IMPROVING THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT PROCESS IN BRAZIL

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

1998

RESUMO

In 1970 the American Congress introduced the Environmental Impact Assessment - EIA process - whose twin virtues have been its survival for more than 28 years, and its spread in a world-wide dimension. However, recent evaluations of the effectiveness of the EIA process have shown that it suffers from failures stemming not from one unique domain, as argued by certain experts in the process, but from different ones: the technical, methodological, procedural, and political, contexts. Critical for its future survival is the resolution of what is recognised as a major implementation failure: its project-based nature. To surmount this critical failure, an up-grade of the process is being proposed. The Strategic Environmental Assessment - SEA process - in which the environmental and social impacts of the policies, plans and programmes are assessed, is the most envisioned candidate to overcome the implementation failures of the EIA process. Following the course taken by the EIA process, the SEA process is being progressively implemented in certain developed and developing countries. However, also in imitation of its predecessor, the process is facing both methodological and political constraints. The objective of this work has been the analysis of the likelihood of Brazils adoption of the SEA process. In this study the first task was the performance evaluation of the implementation of the EIA process in the Brazilian context. The second was the identification and analysis of the ideas being advocated and the movements being made in Brazil towards changes in the practices presently used in the EIA process. The third procedure was the verification of how Petrobrás and Eletrobrás are integrating the social and environmental components both into their planning and decision-making processes and into their practices. Two main conclusions are advanced: i) the implementation of the EIA process in Brazil made a difference; and ii) the degree of institutional structuration is a significant element for achieving the changes expected from the implementation of the process.

ASSUNTO(S)

politicas publicas ciências ambientais environmental management política ambiental impacto ambiental políticas públicas public policies environmental impact assessment strategic environmental assessment

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