GEO Brasil - UNEP

Because of these actions, concern for environmental matters
in Brazilian society has experienced a great and healthy
increase. This has been due to several factors. The following
stand out: effort on the part of the government in the area,
action of the communication media and opinion formers,
increase in perception on the part of urban masses regarding
the losses, risks and discomfort brought about by
environmental degradation. There has also been pressure
from the international community concerning the control
of activities that generate an impact and potentially
contribute to a loss in quality of the global environment
and in the development sustainablility.
The offer and the democratisation of access to
environmental information in Brazil have both expanded
rapidly. These elements have benefited from the
development of research, the creation of content and the
dizzying evolution of microelectronics. This technology of
systems and communication is represented by the Internet,
which promoted the integration of communities of users
and producers of information on a global scale.
Environmental communication through printed materials
is also growing in Brazil. There are several publications linked
to non-governmental organisations. Others are independent,
and a great number of these publications is linked to the
Brazilian Environmental Journalism Network – RBJA, which
has contributed towards integration among
communicators all over the country. This makes it possible
for agendas, sources and information to be exchanged,
and it allows for the incorporation of new communicators
into the area.
3.3. Management Tools
During the 90s, new tools were acquired for environmental
management. In the current global market context, some
argue that economic tools tend to be more effective than
command and control tools. Those that criticise this view
s ay that the set of economic tools is insufficient to assess
a system of certificates of rights to pollute, a system for
deposit-reimbursement, subsidies for environmental
projects – allow for the incorporation of environmental
costs into production and consumption costs. They also
stimulate the reduction of costs on environmental
control, and lead to technological changes which are
compatible to sustainability. The President’s Office and
the Ministry of the Environment, together with the five
federal public banks and the Ministries of Agriculture,
Planning, and Finance launched the Green Protocol
programme in 1995/6. Its main objective is the inclusion
of the environment variable in the concession of public
credit. This programme is among the most emblematic
initiatives of the Brazilian Government in terms of
management tools for sustainable development, and is
one of the most outstanding. It is a document containing
guidelines, strategies, and operational mechanisms for
the inclusion of the environmental variable in the process
of management as well as for the concession of official
credit and tax benefits to productive activities.
Issueing environmental securities negotiable in the market
is a controversial issue in Brazil and abroad. It generates
fierce discussions. This is the case, for example, of t he
Kyoto Protocol – Convention on Climate Change, in
which clauses were included that allow a country whose
emissions have increased to buy “emission rights” from
another whose emissions were kept below the generation
level observed in 1990. Thus, there is a surplus.
According to the Ministry of the Environment, during the
elaboration of the bases for discussion of the Brazilian
Agenda 21 “these tools assume credibility,
trustworthiness, and stability in environmental policy, as
well as a decentralised system for planning and decision
making which is able to react flexibly when faced with
the multiple and complex changes of reality in progress.”
(Ministry of the Environment/UNDP 2000)
3.3.2. Industries and Clean Technologies
policies feedback
the environmental issue and to define frameworks.
3.3.1. Economic Tools for Environmental
Management
In regards to the use of economic tools in the management
process, current thoughts in the technical field regard
economic tools as being a way to make a sustainable
policy for the use of natural resources and territorial
organisation possible. Economic tools – taxes and fees,
a system of environmental rights negotiable in the market,
Regarding business actions and greater environmental
responsibility in the private sector, there is an observed
growth in the use of clean production technologies that
minimise the generation of residues and the emissions and
effluents released into the environment. The social
responsibility of private agents is also a demand which is
present in the current development process. The increase
in environmental demands on the part of the consumer
market world-wide has lead national companies to adopt
conducts that follow patterns in the dispute for room in
international trade.
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