Análise da qualidade de Estudos de Impacto Ambiental associados a processos de Licenciamento Ambiental Corretivo de atividades agrossilvipastoris no estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

The Environmental Licensing (LA), an important instrument of the National Environmental Policy, aims to verify the compatibility of activities that have the potential to cause environmental degradation and environmental quality. Despite its preliminary nature, in some contexts, environmental licensing has been regularized and is also practiced as a corrective measure, applying to activities that have already been established and/or are in operation without an environmental license, in order to enable the environmental regularization of these activities. This is the case in Minas Gerais, which has Corrective Environmental Licensing, where licenses can be issued to regularize installations that were made irregularly (Corrective Installation License - LIC) and for activities that are operating irregularly (Corrective Operation License - LOC). For cases of activities with potential or effective significant environmental impact, the state of Minas Gerais has also requested Environmental Impact Studies (EIA), which, although originally of a preliminary nature, have been used to support Corrective Licensing. In order to enable reflections on the role that EIA has played in the context of Corrective Licensing, this study analyzed the quality of EIA associated with the issuance of LOC for four agrosilvopastoral sector projects located in the Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba. The selection of typology and spatial delimitation was based on the high number of LOC processes. Access to EIA was done through the Integrated Environmental Information System, and the quality analysis used the criteria proposed by the Lee and Colley Review Package method and the parameters defined by Veronez (2018). The results of the analysis show that, similar to the results of other studies that analyzed the quality of EIA in Brazil, the EIA analyzed here had higher scores regarding the description of the project and baseline conditions, as well as the communication of results, and lower scores for impact identification and assessment, consideration of alternatives, and impact mitigation. However, it is noteworthy that even the description of the baseline presents serious problems, as the environmental conditions presented generally refer to conditions already with the project in operation. The assessment of impacts is also incipient and mainly qualitative, even with the project already in operation and, therefore, the possibility of obtaining data that more specifically portray the impacts associated with the activity. Therefore, the low quality of the analyzed EIA is evident, which may have compromised the decision-making process for the approval of the LOC they supported.