Drawbacks of Social Impacts Assessment in Brazil: Is It Time for a New Approach?

Renata Utsunomiya,Marcelo Montaño,Marcelo Marini Pereira De Souza

doi:10.4236/jep.2021.1212064

Abstract

Drawbacks of Social Impacts Assessment in Brazil: Is It Time for a New Approach?

Highlights

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been progressively contributing to better address the environmental impacts that are likely to be caused by development projects, as a result of the consolidation of EIA systems worldwide, theory development and new/innovative approaches [1] [2] [3].Concerning the evaluation of social impacts and their integration in decisionmaking, [4] [5] [6] and [7] warn about the mismatch between the theoretic potential and what is achieved by the practice of Social Impact Assessment (SIA), mainly because of the lack of legal regulations and the absence of consolidated methodological guidelines
The Context in Brazil In Brazil, EIA is applied in a formal manner linked to the environmental licensing, which, by its turn, aims at the verification of the environmental feasibility of development projects which have the potential to result in a relevant environmental degradation
It is possible to point for a reduction of the general gap described by [22] between EIA procedures and practice, and a reduction of specific deficiencies in follow-up practice as pointed for [23], there are still several limitations associated to Environmental Impact Assessment in Brazil, which is less efficient in relation to the compliance with the role as a support element to the decision making

Summary

Introduction

Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been progressively contributing to better address the environmental impacts that are likely to be caused by development projects, as a result of the consolidation of EIA systems worldwide, theory development and new/innovative approaches [1] [2] [3]. EIA decisions have been subject to public/judicial challenges and court decisions that—at the end of the day—can obstruct the development of new projects but, on another hand, contribute to significant improvements in the whole process of EIA [10] [11] [12]. The present paper analyzes the practice of EIA in Brazil in order to verify the relevance that social, cultural and economic impacts have been given in decision-making, considering the acceptability of development projects

Background

The Context in Brazil

The Integration of Social Impacts in the Practice of EIA in Brazil

Conclusions