State‐Level Politics in Forest Governance: The Role of the Narrative‐Policy Nexus in the Brazilian Amazon

ABSTRACT Deforestation and its social impacts are an enduring challenge in agrarian frontiers, especially in the tropics. Fueled by global demand for commodities, this process is mediated by ideas, concepts, meanings, and policies that uphold socioenvironmental degradation. A key and understudied—arena in which this mediation occurs is the sub‐national level, where cross‐scale forest governance arrangements are shaped. The present article investigates the state‐level politics in Acre and Mato Grosso, two contrasting jurisdictions of the Brazilian Amazon. We propose the narrative‐policy nexus to analyze the interplay between material and immaterial dimensions of forest governance co‐produced by society and governmental actors. We compare the nexus between the Florestania narrative and the Ecological‐Economic Zoning (ZEE) policy in Acre (1999–2018) with the Modern Frontier narrative and the Produce, Conserve and Include (PCI) policy in Mato Grosso (2015–2019). While Acre's nexus is permeated by the valorization of forest‐based livelihoods led by local communities and support for their local agency, Mato Grosso's nexus represents a business‐as‐usual approach embedded in a dominant system of agricultural expansion which keeps dominant structures unaltered. In the analyzed period, the centrality of forests in Acre's politics contrasts with their marginal position as a supporting element to green commodity production in Mato Grosso. In conclusion, state‐level politics plays a crucial role in landscape transformations and deserves further attention within land‐use debates. This analysis brings nuances to generalizing interpretations of the Amazon as a homogeneous region, highlighting the diversity of contexts within the biome.