Preserving Amazonian region is essential to Brazilian territorial entirety. It's more relevant if we consider the present context of aggression against the environment and global lack of natural resources. The way Brazilian government deals with the environmental question - its environmental policy, the structure established towards its effective implementation and the pattern of environmental preservation - has been criticized in the developed countries by their governmental authorities and the civil society. Their concern is the lack of an appropriate structure to protect the Amazonian region as a kind of natural resource by itself. This criticism is worrying because its content involves the sovereignty and territorial entirety of Brazil. This article is based on bibliographical research and it aims to discuss the Amazonian region (consequently the environmental policy) and its connection to the national defense policy. Since the problems of this area involves aspects which are concerned to the environmental policy and to the defense policy, this article aims to analyze the need to adopt a pattern for the preservation of the Amazonian ecosystem supported by the Armed Forces. In the 1990s, the national defense policy was reformed and since then the Brazilian government have tried to fit it to a cost-cutting program without compromising its performance. Such policy is also based on a defense strategy which has been maintained even in the peace time (particularly concerning to the guarantee of national sovereignty) and it's related to the security of the Brazilian territory and its natural resources. This article analyzes the relation between environmental policy and national defense policy. From this point of view this article aims to focus environmental protection in Brazil as a way to guard the national sovereignty.
Amazonia; national defense; environment; public policies