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Nota Técnica - Proposta de Lei Geral do Licenciamento Ambiental: Análise crítica e propositiva do projeto de lei à luz das boas práticas internacionais e da literatura científica
Abstract
O objetivo dessa Nota Técnica é analisar, crítica e construtivamente, a proposta da Lei
Geral do Licenciamento Ambiental. Mais especificamente, objetiva-se analisar o texto-base
do PL à luz das boas práticas internacionais e evidências empíricas da ciência,
destacando questões críticas para serem consideradas em eventuais revisões e
regulamentações legislativas.
... O provável motivo para essa falta de novas resoluções é o esvaziamento das câmaras técnicas feito por meio de decreto em 2019, que alterou profundamente a forma de funcionamento dos conselhos e reduziu a participação pública das decisões, contrariando as recomendações internacionais de envolvimento popular na tomada de decisão (OIT, 1989). Diversos autores vêm destacando a pressão política e empresarial para revisar e simplificar as legislações ambientais e o processo de licenciamento (BRAGAGNOLO, 2017;FONSECA;RODRIGUES, 2017). Além dessas pressões, os próprios operadores dos sistemas de avaliação de impacto concordam com a necessidade de rever as legislações existentes. ...
... A seção não é clara e não aborda muitos possibilidades de procedimentos hoje adotados no País. Um ponto que pode ser de preocupação nessa seção é a falta de clareza quanto a vinculação do licenciamento ambiental à avaliação de impacto (FONSECA;SANCHEZ et al., 2019), especialmente para o licenciamento simplificado no que concerne aos sistemas de abastecimento de água e esgotamento sanitário. ...
Um projeto de lei, recentemente aprovado no congresso federal e encaminhado ao Senado, pode modificar o licenciamento do saneamento ambiental. O objetivo deste trabalho é explorar a evolução das legislações de avaliação de impacto ambiental para sistemas de saneamento ambiental de modo a fornecer subsídios técnicos ao novo marco do licenciamento ambiental no contexto de privatização do saneamento. Este estudo bibliográfico e documental analisa normas e resoluções representativas do quadro legal aplicável às questões ambientais e hídricas. Os resultados indicam que o Brasil possui amplo escopo legal em matéria ambiental e de recursos hídricos fundamental para garantir diretrizes para licenciar projetos potencialmente degradadores, como são os sistemas de esgoto sanitário e abastecimento de água. Ainda que se vislumbre um cenário de aumento desses projetos pelo novo marco legal de saneamento básico, o novo marco do licenciamento surpreende negativamente ao exclui-los do rol de iniciativas submetidas à avaliação de impacto ambiental.
... Esse fenômeno está acontecendo em todo o mundo, mas é particularmente intenso no Brasil, onde tem circulado várias propostas de mudança nas regulamentações do licenciamento ambiental e da AIA (FONSECA; SÁNCHEZ; RIBEIRO, 2017). As propostas de alterações, frequentemente baseadas em fatos "alternativos" e infundados, são preocupantes e apresentam questões críticas para o futuro da AIA no Brasil (ATHAYDE et al., 2022;FONSECA et al., 2019). Por exemplo, em 2021, a Câmara dos Deputados aprovou uma versão da "Lei Geral do Licenciamento Ambiental" que, se aprovada no Senado e ratificada pela Presidência, terá implicações adversas para a prática da AIA no Brasil. ...
A bill pending in the Brazilian Senate may change profoundly the characteristics and practice of environmental licensing in Brazil, including removing the obligation to obtain an environmental license for specific projects, such as those related to water supply and sanitary sewage. This timely bibliographical and documental study aims to analyse the development of specific legislation on environmental impact assessment (EIA) and environmental licensing of these two types of projects and compare them with the changes provided by the proposed Licensing Law. The work uses the identification and analysis of specific rules and legal documents that make up the current regulatory framework for licensing and the changes provided by the bill. The flexibility and exclusion of environmental licensing, without scientific rigour, ignore the importance of this instrument for environmental integration into decision-making. Furthermore, projects could damage the environment without such analysis due to the need to expand water supply and sanitation systems.
In the context of compounding health, environmental, and climatic crises, Brazil may witness two of its most important environmental policy instruments, environmental licensing and impact assessment, be severely weakened. On May 13, 2021, the Chamber of Deputies passed a new General Law of Environmental Licensing,
ignoring the concerns of civil society, scientists, and other relevant parties. If approved by the Senate and ratified by President Bolsonaro, this law will further undermine Brazil’s increasingly fragile environmental protection and public participation in decision-making. Here, we review the bill’s main provisions, highlighting potential far-reaching implications for environmental protection and governance, public participation in decision-making, and human rights in Brazil and beyond. Scientists can play an important role in debunking misinformation and advising Senators and the public opinion on the bill’s dangerous effects.
Resumo: O artigo discute as perspectivas para a aplicação da Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (AIA) e o Licenciamento Ambiental (LA) no Brasil, a partir da produção científica e frente às mudanças da política ambiental brasileira. Mais especificamente, buscou-se compreender em que medida as propostas legislativas em trâmite no Congresso Nacional, especialmente o PL 3729/04, dialogam com as dificuldades e potencialidades apontadas pela produção científica nacional no que se refere à aplicação da AIA e LA. Para tanto, foi realizada pesquisa em portal de busca científica e sistematizados os conteúdos e abordagens de quarenta e nove publicações que tratam da aplicação dos instrumentos citados. Foram identificados os principais aspectos apontados pelos autores como determinantes para a efetividade desses instrumentos. Em seguida, considerando-se outras referências relevantes e documentos recentes publicados por pesquisadores e especialistas, discute-se sobre as perspectivas de que a aprovação do Projeto da chamada Lei Geral do Licenciamento seja capaz de minimizar as deficiências levantadas na etapa anterior. Observou-se que há expressa preocupação por parte de pesquisadores e praticantes da AIA com relação a prováveis retrocessos e que, independente das propostas legislativas, outras mudanças na política ambiental, lideradas por setores interessados na redução do papel do Estado e da sociedade civil no controle ambiental, podem representar ameaças à aplicação dos instrumentos estudados. Abstract: This paper discusses the perspectives for the application of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Licensing (EL) in Brazil, based on scientific production and in view the of Brazilian environmental policy changes. Specifically, we look for to understand how legislative proposals processing in the National Congress, especially the bill no 3729/04, dialogue with the difficulties and potentialities pointed out by the national scientific production regarding the application of EIA and LA. Therefore, the research was conducted in the Brazilian scientific platform. It was systematized
The review of environmental impact statements (EIS), despite its relevance to impact assessment effectiveness, has received scarce scholarly attention. Few studies have gone beyond the realm of regulatory evaluations to understand the managerial meanders of the review process. This study evaluated the responsibilities, procedures, information inputs, and scope of EIS reviews within two environmental authorities: APA (Portuguese Environment Agency), in Portugal, and SEMAD (State Secretariat for Environment and Sustainable Development), in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. Based on a qualitative multiple-case study methodology informed by participant observation, unstructured interviews, and content analysis of 12 EIS review reports, the study provided what is arguably one of the most detailed characterizations of EIS review to date. While following similar institutional arrangements and broad procedural steps, the EIS review has important differences in APA and SEMAD. Overall, the Portuguese agency was found to have a more structured, participative, interdisciplinary, detailed, and grounded review, thus meeting some of the good practices often cited in the literature. The EIS review reports prepared by APA reviewers were also found to provide a profoundly more complete and transparent account of the review process. The details of the review process revealed in the article can affect perceptions around the legitimacy and reliability of reviewers' recommendations.
A participação pública no Licenciamento Ambiental (LA) apoiado em Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental é de extrema importância, tendo a função de envolver a comunidade nas tomadas de decisão, pois ela é afetada pelos impactos de um empreendimento. Assim, este estudo objetivou avaliar a participação nos processos de LA tramitados na Superintendência Regional de Regularização Ambiental do Triângulo Mineiro e Alto Paranaíba. Para isto, foi realizado um levantamento da realização da audiência pública nos processos entre 2009-2015 e a discussão de um estudo de caso, o processo de licenciamento da Vale Fertilizantes em Patrocínio/MG. Dos 79 processos de licenciamento que abriram edital para solicitação da audiência, apenas 18% tiveram a convocação da mesma. No caso analisado, percebeu-se uma intensa participação popular, mas que não resultou em nenhuma contribuição para o processo decisório. Assim, concluiu-se que a participação dentro do LA no Triângulo Mineiro ainda é frágil, necessitando de aperfeiçoamentos.
A B S T R A C T
Public participation in Environmental Licensing (EL) with Environmental Impact Assessment is extremely important, having the function of involving communities in decision making, as it is affected by impacts of a development. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the participation in the EL processes processed in the Superintendência Regional de Regularização Ambiental do Triângulo Mineiro e Alto Paranaíba. For this, a survey of the public hearing was conducted in the cases between 2009-2015 and the discussion of a case study, Vale Fertilizantes' corrective licensing process in Patrocínio/MG. Of the 79 licensing processes that opened the notice to request the public hearing, only 18% had this event. In the case study analyzed, there was an intense population participation, but it did not result in any contribution to the decision-making process. Thus, it can be concluded that the participation within the EL is still fragile, in need of improvement.
Keywords: Environmental Impact Assessment, participation, public hearing.
A Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (AIA), orientada pelo Estudo de Impacto Ambiental (EIA), é obrigatória para projetos e a Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica (AAE), voltada a apoiar o planejamento, não é mandatória no país. Para estudar o tiering entre níveis decisórios no planejamento de transportes, selecionou-se como objeto a AAE do Programa Rodoanel e os subsequentes EIA dos trechos Sul, Norte e Leste. O objetivo é analisar a avaliação estratégica do Programa Rodoanel confrontada com os impactos ambientais dos EIA para caracterizar a prática de tiering no planejamento de transportes. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstraram evidências de aspectos do tiering no caso considerado, como o foco da AAE na abordagem dos temas ambientais na escala de planejamento, a relação explícita entre as categorias de impactos nos EIA e os efeitos do Rodoanel previstos na AAE. Entretanto, a prática de tiering no planejamento de transportes paulista ainda é limitada e tem muito a avançar.
Despite being adopted worldwide, environmental impact assessment (EIA) is under pressure in many countries, while perceived (rightly or wrongly) as an ineffective and inefficient process. Strategic environmental assessment (SEA) is thought to help address some of EIA's shortcomings, but it is absent in many jurisdictions and sectors. In this paper, we argue that multi-project EIA can, in some contexts, simultaneously deliver greater effectiveness and process streamlining. To illustrate our claim, we present a case study from offshore petroleum production in Brazil, where the development of the pre-salt giant reserves is being licensed through a multi-project EIA approach, in a non-SEA planning environment. The analysis provides interesting insights on the strengths and challenges of that strategy, focusing on five aspects of practice: cumulative impacts, efficiency, approach to authorizations, follow-up and political issues. Proper scoping was found to be essential to consistent EIA processes and shorter review times. Finally, we suggest that multi-project EIA approach should be revisited by practitioners and regulators to identify opportunities for deployment, especially in jurisdictions where strategic assessments are not in place.
Environmental assessment is the process that decision-makers rely on to predict, evaluate, and prevent biophysical, social, and economic impacts of potential project developments. The determination of significance in environmental assessment is central to environmental management in many nations. We reviewed ten recent environmental impact assessments from British Columbia, Canada and systematically reviewed and scored significance determination and the approaches used by assessors, the use of thresholds in significance determination, threshold exceedances, and the outcomes. Findings of significant impacts were exceedingly rare and practitioners used a combination of significance determination approaches, most commonly relying upon reasoned argumentation. Quantitative thresholds were rarely employed, with less than 10% of the valued components evaluated using thresholds. Even where quantitative thresholds for significance were exceeded, in every case practitioners used a variety of rationales to demote negative impacts to non-significance. These reasons include combinations of scale (temporal and spatial) of impacts, an already exceeded baseline, model uncertainty and/or substituting less stringent thresholds. Governments and agencies can better protect resources by requiring clear and defensible significance determinations, by making government-defined thresholds legally enforceable and accountable, and by requiring or encouraging significance determination through inclusive and collaborative approaches.
A proposição de alternativas mais viáveis ambientalmente é considerada um dos princípios de boas práticas da Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental (AIA). Sem um estudo de alternativas, a AIA pode se reduzir à proposição de medidas mitigadoras de impactos que poderiam ser evitados. Apesar do crescente interesse acadêmico, ainda são poucos os estudos que trataram das alternativas locacionais, sobretudo no setor de transporte rodoviário. O presente trabalho objetiva avaliar como a consideração de alternativas tem sido desenvolvida dentro dos processos de AIA de rodovias tramitados no órgão ambiental estadual de Minas Gerais. A seleção dos estudos de caso visou encontrar os processos de licenciamento ambiental de rodovias (implantação ou duplicação) tramitados no órgão ambiental do Estado de Minas Gerais e baseados em Estudos de Impacto Ambiental/Relatório de Impacto Ambiental (EIA/Rima) e, então, comparar os critérios utilizados para a seleção de alternativas destes casos com as boas práticas preconizadas na literatura. Deste modo, foram encontrados no Sistema Integrado de Informações Ambientais (SIAM) 10 casos no Estado de Minas Gerais, dos quais três necessitaram da elaboração de EIA/Rima e, destes, todos possuíam o estudo de alternativas locacionais. A partir da literatura, foi encontrada uma série de critérios gerais a serem abordados e falhas comuns que necessitam ser evitadas durante a elaboração das alternativas. Ao compará-los com os casos, obteve-se um resultado preocupante, visto que, mesmo cumprindo alguns critérios de boas práticas, todos os estudos de alternativas apresentaram-se de forma precária, com informações sem detalhamento e falhas que poderiam ter sido evitadas. Sendo assim, pode-se dizer que, no âmbito do órgão ambiental licenciador do Estado de Minas Gerais, o estudo de alternativas locacionais para rodovias é considerado frágil, não havendo a profundidade necessária para avaliar a viabilidade ambiental.
Within the ample body of literature devoted to strategic environmental assessment (SEA) outcomes and the assessment of its effectiveness, it is accepted that the performance of SEA systems is influenced by contextual aspects. Procedural aspects, objectives, guidance, approach, timing, amongst others, are reported as key components of the different dimensions of SEA effectiveness but their linkage to SEA outcomes is yet to be adequately investigated. In this paper, contextual aspects and related outcomes of a non-mandatory SEA system were identified through systematic literature review and personal interviews with key actors of SEA, aiming at the identification of the influence of contextual factors on SEA effectiveness. The findings indicate three main aspects that may explain the lengthy process of introduction of SEA in plan- and policy-making in the country: (i) lack of proper SEA legislation, (ii) the influence of Environmental Impact Assessment practice and (iii) the influence of the environmental licensing culture. Nevertheless, SEA contributes to improving communication between stakeholders along the planning process and to providing a better level of information for lower tiers of decision-making. In spite of the minor influences on the nature of the strategic action, valuable lessons credited to SEA have been learnt.
Empirical research dedicated to Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is mostly grounded on SEA systems guided by legal requirements, clearly stated procedures and systematic use of SEA to policy- and plan-making. Nevertheless, a considerable parcel of SEA practice is currently occurring in countries with no specific legislation or guidance to be followed, i.e. non-regulated SEA systems. Therefore, it is important to understand how SEA is performing in these countries and to establish whether related SEA systems are subject to the same premises and perspectives of effectiveness that have been reported in literature so far. The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-practice in Brazil, based on best practice analysis of SEA reports and interviews, reporting empirical evidence regarding the use of SEA and its related timing, procedural performance and key players involved. Main findings reveal an isolated instrument, embroidered in a disperse and unclear framework, poorly coordinated and highly sensitive to circumstances. Provision of a structured system, indicating clear purposes of SEA, systematic procedures and stakeholder’s responsibilities are suggested as potentially relevant measures to balance current system’s flexibility, thus fostering SEA effectiveness.
IA regime design has evolved significantly over the past 50 years. Current thinking includes a package of next generation approaches such as the incorporation of requirements for regional and strategic IA, the consideration of cumulative effects and alternatives, and the inclusion of sustainability criteria and trade-off rules for decision makers. These suggested changes to IA design largely come from the recognition, through experience, of the weaknesses with current IA laws and regulations and needs to accommodate new understandings, for example about sustainability and complexity. Here, we reiterate the key generic components of next generation assessment that are broadly suitable for application in all jurisdictions with at least moderate assessment capacities, focusing on the necessary process requirements that could be captured in IA law, regulation and policy. Through an illustrative case example of Manitoba, Canada, we show how the components of next generation assessment might be implemented as a package in the context of an existing IA regime. Our application of these principles reveals the value of careful consideration of the current legislative frame as well as needs to cooperate with other jurisdictions. It shows, for example, the importance of experience with using streams of assessment and ensuring meaningful public participation. We conclude that many jurisdictions are likely to find moving consistently to this more comprehensive form of assessment to be a natural progression and that the greatest challenges will probably be in building interjurisdictional cooperation, ensuring good faith application of the sustainability criteria in decision making, and implementing regional and strategic assessments.