The social participation in the environmental licensing of activities subject to environmental impact statement in Brazil

• Grant number: 19/04307-0
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): September 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal researcher: Denise Gallo Pizella
• Grantee: Jaqueline Bruna Santim
• Home Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEIS). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Ilha Solteira. Ilha Solteira , SP, Brazil

Abstract

During the environmental licensing process with the realization of an Environmental Impact Statement and its Environmental Impact Report (EIR) there is public hearing (s), as regulated by federal law. However, such social participation methodology has an informative character, not guaranteeing that the wishes and proposals of the population involved are considered in the decision-making of the environmental agency responsible for the environmental licensing. Considering that Brazilian states have different environmental licensing rites, complementary to federal regulations and the importance of public participation for social control in environmental licensing processes, this research has the objective of evaluating the degree of public participation in environmental licensing agencies in the scope of the Union and the Brazilian states, in order to diagnose potential problems and good practices. To do so, it will analyze the legislation regarding the process of social participation in the environmental licensing of the Union and the state environmental agencies responsible for it, through consultations with its websites. In the analysis, the stage (s) of the licensing will be identified in the states and in the Union where there is participation of the company and the methodology (s) used to do so, in order to qualify it with the attribution of notes. In order to validate the importance of social participation in environmental licensing in terms of the best steps for its occurrence and applied methodologies, an electronic questionnaire will be applied with researchers from the area of evaluation of environmental impacts. With the results found, it is hoped to contribute to the identification of best practices of social control in the Brazilian environmental licensing among existing ones and to make recommendations for its improvement.