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In Brazil, as the instrument of the National Environmental Policy is an essential tool for the environmental license, Law 6938/81, in its article 2, item III, instituted the evaluation of environmental impacts. With the development of the license studies, it was found that the environmental agencies, no matter how better equipped they were, would not have the conditions to proceed with the environmental impact assessment studies of certain activities and large-scale projects. Thus arose the need for these studies to be synthesized in a special document. The synthesis document was called, in the licensing system for polluting activities of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Deliberation CECA 3, of 12/28/1977), the "Environmental Influence Report" (RIMA), currently called "Environmental Impact Report". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared ways of thinking in Brazil about the science-practice interface in ecology and conservation We aimed to identify and describe viewpoints on how the science-practice interface should work in order to improve conservation decisions by interviewing relevant actors, both scientists (ecologists or conservation scientists) and decision makers (who rely on basic and conservation-oriented ecological knowledge to make decisions). Interactive partners thought scientists had much to learn from decision makers (e.g., viability of potential actions, administrative and political constraints) and decision makers could learn from scientists how science contributes to informed decisions. Scientists in this group had diverse levels of productivity and engagement with practice, but decision makers had engaged in the last 5 years more directly with science than decision makers from other groups (Supporting Information). Finally, although some of our results suggest negative attitudes between scientists and decision makers (e.g., detached producers criticized decision makers for misinterpreting scientific knowledge), there was general agreement that addressing cultural differences is important for linking science and practice effectively. [Extracted from the article]

The article offers information on the threats to an indigenous tribe of Amazon from an hydropower infrastructure plan proposed by the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR). Topics discussed include decline in the Amazonian deforestation rates due to Brazil's environmental policies; conduction of an environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Tapajós Hydroelectric Complex (THC); and mentions that the former President Dilma Rousseff redrew the boundaries of Amazon National Park (ANP).

Practitioners play a key role in implementing environmental impact assessment (EIA) policies. Gauging their perception can help in designing legislation or regulation reforms and signals what needs more attention in research. The Brazilian EIA system is under review by lawmakers, but there is scant information about the views of professionals. A survey was conducted to inquiry on practitioners’ perception of the Brazilian EIA system regarding: (1) quality of the process, (2) quality of the environmental impact studies (EIS), and (3) proposals to change the system. Four hundred and fourteen professionals participated in an online survey responding to 44 questions. Results show positive perceptions about some aspects of current practice, but there is a clear predominance of negative appraisal both about the quality of the process and the quality of EIS. The poorest practices are the consideration of cumulative impacts and determination of impact significance. As for proposals to change the system, respondents defend the continuity of specific characteristics of the Brazilian system. Essentially, practitioners are calling for incremental changes that do not require any modification in the legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The MAPS Programme has been active in Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Peru in supporting the development of an evidence base to inform the processes involved in climate mitigation policy-making. The programme combines detailed quantitative analysis with an extensive stakeholder engagement process to provide policy and decision makers with the information required for long-term climate mitigation planning. In recognition of the critical need to consider the developmental context and agenda in climate policy-making, the projects undertaken in these countries have experimented with various types of assessments of developmental impacts at both the macro and micro levels. These impacts have been collectively termed co-impacts to reflect the fact that these may be either positive or negative. In this article the value and challenges associated with co-impacts work for climate mitigation policy are considered. The value of including co-impacts analysis in the MAPS processes included increased stakeholder buy-in, making the case for mitigation action, informing INDCs and the prioritization of particular mitigation actions. Challenges include those associated with obtaining locally relevant data, the selection and operation of appropriate macro-economic models and analytical approaches and working with multidisciplinary teams. The article concludes by making some suggestions to optimize co-impacts work, through reference to other bodies of literature. The authors highlight that this article is situated within a dominant approach to climate mitigation policy work in developing countries, which implicitly places the non-climate benefits of any action as secondary to the primary benefit of climate change mitigation and constructs an artificial separation of policy formulation and implementation. Practitioners are encouraged to reflect on the implications of these considerations in future efforts. Policy relevance One of the primary challenges to advancing climate mitigation policy in developing countries is that of perceived relevance: near-term development priorities are overwhelming. Identifying, understanding and engaging with the co-impacts of mitigation actions has emerged as one way of addressing this challenge. Although still at an experimental phase, experience with co-impacts analysis in the MAPS countries provides some useful lessons in how to develop this area of work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concern about the effectiveness of environmental protection is growing up in face of the growing awareness of society regarding the environment that surrounds them and the need for effective maintenance life on Earth. For that arise various instruments to be followed for installation of activities that may be degrading the environment, fitting into this article as a way to introduce a new regulatory instrument that is not yet regulated by a specific law in Brazil. The article has the purpose of analyzing the possible application of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) in the Brazilian legal system. Aiming to EXAMINE the significance of the SEA and its need for inclusion in the Brazilian legal system, and specific goals CONCEPTUALIZE the Institute of Environmental Impact Assessment; DEMONSTRATE the concepts and requirements of the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) and IDENTIFY the concept, requirements and applicability of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). At the methodology was used the inductive method ate the research phase; at the data processing the Cartesian method and at the research report the inductive base. Were also triggered the techniques of referent, category, operational concepts, literature research and book report. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Federal Government of Brazil has ambitious plans to build a system of 58 additional hydroelectric dams in the Brazilian Amazon, with Hundreds of additional dams planned for other countries in the watershed. Although hydropower is often billed as clean energy, we argue that the environmental impacts of this project are likely to be large, and will result in substantial loss of biodiversity, as well as changes in the flows of ecological services. Moreover, the projects will generate significant greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and decay of organic matter in the reservoirs. These emissions are equivalent to the five years of emissions that would be generated by gas powered plants of equivalent capacity. In addition, we examine the economic benefits of the hydropower in comparison to new alternatives, such as photovoltaic energy and wind power. We find that current costs of hydropower exceed alternatives, and the costs of costs of these alternatives are likely to fall substantially below those of hydropower, while the environmental damages from the dams will be extensive and irreversible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IPCC and other global environmental assessment processes stress the need for national scientific participation to ensure decision makers’ trust in the associated scientific conclusions and political agendas. The underpinning assumption is that the relationship between scientists and decision makers at the national level is characterized by trust and interpretive synergy. Drawing on ethnographic research in Brazil, this article challenges that assumption through a case study of the policy uptake of divergent scientific interpretations as to whether or not the Amazon is a net carbon sink. It shows that the carbon sink issue became a site for struggles between important Brazilian scientists and decision-makers with central authority over the definition of the country’s official position in international climate negotiations. In a geopolitically charged scientific controversy involving scientific evidence bearing on the Kyoto Protocol, Brazilian decision makers studied revealed critical distance from national scientists advancing evidence that the Amazon is a net carbon sink. As such, the decision-makers’ interpretations were at odds also with dominant framings in the Brazilian media and closer to those of American scientists involved in carbon cycle research in the Amazon. Seeking to explain this disconnect, the paper discusses the divergent policy preferences of key scientists and decision-makers involved, and the correlations of these preferences with interpretations of the available scientific evidence. It identifies the continued impact of a national political tradition of limited participation in decision making and suggests that this tradition—while increasingly challenged by countervailing democratizing trends—is reinforced by key Brazilian decision makers’ constructions of science as a medium through which rich countries maintain political advantage. Reflecting this, key Brazilian decision-makers justified rejecting national scientists’ interpretations of the Amazon as a significant overall carbon sink by suggesting that the scientists’ scientific training and associated foreign interactions bias them in favor of foreign interests, compromising their ability to accurately identify national interests. The paper situates its analysis in terms of theories of the science–policy interface and argues for greater attention to the role of culturally and politically laden understandings of science and the role of science in policy and geopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the summary report "Environmental Licensing for Hydroelectric Projects in Brazil: A Contribution to the Debate," prepared by World Bank. It states that the country has a complex environmental licensing process wherein the excessive power and undue political pressure in reviewing environmental impact studies are big issues. It mentions the role of the prosecutors in the licensing process, the costs of licensing, and the recommendations to deal with process inefficiencies.

The authors comment on research concerning the properties of fly ash and its environmental impact in its use in earthworks. They comment on the cohesion tests and small-strain shear response on Charqueadas, Brazil coal ash and state that they do not have similar data available for the Indiana ashes. They mention that Charqueadas and Indiana ashes have similar chemical constituents and mineral structures. They state that coal ash disposal sites in Indiana are tested to determine how contaminated the ash is, and that the Indiana study focused on environmentally safe coal ashes as refined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Conservation and Restoration Act. They mention that the ashes used as construction material for highway embankments were encased in low-permeability materials.