GEO Brasil - UNEP

2. Current Status and Perspectives of
Environmental Management in
Brazil
One of the first environmental problems that was identified
in the 1960’s – even before the governments of developed
countries started to declare a substantial amount of
regulations and specific laws, before they put new
institutions in place and before they adopted measures on
environmental effects – was the fragmentation of the
existing policies, especially those related to the use and
protection of environmental resources. The American policy
for the environment was promulgated in 1970 1 , and was an
instance of legislation whose primary objective was to foster
integration of different government agencies that developed
actions that were either directly or indirectly associated to
the environment.
2.1. Causes and consequences of fragmented
approaches to develop and implement
environmental policies
2.2. An alternative to overcome fragmentation:
the integrated environmental management
As a proposal to overcome fragmentation in dealing with
complex and uncertain systems such as the environment,
an initiative being developed is the redesign of planning
procedures and, more specifically, of environmental
management. In this context, environmental management
has been increasingly understood as a set of activities/
procedures, the objective of which is to guarantee that a
given area (biome, ecosystem) and/or resource (fauna, flora)
is used in a way that makes its sustainability be the main
requirement to be pursued.
In order to achieve this, it is important to consider that the
management process includes in its stages the activities
and practices of forecasting, assessment and follow-up.
These elements start from the most general level and arrive
at the most detailed level. This means that activities and
practices that start during the planning stage and extend to
the monitoring of different projects. Graphically speaking:
introduction
Even though fragmentation was identified and diagnosed
over the course of the three past decades as a relevant issue
for effective implementation of environmental policies, very
few effective actions have been taken up to now in order to
do away with fragmentation of policies, whether for the
environment or not. On the contrary, the various regulations,
agencies, plans and programmes and other instruments
created during the period only helped increase this
multiplicity.
Many factors can account for the fragmentation of actions
regarding environmental policies. One of them refers to the
approach according to which the environment is viewed as
comprised by distinctive and separate resources, settings
and systems – air, water, energy, soil, plants etc.
PLANNING ⇒ CONTROL ⇒ MONITORING
It is important to note that, since the environmental impact
studies (EIS) arose, different instruments have been
developed with the objective of providing a more
comprehensive and effective perspective to the
environmental management process. For example, this is
the case of the Strategic Environmental Assessment – SEA,
the main objective of which is to assess implications of
policies, plans and programmes in the context of economic,
environmental and social dimensions. Another example is
the adaptive management process, which aims to establish
more efficient monitoring procedures. This process is not
what is being carried out at the moment.
Another factor can appear in the decision-making process,
i.e., in the domain of reasoning. Human capacity is limited
in dealing with complexities and problems in an integrated
fashion. The most frequently used method to overcome
such limitation is the division and creation of specific areas
of reasoning and responsibility. In the administrative
domain, and most notably in the context of an administrative
state, this division is expressed by the creation of different
agencies and institutions in charge of different areas/sectors
so as to make their administration “manageable”.
Today Brazil seeks the integration of these different
instruments (new and already known ones). In combination,
they may promote progress in the environment
management practices carried out today. It was decided to
give the title Integrated Environmental Management to this
new perspective, considering that it integrates the different
environment management instruments developed and
available today. This should occur so that the environment
also be considered in an integrated way.
1
National Environmental Policy Act - NEPA
11