The Inadequacy of the Environmental Impact Assessment as a Model for Environmental Risk and Damage Business Management

Abstract

The possibility of major environmental disasters occurring, even qualified by the real risk of death, due to the licensing and operation of economic projects, without considering the cumulative and synergistic effects resulting from different projects, afflicts researchers from all over the world. Therefore, this research aimed to analyze the adequacy of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to avoid the occurrence of such environmental disasters. To that end, an analysis was carried out on the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the EIA as a model for corporate environmental management; then, two case studies of major environmental disasters that occurred in Brazil were carried out, to verify whether environmental damage and loss of life occurred due to the disregard of the environmental variable in the planning phase of economic enterprises, for having adopted EIA as corporate environmental management model. Thus, the case studies were only carried out to demonstrate the seriousness of the disregard for the environmental variable in the planning phase of economic enterprises. In conclusion, it is emphasized that the EIA does not have a preventive character, as it is not related to the process of conceiving, choosing and preparing projects within the scope of economic enterprises.