it reproduces the same logic as previous models, conditioning the success of the model to the existence of a product (the standing forest) desired by a market governed by neoliberal values and a carbon-centric logic. This approach disregards the natural and social capital of the Legal Amazon.