Waterway Panorama - Antaq

l Waterway Panorama
Local Environmental Agenda
Public ports provide their maritime and land
infrastructure to users, who pay values defined
in a tariff table. This maritime and
land infrastructure includes the environmental
infrastructure.
Many of these ports have received significant
investments, which are being applied in the Port
Subsector, targeted at the improvement and expansion
of the superstructure through the Growth
Acceleration Program (PAC). These developments,
combined with routine port operations,
are known to generate environmental impacts of
various natures.
Realizing that natural resources may be used
in a sustainable manner demanded the creation
of the National Policy on Environment,
established by Law 6,938 of August 31, 1981,
establishing environmental clearance as a guiding
instrument for actions to be taken. And its
core includes conditions to be met by entrepreneurs.
Environmental management is defined in
Article 3 as “the set of conditions, laws, influences
and physical, chemical and biological interactions,
enabling, sheltering and governing
life in all its forms”.
The first instrument designed to organize environmental
management in ports was the Port
Environmental Agenda, approved by the Interministerial
Commission for Sea Resources
(CIRM) and developed by the Interministerial
Group for Coastal Management (GIGERCO).
This Agenda renewed discussions on environmental
issues, establishing a first set of actions,
indicating stakeholders involved and the
processes of environmental actions that should
happen in port sites. Currently, the Agenda is undergoing
updates through a Technical Group
coordinated by ANTAQ.
The impact of the implementation of the Port
Environmental Agenda by ports and other facilities
has encouraged the establishment of a Local
Environmental Agenda, which has been
drawn up by each port authority, in order to assist
the implementation and monitoring of a
management system.
The Board of Environment of ANTAQ has
been working for some years on environmental
issues in an integrated way and has recently won
the support of the Special Secretariat of Ports,
which published Decree 104 of April 29, 2009,
which provides for the creation and structuring of
the Department of Environmental Management
and Occupational Safety and Health at ports.
The development of the Local Agenda has
been discussed with other agencies involved environmental
issues, in particular the Board of
Coastal and Marine Quality, the Secretariat on
Climate Change and Environmental Quality of
the Ministry of Environment, IBAMA, and the
Special Secretariat of Ports to strengthen the role
of the Port Authority as a conduit for the process
that should be a forum for ongoing discussion
and negotiation.
With the support to the activities, the group is
studying the possibility of drawing up a series of
work guidelines, addressing each set of specific
topics related to a broad range of subjects relating
to the ports’ environmental agenda.
Another instrument that should be highlighted
is the National Port Environmental Training Program
(PNCAP), under the Port Environmental
Agenda and structured by ANTAQ in partnership
with the Ministry of the Environment and the Port
Authority. The PNCAP provides for actions to
raise the awareness of technicians and other
employees and users of port services, as well as
training in specific technical skills for the prevention
of environmental damage and control
thereof, comprising staff from the operational
area (in varying degrees) to the administrative
staff related the sectors of project management
and planning.
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