Paulo Nogueira Neto

Paulo Nogueira Neto
Paulo Nogueira Neto at the ECO World Conference 2008
Secretary of the Environment
In office 1974–1986
Succeeded by	Roberto Messias Franco
Personal details
Born	(1922-04-18) 18 April 1922 (age 94) São Paulo, Brazil
Nationality	Brazilian
Occupation	Environmentalist
Known for	National Environmental Policy Law 6.938/81

Paulo Nogueira Neto (born 18 April 1922) is a well-known Brazilian environmentalist. He headed the first federal environmental agency in Brazil, the forerunner of today's Ministry of the Environment, and was a member of the United Nations Brundtland Commission on the Environment and Development. He has had a major influence on Brazil's environmental legislation.

Paulo Nogueira Neto was born in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, on 18 April 1922. He comes from a prominent family that included the Italian naturalist Domenico Vandelli (1735–1816), the independence leader José Bonifácio de Andrada (1763–1838), and the fourth president of Brazil, Manuel Ferraz de Campos Sales (1841–1913). His parents were Paulo Nogueira Filho and Regina Coutinho Nogueira. His younger brother was José Bonifácio Coutinho Nogueira, who became Secretary of Agriculture under São Paulo Governor Carvalho Pinto (1910–87).

Nogueira Neto attended the São Bento Gymnasium in São Paulo for his secondary education. His family owned a farm in Campinas. They were friends of several proprietors in the area, including Manoel Ribeiro do Valle, who raised stingless bees and would become Nogueira Neto's father-in-law. Nogueira Neto enlisted as a volunteer in the cavalry during World War II (1939–45), but was not required to serve overseas. In 1944 he married Lucia Ribeiro do Valle. They would have three children, Paulo Júnior, Luiz Antônio and Eduardo Manoel. In 1945 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo (USP) with a degree in Legal and Social Sciences.

In 1954 Paulo Nogueira Neto founded the Association for the Defense of the Environment (ADEMA-SP: Associação de Defesa do Meio Ambiente), one of the first environmental organizations in Brazil. He returned to the USP to study Natural History, and in 1963 defended his doctoral thesis on the architecture of bees' nests. He became a teacher in USP's Department of Zoology. In the late 1960s he led a group of about 30 professionals at the Paulista Association of Biologists (APAB) who agitated for the creation of the Federal Biology Council (CFBio). He became the council's first president. Nogueira Neto became a specialist in animal behavior, terrestrial ecosystems and climate change. He helped create the Department of General Ecology at the USP Institute of Biosciences.