Characteristics and objectives

Following the introduction in 1970 of the requirement to assess the environmental impacts of government actions in the United States through NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), several other countries adopted similar procedures. In Brazil, mandatory environmental licensing for the installation of projects or activities that may cause pollution or use natural resources was established under the National Environmental Policy, enacted in 1981.

Similarly to the U.S. model, in which a Record of Decision (ROD) explains the reasons for a decision and presents the mitigation measures and monitoring program to be adopted (SÁNCHEZ 2008), Brazilian environmental licensing provides for public access to the different stages of the process, including the Technical Opinions that support decisions and the licenses issued, which specify the conditions for project implementation. At the federal level, environmental studies and other licensing documents can be accessed by any interested party through the IBAMA website.

Environmental licensing is defined by CONAMA Resolution No. 237/1997 as the “administrative procedure through which the competent environmental agency licenses the location, installation, expansion and operation of projects and activities that use environmental resources, are considered actually or potentially polluting, or may otherwise cause environmental degradation.” Roads are included among such projects (CONAMA Resolution No. 001/1986).

Its objectives are to regulate access to and use of natural resources and to prevent environmental damage. Licensing is normally preventive in nature (SÁNCHEZ 2008), but it may also have a corrective role when impacts are identified during project operation, during expansion, or in environmental regularization processes for projects installed before the relevant legislation—such as most Brazilian roads.

It is the responsibility of the State, through the restrictions it may impose on individual rights in the interest of collective rights (police power), to assess the environmental feasibility of a project and grant or deny an Environmental License. At the federal level, the jurisdiction responsible for the assessment (federal, state or municipal), the stages to be followed and the minimum content to be addressed are regulated by Laws, Decrees, Resolutions of the National Environment Council (CONAMA), Ordinances, and Normative Instructions issued by the Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA). The main regulations are compiled under Legal framework.

Assessment of the environmental feasibility of a project or activity is based on predicting its impacts and analysing its socioeconomic importance. When determining feasibility, the environmental agency establishes how negative impacts will be avoided or minimized and how unavoidable damage will be compensated (Figure 2). “Environmental compensation” is an obligation established by Law No. 9,985/2000 (National System of Nature Conservation Units Act), calculated according to the methodology regulated by Federal Decree No. 4,340/2002, and may reach up to 0.5% of the project's reference value. The logic of the licensing process is similar to that used in developed countries of the Northern Hemisphere (BANK et al. 2002).

Figure 2. Schematic representation of alternatives available within environmental licensing once a project's environmental feasibility has been established: (a) impact caused by the road (habitat fragmentation); (b) avoidance of the potential impact by changing the road alignment; (c) mitigation through the installation of wildlife crossing structures; and (d) compensation through the allocation of equivalent habitat for conservation purposes. Adapted from Iuell et al. 2003.

Translation note: This English version was preliminarily translated using ChatGPT and has not yet undergone human review.