Maria Rita Raimundo e Almeida

Assessment of the Follow-up of Environmental Licensing of Slaughterhouses and Dairy in Minas Gerais

Assessment (EIA) still presents weak points, which quite often lead to the failure of its objectives. With the aim to evaluate the implementation of environmental control measures in the post-licensing stage, were applied two checklists composed of variables in six slaughterhouses and thirteen dairy licensed by the environmental agency of the South of Minas Gerais. The lists were evaluated separately, in one of them the variables were created to assess the compliance of the license conditioning and the effectiveness of the monitoring programs by the entrepreneur. The second list was used to assess the process organization and analyze if there is follow-up by the environmental agency to the licensed enterprises. The result indicate that the enterprises are not totally fulfilling the condition and that there are failures in the monitoring programs, which were supposed to be fulfilled by the enterprises. Besides that, the environmental agency does not follow the enterprises in an effective. Therefore, is suggested that the monitoring stage of projects licensed by Supram South of Minas should undergo changes in their driving. Key-words: Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Follow-up, Conditiong Fulfillment, Inspection.

Benchmarking na avaliação de impacto ambiental: o sistema mineiro frente às melhores práticas internacionais

In Brazil, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Licensing are considered instruments of the National Environmental Policy. Supported by CONAMA Resolution n° 237/1997, each Brazilian state has its own system for implementing these instruments. Due to the differences among the procedures adopted in each state and the existence of critical of its use, this study aims to determine how the EIA system established in Minas Gerais has been developing in the face of international best practices. For this, the information was obtained through the literature review, process analysis and interviews with key actors. Among the positive points of the Minas Gerais system are: the decentralization of the licensing process, the proximity between the technical of environmental agency and entrepreneur and participative decision to be taken by the State Environmental Council. As for weaknesses, they concentrate on the generalization of the scope of the studies, no population participation, consideration of project alternatives, no assessment of cumulative impacts and the type of corrective licensing. Once identified system weaknesses become necessary actions aimed at improving its performance.

Metodos de Aplicacion para el Control de Calidad de los Estudios Ambientales

The quality of environmental impact statements is a major element for the effectiveness of EIA, prevailing checklists as the main methodological framework in quality reviews. Although most of the tools applied to assess the quality of EISs present similarities, it is necessary to consider their feasibility and utility to EIA processes, thus comparing the performance of different tools. The present paper aims to discuss the applicability and potential contributions of different quality review guidelines considering the main aspects of EIA in Brazil. Two different methods were used to review a EIS randomly selected in order to verify the similarity between obtained results. It was found that the methods conducted to similar conclusions related to the quality of the EIS, also contributing to better identify its deficiencies and positive aspects. The paper concludes for the great potential of quality review methods and tools in order to contribute with EIA objectives, reducing discrepancies between assessments and also being more time-effective.