THE ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTERS OF MARIANA AND BRUMADINHO AND THE BRAZILIAN SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW STATE (original) (raw)

THE ENVIRONMENTAL BOND: THE STATE LAW OF MINAS GERAIS AND THE FRAMEWORK LAW OF THE UNION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL STATE

THE ENVIRONMENTAL BOND: THE STATE LAW OF MINAS GERAIS AND THE FRAMEWORK LAW OF THE UNION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE BRAZILIAN FEDERAL STATE, 2020

The objective of the essay was to analyze the environmental bond required in the licensing processes for economic mining activities and the use of dams. The study legally classified the environmental bond as a guarantee for diffuse rights. Such guarantee applies to the duty of assistance and repair for possible environmental disasters and their respective humanitarian and cultural consequences. The method we applied in the research was deductive, analytical, dogmatic and comparative; and we consulted national, state and foreign legislation, in addition to specific bibliographic texts. We concluded that within the scope of the Brazilian federation, the norm that must prevail is the one that best meets the constitutional principles of most effective protection and of federative subsidiarity

Mariana Case: Environmental Disaster and Corporate Interests in Brazil

This paper outlines what is being considered the biggest environmental calamity in Brazil caused by an economic activity. By using data largely reported after the event, but also doing an analysis of the historical and political background as cause-related aspects, it explains that indiscriminate and unsustainable resources exploration tends to harm the whole ecosystem and the humans who depend on it. The mining in the ferriferous four-side region started more than two hundred years ago in a slavery era when the labour workforce did not benefit from the prosperity generated by gold exploitation. The commercial activity turned into iron ore, manganese, aluminium, lead, among others important metals that are exported to the world. However, the inequality gap remained and the environmental impact is progressively harming the population, air, soil, water resources and its marine life. Corporate interests represented by lobbying activities play a significant role in the “culture of corruption” in Brazilian’s political institutions. The consequences are felt by the most economically disadvantaged share of the society and, as a matter of fact, social and ecological responsibility are not properly taken in consideration by the companies which largely ignore the penalties set by governmental agencies. The change of mind to a sustainable development is needed but there is a long way to go in this respect.

The Promotion of the Socio-Environmental State and Environmental Justice in the Mining Activities Chamber of Minas Gerais

Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental

Objective: the objective of this article is to examine whether, and how, the foundations of the Socio-environmental State are concretized in the course of the decision-making process regarding the granting of environmental licenses for iron extraction activities in Minas Gerais. Theoretical framework: The research is based primarily on studies of the development of the Socio-environmental State, on the literature on environmental justice, and on environmental licensing. Method: the research is qualitative in nature, descriptive, and documentary research was carried out, in addition to the strategy of content analysis. Results and conclusion: the analyses indicate the ineffectiveness of environmental licensing as an instrument of State regulatory policy for environmental protection, a fact that compromises the effectiveness of the Socio-environmental State. Implications of the research: based on a critical analysis of the institutional arrangement of the licensing agency unde...

Environmental Concerns in Contemporary Brazil: An Insight into Some Theoretical and Societal Backgrounds (1970s–1990s)

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 2008

This article intends to unveil some of the main theoretical backgrounds and current tendencies of environmental sociology in Brazil. But we are mainly interested in providing a historical reconstruction of the societal internalization of environmental concerns in Brazil, on both state and civic levels, with an emphasis on the transformations that took place over the 1970-1990s period. We argue that environmental civil associations do not find either a legal idiom or public forums by means of which they could turn their demands and moral concerns into a binding juridical code. This is so because, on the one hand, their moral concerns, even when based on de-traditionalized and abstract principles, are not paralleled with an autonomous legal framework, strong enough to set limits to the functioning of both the political-administrative apparatus as well as to economic actors. As we contend, this helps to explain why the environmental legislation in Brazil is rhetorically manipulated on a regular basis-and, hence, set aside whenever it contradicts other priorities. On the other hand, environmental concerns have always met with difficulties to become a priority in the Brazilian polity. Ultimately, our main goal is to carry out a critical consideration of the theoretical links that are widely set in the field of sociological theory between environmental concerns and modernity.

Mining and Environmental Destruction in Minas Gerais: A Historical Comparison

Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia, 2021

The disasters caused by mining in Brazil, especially in the state of Minas Gerais, are a historical reality. Since the eighteenth century, when the gold exploration began in the area, there are records of impacts related to the activity, like the siltation of the rivers and the great floods that took place in the town of Mariana. Recently, in 2015 and 2019, the collapse of two tailings dams of iron ore mining caused the greatest socioenvironmental disasters recorded in Brazil's history in the mining sector. Even though the problems ensued by the impacts of mining have differed throughout time, this article strives to discuss something the disasters have in common: the power struggles created by them.

Brazilian Environmental Laws and Policies, 1934–2002: A Critical Overview.

LAW & POLICY, 2006

This article describes and analyzes major laws, decrees, regulations, resolutions, and institutional mandates linked to environmental protection policies in Brazil, from 1934 to 2002. It argues that many early regulations resulted basically from centralization and planning policies conducted by a development-oriented state. However, it shows that most recent regulations were demanded by a more environmentally aware and more organized civil society, in the context of an improved participatory and democratic political framework and renewed scientific knowledge and requirements.

From weak politics to private policies: the role of the mining sector in the transformations of environmental policy in Minas Gerais State, Brazil

2019

In this article, we argue that, over the past 20 years, the mining sector has developed a disproportional influence over public agents in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. In association with this phenomenon, we have identified a series of changes to the state’s environmental legislation which have weakened public control over polluting activities. This situation helps us to understand how two of the biggest socio-environmental disasters in the history of mining took place in Minas Gerais in a short period of time: Samarco, in 2015, and Vale, in 2019. However, the intensity of these disasters and the strong mobilization of different social actors toward demanding greater control over mining companies have created a political setting that can interrupt this trajectory, at least with regard to tailings dams. This article is based on a literature review and document analysis and is structuring in three sections, besides this Introduction. In section The Power of the Mining Sector in M...

Environmental Criminal Responsibility and Applicability of Brazilian Constitutional Principles

The environment constitutes a group right, endowed with an indivisible object without a determined ownership and interconnected by certain circumstances indeed. Considering its relevance and the need to ensure its preservation and safeguard the environment for present and future generations, the Magna Carta of 1988 instituted in its text the protection of the environment, by means of axiological precepts, and the infraconstitutional legal framework established stricter tuitions, including in the penal. Through bibliographic research, with the analysis of national and international scientific articles, and research of Brazilian legislation, this work was carried out in order to verify the effectiveness of environmental laws. Thus, the objective of the research is to analyze the applicability of principles, highlighting the principles of prevention in the environmental sphere, as well as the form of accountability of the causers/polluters for the damage practiced. The case study took into account the environmental damage related to the Mariana Dam, the Ultra cargo Fire and the Brumadinho Dam.