Focus Article The politics of Amazonian deforestation: environmental policy and climate change knowledge Marko S. A. Monteiro, 1∗ Sonia Regina da Cal Seixas 2 and Simone Aparecida Vieira 2 This article reviews literature on the science and politics of deforestation in the Amazon from 1970 until today, focusing on their shifting meanings and the increasing relevance of climate change knowledge to their understanding and management. Since large-scale colonization of the region began in the 1970s, the debate on deforestation has been crucial in disputes involving science, development, and the environment. In the last decade, the issue of climate change has become more present in the science, politics, and policies related to deforestation in the Amazon. This debate has helped shift discussions on both the environmental and the development agenda for the region. Although there is a broad agreement that the Amazon is being increasingly integrated into global fluxes of knowledge, goods, and people, not all view this process under the same light. The review concludes that scientific views help condition the development of changing policy arrangements aimed at curbing deforestation, and the incorporation of climate change knowledge is an important aspect of the dynamics of environmental policies in the region. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. How to cite this article: WIREs Clim Change 2014, 5:689–701. doi: 10.1002/wcc.298 THE SCIENCE AND POLITICS OF MANAGING THE AMAZON REGION T he Amazon is the world’s last forest of con- tinental dimensions, which helps explain the enormous interest it generates in groups that want to either develop and extract its riches or preserve its unmatched biodiversity and natural conditions. 1,2 Such groups have clashed through decades over how to best manage the region’s resources. 3–5 These con- ficts have become more intense since the 1970s, when the era of ‘modern deforestation’ began. 6–8 Such ∗ Correspondence to: markosy@ige.unicamp.br 1 Science and Technology Policy Department, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil 2 Center for Environmental Studies and Research (NEPAM) and PhD Program on Environment and Society, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, SP, Brazil Confict of interest: The authors have declared no conficts of interest for this article. conficts have often been mediated by scientifc debates, but the questions being asked and the rela- tionship such science has had with policy seem to be shifting. In recent years, the issue of climate change has increasingly occupied a more central role in sci- entifc discourses on deforestation, and become more integrated into policy efforts aimed at controlling deforestation and managing the forest’s resources. Climate change is not, however, the only issue under dispute concerning deforestation in the region: analyzing the longstanding debates on what consti- tutes desirable development, a,1,6,9–16 as well as of the complex issue of biodiversity (which will not be explored in this review), is crucial in understand- ing the politics and policies directed at deforestation in the Amazon. Positions more favorable to current policies (including some in favor of controversial, large scale infrastructural projects) argue that, with all its problems, these initiatives have integrated the Amazon into local and global economic, social and Volume 5, September/October 2014 © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 689